Spurs manager Harry Redknapp blamed it on a ‘bad day’ as the club surrendered a two goal lead at The Emirates. Harry also admitted that he was a little puzzled by the defeat and couldn’t quite explain how it had all happened.
“Even at 2-0 I couldn’t say I felt over-comfortable,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.
“I wanted to get to half-time but I felt they were creating chances and we looked a bit open really. It was a difficult one. I felt at half-time I needed to try to thicken us up a little bit.”
Harry switched things round by bringing on VDV and Sandro for Saha and Kranjcar but the side continued to capitulate.
“That should have happened, but didn’t. We didn’t defend well. It was basic, really,” Redknapp added:
“We don’t get beaten like that too often. It is a difficult one to put your finger on really.
Aside from the usual bragging rights the defeat could prove to be a real six pointer in terms of league position but for now, we still have a clear seven point lead in third with just twelve games to go.
We are best with Bale on the left and Lennon on the right, but Bale was all over the place and Lennon didn’t get on. And we kept giving the ball away.
I think the team had been reading too many premature newspaper articles and thought all they had to do was turn up. Then getting an undeserved 2 goal lead reinforced the complacency.
It’s a cliche but I hope this will be a wake-up call. Champions League next season is not a given.
Too complacent, sloppy and over-confident right from the start… some players looked as if its all gone into their head… Arry needs to bring them back to earth fast, yet keep that level of confidence high enough to believe we can hold our own against Man U come Sunday
Benny had a bad day with bad clearances and inexistent back-tracking… Bale was more focussed on complaining to referee than on doing what shot him to fame, that is tearing across that left flank
we have to bank on Sandro now to do the holding job vice Parker… VDV a question mark right now, and Ade badly needs to give us more of his Newcastle performances
Hopefully just a blip… happens to all good teams.. definitely no reason why Arry cannot lead them to bounce back fast…..COYS
There’s no point in wondering what went wrong, or beating ourselves up about the result, the fact is they wanted and needed the points more than we did, and they happened to all click at the same time, basically they won their cup final, but trust me, they dont have it in them to perform like that again all season, they have papered over the cracks thats all, we will go on and finish top london club and this result will be a distant memory.
A distant memory? Like 1961 you mean? COYG!!!
North London is red!
Too beat the arsenal you must stop their midfield from dominating, we had three midfielders who went missing for a lot of the time as far as their defensive work goes. Only Parker gave 100pc defensively. We need two attacking wide men to keep their full backs in their own half, Bale running around all over the place does not help the team. None of this happened, our defence had no cover and unfortunately Ledley has lost a yard of pace. What the hell happened to BEA’s positional sense, he was all over the place.
Harry ” I dont know wuite how it happened”
Ok Harry lets help u
1- Stop talking England and do your Job
2- Stop believing the Media Hype about Spurs being so great and playing the best football, for the last month bar one game you have been a utter disgrace of a football team!!
3 – Not even Man United go to Arsenal with two out and out strikers and a player given a license to roam like Bale
4 – Start playing the right players and stop tinkering so much, your not a patch of Fergie who can get away with it.
Solution – Stop whoring yourself for England and do your job, if you dont know what happened then u aint that good a manager, because we all saw what happened, you played wrong tactics and havent motivated your players because you think your England manager already.
This defeat was 80% down to Harry, and 20% to players. All good and well saying Bale must not play in the middle etc. It is up to the manager to tell him where and how to play. What was Kranjaer going to give us yesterday. While Harry has does well for us, his tactics against good teams is poor. I spoke to a Man U fan, who felt that we would beat them (before this defeat) but only if Harry gets his tactics rights. Then he goes out and plays a vdv so we are left with no decent option on the right. No one on the left (since Bale was elswhere) and 5 players in the middle – and they clearly did not know who was doing what until it was much too late, with no pace to trouble Arsenal. bring on Deschamps I say. I just hope harry realises he was the one to get it wrong, and uses his brain, rather than emotion to make his next team selection
It was the manner of the defeat that was painful. Arsenal were always going to be well up for it and I actually predicted a win for them.
Lennon should have come on earlier, King and Sandro were clearly unfit and VDV might have even been rushed into playing too early.
Bale needs to play left wing, other than that I don’t think Harry got the tactics majorly wrong.
I think it’s time we stopped kidding ourselves. Arsenals worst team for years has just beaten our best team for years 5-2. We are not that good and we are resorting to diving. Terrible day yesterday just sums up tottenham.
Also, why do so many of our fans turn on Harry after one defeat? Strange, last week we were singing his name. He’s still definitely the man for me.
Redknapp hasn’t got a clue tactically, he should spend less time on sky sports and more learning the game. Yesterday was a shambles and I can see our season going completely pear shaped now. We will bottle it again.
spot on super spur ive never rated Mr Twitchy n his decision to start with Kranjcar defied belief i assumed lennon was injured!! He needs to buzz off to england n allow us to hopefully get Mourhino in cos right now i look at us as being the same ol fragile spurs i wouldnt b surprised to c us finish 5th!!
yeah my club never let me down. Mentally weak, cant win a big match when the stakes r high flatter to deceive as usual! Ive probably been in a minority of one this season as i havent really been convinced with our so-called “great season” we supposed to b having. Is it that we’ve really grasped the nettle n become a good side or is it the fact that the standard of the prem is shocking n arsenal n chelsea r having shocking seasons! i always felt this month will would give me an answer as to where we really are n true to form we’ve bottled every test! so i sit here this morning hoping n praying we can get Mourhino in the summer to instill the steely mentality needed to make real progress! Good teams dont get ripped apart by the worst arsenal side in 10 yrs, good teams dont gift last second penalties n good teams dont persist with a captain who no longer should be playing!!
I really can see our season imploding. We will lose to united and might scrape a draw at Goodson and the chelsea game is looming too. Yesterday could have a very damaging effect in our season.
Question for other spurs fans out there, do you think we will be forever in their shadow? It certainly feels like it this morning.
Why is Harry just about the only person not to see that we have lost our balance and shape over the past couple of months – the balance and shape that got us to 3rd spot. When you’ve got just about the best and quickest wide men in the league, use them AS WIDE MEN. Against poorer sides play 2 up front, but against better sides and especially away from home, it’s 1 up front and 3 centre mids – he’s moved us away from basics and we paid the ultimate price getting thrashed by …. uughhhh!!!
lolol
Listen to all of you, over reacting to ONE game, people only seem to talk in extremes these days and resort to making judgement in black and white rather than seeing any middle ground, sort your heads out ffs.
It’s one game where we didn’t turn up and they did, they took full advantage of a team totally out of sorts, we’ve been heavily beaten before and bounced back so why not now?
A bad day at the office, we learn from it and move on.
At the end of the day it’s still in our hands and despite what everyone else says I’d rather be in Spurs’ position than Arsenal’s right now.
They are playing catch up (7 points) with the team they beat 5-2. That’s only our 3rd loss in 22 games, do the math people and calm the frig down.
I still believe in Spurs, I still believe this season that we will finish 3rd which will be a fantastic achievement, one game will not change that, onto the next.
COYS
But is finishing 3rd a fantastic achievement? If spurs are the big club we all seem to think we are shouldn’t we have won more than 2 league cups since 1991?
How can finishing 3rd not be a fantastic achievement when you’re talking about finishing behind both the Manchester clubs? When you’re talking about finishing above Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, the former having qualified so consistently in the CL and the latter two teams easily outspending us in the summer.
We have been awful for the time that I’ve supported Spurs since the early 90’s and 00’s and we’ve had it far worse than this, season is far from over.
Methinks Super Spur is a double agent
So because I have my own opinions and I’ve not been brainwashed by redknapp and the press I must be arsenal? We are average and we’ve been convinced that we are brilliant. Bale the best player in the world? He’s not even the best player in the league.
We have been good, very good. and hopefully this was a once off..
Apart from the Newcastle bonanza, we simply have not been creating enough chances… VDV was brought in to do just that, and shot off the blocks great when he came to Spurs, but has been plagued with injury, constantly hampering his rhythm… Modric could have played that role but was too badly needed deeper in midfield.. so that left Bale to do more than just fly at his full back and though this roaming has reaped some reward, it is really stop-gap in the absence of a true attacking midfielder we now lack with an apparently unfit VDV.
So back to basics please with Bale Lennon wide, and Sandro surely can do a good job replacing Parker against Man U.
Same formations vs Newcastle & Arsenal ( except Kaboul vice Daws ), yet turned out so different simply because of a strong Arse midfield… hope Arry learns from that and deploys wisely against Man U
The Man U game comes at a wrong time, what with the international break, but i’m hoping Arry can waive his magic wand yet again and instil belief in what ultimately is the best squad we’ve had in ages.
Hi all
I have been trawling the blogs this morning to try and fathom out what happened yesterday. I totally agree that we shouldn’t panic and throw the baby out with the bath-water as it were BUT……am I alone in feeling we lost true momentum when we started with that “we need to let Gareth have his freedom” switch from out and out winger into some floating role where he gets in the way of Modric & Parker & VDV [when he plays]. Also, I do think Kaboul is better this time but I have seen him not mark for several set-piece goals against us and I just would never choose him over Daws for a big game like yesterday. his commitment to the cause is what I feel we need. From the outset we went back to the old les Ferdinand days of “hoof it up there” and poor old Sergei Rebrov [Golden Boot but only 5 feet tall] as we kept lugging it up in the air. I have been watching us since I was 7 yrs old [I am now 54] and was a season ticket holder for years until I couldn’t afford it. We are a good side but I just felt yesterday was unacceptable. unacceptable in the context and I know I am rambling but I am lost to understand what happened. Help me understand someone, everyone!
There are some basic aspects of this Spurs side that make them really effective and we weren’t playing to them. Also, 4-4-2 seems to be a luxury for us (against weaker teams), and 4-5-1 should be our default.
Spurs have classic wingers when most teams don’t — and that’s helped us, opening up the pitch. We didn’t use that at all today (Bale everyone and Niko instead of Lennon).
Moving Parker up the pitch actually decreases our offense. We’re best having at least 1 solid holding mid so the offensive mids can focus on their jobs. Parker moving forward left us exposed and other players feeling uncertain. Sandro should be able to play back but his consistency isn’t there yet.
Our base formation should be:
Friedel
Walker King Kaboul BAE
Parker Modric
Lennon VdV Bale
Ade
Wide players should stay there to stretch the other team.
You need a couple of top class centre-backs not the two old crocks, King and Gallas. Without a solid central defence you’ll go no where but down. Believe me I know!
Kaboul & Dawson do have potential… they have learned alot playing around King… and i might be crazy in saying this, but on his return, Hudd could reinvent himself into a strong & classy CB , given the wealth we have in midfield