Just when Spurs were hitting some momentum we get thrown from our vehicle and land back on Earth. Palace had not won a game all season but as I said last week Doctor Tottenham were coming to town to make everything OK again. Glasner was under pressure. Alot of pressure and there were talks he would be sacked if he lost to Spurs. Palace are not a bad side. Too good to go down. Glasner is not a bad manager either. It just is not going as well as last season. Never do well your first season is my advice to him. Because you have to do better your second season or face the chop.
Ange named the same team as he did at West Ham with Maddison and Kulusevski both playing. Also Mikey Moore got his Premiership derby after his good display in Europe on Thursday. I was a bit confused that they started him for this game. I know Sonny was out but this Palace team are a team full of muscle and men versus boys was going to be this game all over. Maybe if they threw Werner in for the first 60 minutes and then bring him on but in hindsight if they done this the fans would have went mad. Werner has everything. Pace, agility, cunning . It's only when he gets the ball is the problem and he really showed his lack of confidence in Europe against AZ Akmaar when he missed a guild edge chance to put it away. I think that was the end of him at Spurs in my opinion. He will be gone as soon as the transfer window opens.
Ange took Maddison off at half time last week because he needed more legs in midfield. When he did this it changed the game so I thought that Spurs were going to start with Sarr against Palace because of the same reason. So when I saw Maddison and Kulusevski both in the lineup I was surprised. From the start Palace pressed and pressed and pressed and this caused us to be shaky at the back. When Moore or Johnson got it on the wings they were muscled off the ball. It was stop start for the entire game and Spurs could not get in the flow of things. When teams come out aggressive against us, it doesn't suit us. A really good Guardian reporter said about Spurs. If teams come out to play against them then Spurs will thrash you. Tuck in and play deep in a park the bus style and Spurs are thrashed. Spurs conceded on the 31st minute by Mateta. The forward that was put back in the team because ex gunner Eddie Nketiah was not scoring. It was just written in the stars really. Palace players were having a good game. Eze had a good game, Wharton had a good game , the first in a while. Mitchell had a good game. Guehi had a good game. Spurs were second to every ball but was the game in Europe the reason why we were not on our game. I put it down to one of those days at the office. Now next up we have Manchester City in the cup on Wednesday night. I was offered a ticket to this but flights are too expensive as it is a holiday week for kids in school. Maybe the next one. It is totally Spurs to go on and thrash city after this but I am not too confident. Pep says he is going to play his kids in this cup but the lure of a Tottenham fixture and considering that Spurs are their bogey team, I think Pep may have a change of heart and play a first team. Although a Man City 2nd string team would still probably get top 4. Some might say that Phil Foden is now on Man Citys second team. Who else do we have? Grealish, Gundogen , Ake , John Stones maybe. Hardly shrinking violets we have here. I am looking forward to this fixture as I think the cup competitions are where we have a chance this year.
Aston Villa are next up for us in the league and then we head to Turkey to play Galatasaray. These 3 games are important so I would say there is a bit of pressure here on Spurs to win all three. We are all but through in the Europa League so Villa and Man City will be our focus. But it will be good for the young Spurs team like Bergval and Archie Gray to experience the "Welcome to hell " atmosphere in Rams Park. I'd love to go to this myself but the fear of an arse stab has me staying away from this one.
In other News
I won't talk about Woolwich this week because they are not relevant anymore. Let us talk about United. So big Sir Jim has finally got rid of Eric Ten Hag after interviewing every manager and his dog for the position before the FA Cup final last year. Surprisingly United won the FA Cup leaving Sir Jim in a pickle and a dandy. He kept the manager even though it was widely known that he was on the recruitment drive for a new manager. It ended up that United had to send a team of executives to Ibiza where ETH was holidaying in to get him to sign a new contract. And now 14 games later ETH is going to pocket around £16 million in compensation for the sacking. This is seen as a major blot in Sir Jim new football ownership career. They went on a cost cutting drive getting rid of the heart of the Man United family and have now even gone for the jugular in telling Sir Alex Ferguson that he is no longer needed. Now granted he was getting £2 million per year. Now considering Sir Alex is 83 years of age , maybe if they kept him on another 2 years then they would not have faced such negative PR for axing the Man United legend. It is just a disaster there right now. The worry is that they are going to appoint a good manager next in Sporting Lisbons manager Amorim which would be a massive coup if they get him. I have enjoyed United being terrible this last few years so I really hope it continues but nothing last forever.