It wouldn’t be far off from saying that Petr Cech was probably our Man Of The Match in today’s defeat by Tottenham, after pulling off some excellent saves, but it still wasn’t enough as the Spuds kept finding ways through our defence.
Cech was hardly happy with the performance and made it clear after the game. He was asked how he felt: “Angry and disappointed because obviously this is not a game we wanted to lose and this is a very big disappointment for us.” he fumed. “At half-time I felt we were in the game and in the second half we wanted to improve, we wanted to play to win the game. The second half was our best half – they put us under pressure, created chances and in the end they scored two goals.
“With all the emotions, I have to say that we met a team that was full of confidence, well organised and they are having their best season. I think today that showed, that little bit of more confidence and quality on their side. The goals obviously made a big difference.”
“It hurts because it was a huge game for both teams. They needed to win to keep their title chances alive. We needed to win to keep our Champions League finishing position [hopes] alive and obviously we are very disappointed because it’s a north London derby, it means a lot to the fans and it meant a lot to the club, to us. We needed three points and in the end we have none.
“I think they created a lot of chances and they managed to score the first goal, which obviously helped them. Two minutes [later] they had a penalty which they put into the back of the net. When you are 2-0 down against a team having their best season, who are full of confidence, it’s going to always be difficult and it was difficult for us to get back into the game.”
So it’s not just their confidence, they also had more quality. That is a damning verdict on our supposedly star-studded side that we strengthened by spending 100 million this summer. Why have Tottenham progressed so much further than us?
Questions need to be asked…