[quote=“KIB man”]Awful performance from Villa today. Style of play was very predictable, playing for set pieces - rigid 442. Must have had about 15 corners but movement in the box was very poor and crossing very hit and miss. Manager has a lot to answer for imo. Last season the team tired badly around March. It seems to be happening earlier this year. Dont know what the point is of spending 7m on the likes of Delph if you dont trust them at home to West Ham. Diabolical decision to start Cuellar ahead of Luke Young in a home game like this. Gabby has hit the skids big time - was hopeless today. Heskey a total passenger and Carew didnt do much either. The whole point about having a stronger squad is to use them. Today was an ideal opportunity but MON in his wisdom played the same eleven as midweek and made only one substitution again predictable - Carew for Heskey. Momentum lost big time after the win midweek and fourth place wont happen without signing a top class striker which is unlikely. Are we actually improving under MON? Seems to be we are treading water a bit to be honest.
Was astonished at how poor Villa were, no variation in their play. O Neill doesn’t seem to have the imagination to change things around when plan A isn’t working. As you say why bother buying players unless you give them game time.
Arsenal equalise. Seems like a controversial one according to the BBC live commentary:
Arsenal goal: I just cannot get away from controversy - and this goal is mired in it. William Gallas is lucky not to be shown a red card for a terrible tackle on Mark Davies, referee Alan Wiley waves play on and eventually the ball falls to Cesc Fabregas, who wriggles past a couple of challenges on the edge of the Bolton box and fires through the legs of Jussi Jaaskelainen from an angle on the right.
Rocko would be seething if he were watching 'Pool/Spurs with Gray and Tyler proclaiming that Defoe’s disallowed goal was legitimate as it was a new phase of play when the Greek hun touched the ball.
To paraphrase the nerd Rocko’s quoting of laws from a similar incident in a Spanish game a few weeks ago:
Defoe is offside.
It’s not a new phase of possession until another Spurs player touches it.
This is the bit that people don’t realise. You’re offisde if you gain an advantage from standing in an “offside” position and you’re only onside again when someone else from your team plays the ball and you’re no longer in an “offside” position.
So you can stand 2 yards nearer the goal in the box and allow the ball be passed to someone else on your team. If they subsequently pass it to you and you’re now onside then that’s fine.
But if you were offside the last time a player on your team touched the ball then you’re offside when you touch it. It doens’t matter who else has touched it in the meantime.
As a result, the fact the Greek touched it back to Reina and the 'keeper was dispossessed by Defoe (prior to any other Spurs player touching it), he was therefore offside.
Turned on Newstalk earlier and there was some clown with a south-easterly accent on talkin about Wolves, that ‘we’ were unlucky here, and ‘we’ were fortunate here, so off with me on my rant about Irish lads identifying with foreign clubs and not knowing where their local junior club is…
then i realised that the south-easterly accent belonged to one Kevin Doyle
