Harry Redknapp’s downplay of his side’s partaking in the title race prior to the kickoff against Chelsea was in harmony with the Spurs display on Thursday night. Redknapp reiterated in the pre-match press conference that the two teams vying to seize the league trophy are the two Manchesters, while Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool would be slugging it out for the remaining couple of coveted Champions’ League spots. Harry Rednapp might have a pragmatically cautious approach to the second half of the season, but the fact that before Spurs’ 1-1 draw with Chelsea they were eight points behind Manchester United with a couple of games in hand portends that Spurs could afford to take their aspirations up a notch. City are yielding a status quo transformation in Manchester, why can’t Spurs do the same in London?
One does understand that merely mathematical proximity to the summit is no reason to be buoyant about your chances to usurp the league; for, Portsmouth, Wigan, Blackpool et al have found themselves on the coattails of league leaders in November in the past as well. What makes Spurs’ laidback approach inert is the fact that on paper – evidently on the football pitch as well – Spurs starting lineup is a match for anyone in the league. The likes of Van Der Vaart, Bale, Modric and even Scott Parker would walk into the lineups of their rivals and Walker might just pip Micah Richards for the most in form right back in the league. Add an on song Adebayour, Defoe coming off the bench, Friedel in goal and King – when fit – commanding the backline into the mix and one gets an immensely adept bunch. We have seen lesser gifted teams run away with the league title; but then again, a purple nosed Scott has had a lot to do with that.
The early season drubbings at the hands of the two Manchester sides came under the shroud of the Modric ‘will he, won’t he’ soap opera, and their only other loss was courtesy a refereeing circus at Stoke. Barring these losses, the Spurs juggernaut has been on a roll and even if the league title is ostensibly not their final goal, Tottenhan Hotspur are undoubtedly the front runners for Champions League qualification.
United’s midfield solution
A regular run in the side for Michael Carrick and Manchester United’s midfield doesn’t border on a patched up catastrophe anymore. The leakage of goals has been fixed and recently goals are being banged at the other end as well. Carrick was always the solution to United’s midfield woes, and partly owing to untimely injuries and partly due to Fergie’s neglect, the two and two took an eternity to add up. The fact that it took a driving run from the midfield, that culminated in a staggering goal, for footballing voices to take notice of Carrick’s contribution in United’s recent stability in the league, is exactly why United’s number 16 is the most underrated midfielders of modern times. The goal he scored in West London was a one-off; similar feats would never be a regularity and hence let’s give the man some credit for what he does regularly well in lieu of waxing lyrical over the recent bolt out of the blue.
Carrick brings calmness and composure into United’s expansive play, and while he is no Xavi or David Silva, his passing repertoire from a restrained position is what makes United’s flamboyant wing play gel seamlessly with the frontline, and provides a stable shield in front of the backline to boot – see Manchester United archives (2007-2010) for further evidence.
The racism debate
While abolishing racism from the game of football is a noble endeavour, sometimes the blatantly skewed F.A takes the matter too far. Suarez has been hit with a massive eight match ban, following his use of the ‘N’ word against Evra – which again has different connotations and interpretations in various parts of the world. And as Suarez had already pointed out in the immediate aftermath of their confrontation in October, he had called Evra something that the Frenchman’s own club mates regularly call him. So where do you draw the line? If Rooney were to come up and utter something similar to Evra, in the middle of a match with a smirk on his face, would that be acceptable? While banter and name-calling are part and parcel of a good old dogfight on the football pitch if the English F.A is that fretful about racism curtailment, maybe they should start off the purge act from closer to home and maybe look at the actions of the captain of their national side to start with.
Big match preview:
Chelsea vs Fulham
Boxing Day games have an eerie tendency to conjure up a surprise. The primary reason is obviously the fact that there is a cluster of fixtures and with fatigue and squad rotation prevalent quite often the sides from the upper echelon fail to sustain their supremacy. As Chelsea take on Fulham in the West London Derby, the onus is on the home side to put in a domineering show after a couple of 1-1 draws. Fulham are at the back of a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Manchester United, and their confidence would be as low as it gets. Nevertheless, Fulham would be hoping that Andy Johnson or Clint Dempsey have a trick up their sleeve – the former did look lively against United – and manage to crack open a permeable Chelsea defense.
Chelsea, on the other hand, need a run of victories before their minuscule jot of title hopes sublimates into oblivion. Villas-Boas needs to revert to his emblematic brand of attacking football, and possible start to build his team around the likes of Mata, Sturridge, Romeu and dare I say, Torres. Drogba, Terry and Lampard have been great servants for the club but it’s time to look to the future. Chelsea should comfortably overcome their neighbours on Monday; however Fulham might have an inkling of hope if a Portuguese fullback were to be found in Chelsea’s central defense.
