Tottenham Hotspur: N17

SPURS LAND COMFORTABLE GROUP

Tottenham Hotspur have become favourites to top their UEFA Europa League group after being drawn along with Saint Etienne, Eintracht Frankfurt and Jablonec.

The London club were to first team to be placed into Group E and will be looking to add their third Europa League title after previous success in 1972 and 1984.

Accompanying Spurs are Saint Etienne who may not have won the Europa League before but have ten Ligue 1 titles to their name.

Saint Etienne finished fifth in Ligue 1 last season but have lost their star man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after Borussia Dortmund swooped in for the Gabonese international this summer.

Rivalling Saint Etienne for qualification will be Frankfurt who arrives with Alexander Meier, Sebastian Jung and Takashi Inui all in good form.

The Germans, who won the Europa League in 1980, finished sixth in the Bundesliga last season, meanwhile Jablonec from Czech Republic are the rank outsiders for qualification.

CHADLI BLOW FOR SPURS

Tottenham Hotspur’s Nacer Chadli has been ruled out of action for the next five months after sustaining a broken foot on international duty for Belgium.

Chadli sustained the injury late into Belgium’s game versus Serbia after replacing Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, being stretchered off 6 minutes from full time.

The Belgian was referred to hospital later that evening; as scans revealed a break in his right foot with would go on to rule him out for five months.

Belgium’s national boss Marc Wilmots revealed the severity of the injury and has offered Spurs their full co-operation in Chadli’s route to recovery.

“Chadli’s injury occurred when Neven Subotic slide in for the ball and as Chadli got up, he immediately noticed something wasn’t right.

“It wasn’t a case of a forceful tackle, Chadli just placed his foot awkwardly at the wrong time unfortunately and will now be out for at least five months with a broken foot.

“Naturally, we are devastated with the news and would like to offer Tottenham our full support for Chadli’s recovery.

“It’s never nice to see a player get injured on international duty, especially in Chadli’s case so soon after a transfer like his.”

Chadli is likely to return in the new year with the final weeks of December projected to be his return to training.

September 2013

Townsend (34), Sigurðsson (58 pen)





Soldado (20 pen), Eriksen (32)





Lamela (36), Sigurðsson (62), Adebayor (77)





Dembele (8), Soldado (25), Townsend (57)

Barclays Premier League’s Young Player of the Month

Christian Eriksen

Spurs’ Player of the Month

Roberto Soldado

It has been a good start for the new boys at Tottenham, in particular Soldado. His ability to move into the channels and then get in behind the defence has caused many problems for opposing defences and he is also demonstrating a killer instinct inside the box, as we’d expect. Furthermore, he has great link up play with the others and boasts the best passing accuracy amongst all Premier League strikers.

Paddy’s Verdict

We have continued on strongly after yet another difficult month. I couldn’t ask for much more from September other than wins in most of my games. And we did just that by winning all of our five games expect for the difficult away trip to Goodison Park versus Everton. We absolutely destroyed City at our place and didn’t even concede a single goal throughout. I can’t complain!

*NOTE: I foolishly decided to carry on playing my save not knowing that you can’t look back on previous league table standings, therefore we won’t be seeing the league table until the January update.*

NEW DEAL FOR TOWNSEND

Andros Townsend has put pen to paper on a new five year deal with Tottenham Hotspur after a great start to the season.

The English winger has been a regular so far this season under new Spurs boss Paddy and wasted no time in inking a new deal.

Townsend was believed to be on an estimated £8,000 a week but will now see his wages increase six times instead to £48,000 a week.

The 22 year old has set his ambitions on helping Tottenham compete for honours as well as breaking into the England international squad ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

“I’m delighted to have renewed my contract here at Spurs. I’ve been here since day one of my footballing career so it’s nice to see yourself make such a stride.

“Hopefully I can contribute to a successful season here at Tottenham and get the attention Roy Hodgson and his team ahead of next summer.”

Townsend, who spent half of last season on loan to Queens Park Rangers, has appeared seven times already this season and scored two goals.

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October 2013

Aigner (23) - Damiao (6, 40), Sigurðsson (32), Capoue (49)





Soldado (8), Holtby (20), Townsend (67), Griezmann (76), Damiao (90+2)



Ward-Prowse (5, 52) – Townsend (83), Paulinho (90+2)





Dawson (45)





Özil (7) – Gibbs O.G (84)






Dawson (84) – Cisse (90)
(p6-5)

Spurs’ Player of the Month

Andros Townsend

Townsend has come flying off the blocks since signing a new deal and was a shining light throughout the month. He’s a very positive player who rarely looks to play the ball behind him. Whether he was on the left or right wing, Townsend proved to be a real danger, scoring two more goals this month.

Paddy’s Verdict

We had a solid month with a few sighs of relief. We continued to play well but on occasions needed more than a bit of fortune to turn results our way. Stoke were no match for us at White Hart Lane but we were quite lucky to score late goals and earn a point versus Southampton and Arsenal. Ultimately, I must focus on the result itself and you’d have to say they look pretty solid, especially after winning the opening three games in the Europa League. We are still unbeaten, through to the next round of the Capital One Cup and close to sealing qualification in the Europa League so I’m pleased with how productive we’ve been.

November 2013

Damiao (13), Sigurðsson (15), Vertonghen (25, 69)





Sigurðsson (12) – Hamouma (79)





Lamela (35), Sigurðsson (44 pen) – Long (90+1)



Soldado (15)





Damiao (20), Vltavsky O.G. (78)

Spurs’ Player of the Month

Gylfi Sigurðsson

Sigurðsson has been very impressive this month, contributing to three goals and playing fantastically well throughout. Although he is not always a starter, Sigurðsson is my kind of player. He’s a player who can impact the game both as a starter as well as a sub and has enormous technical ability to compliment his physical stature. He played in three different positions this month, all across the attacking trio of midfield and I cannot say that even one of his performances was short of being very good.

Paddy’s Verdict

The quality of the opposition was toned down a bit this month and we responded with four wins out of five. Among those was our big win versus Hull in which I was particularly impressed with a few of our fringe players. I looked to give others in the squad more game time and I’m happy to know just how strong the depth we have is. The only slight downfall was drawing to Saint Etienne but we knew it would be a tough game. We’ve qualified for the next round of the Europa League as well as keeping to pressure on those above us in the league. However, we must turn it up a notch next month as we have big games coming up such as against Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle United. On top of that, we also have the busy winter schedule. Next month is crucial for our season.

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December 2013 Part 1

Agger O.G. (11), Vertonghen (45+3, 83, 90+1 pen) Lamela (89)



Kaboul (21), Paulinho (64) Soldado (84)





Kaboul (49) – Cabaye (90+1 pen)

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PADDY BLASTS WEBB

Tottenham Hotspur boss Paddy has called for referee Howard Webb to explain why Newcastle United were handed a “ridiculous” late penalty in their 1-1 draw with Spurs at White Hart Lane.

In a clash that saw league leaders Newcastle travel to north London, Webb awarded ‘the Magpies’ a penalty in stoppage time converted by Yohan Cabaye after Spurs had led through a Younes Kaboul goal.

Newcastle’s claim was that Jan Vertonghen had nudged Loic Remy when defending a corner but replays confirmed the contact was minimal, leaving Paddy exasperated.

“We received Newcastle with high hopes of putting on a good performance and taking top spot away from them but we were robbed of our accomplishments due to a ridiculous decision.

“The replays back me up. There is no way the contact between either of them is foul worthy and even it were, Webb is in no position to make that call with all the bodies in front of him.

“I don’t think Webb saw much, you’ll have to ask him but obviously his assistants didn’t think much of the incident either, therefore I strongly feel the decision has cost us badly.”

Paddy even went as far as calling for further help or training for referees in order to up their standard and create a level playing field.

“The FA has to help them out because this decision could cost us in the future. This isn’t a personal hit out at Webb, this is to all refs.

“Introduce replays or train them harder because we can’t have a league known as the world’s best with officials who aren’t up to standards. I think referees will be the first to admit they need support.”

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