REACTION: Villa 1-2 Spurs - We Might Be Back

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0:10Tottenham away, Tottenham away, ole ole. Ole.

0:25We might be doing all right here. We might be doing all right, folks. Alex, Tottenham Hotspur, Tottenham Hotspur might be doing all right. I was hopeful. I'm not going to lie. I was hopeful going into this one. I had that feeling Villa in between their Europa League semifinals. I mean, that's quite a big part of it for me. But overall, some thoughts about West Ham that I'll probably save till the end of the season, because this is still very much a game-by-game type situation. We're not there yet, obviously. There's still some way to go. But that's massive. I think any of us doing our, you know, charting out where we're going to get points, where are Spurs going to win, where are they going to lose?

1:19I'm pretty sure nobody was thinking we were going to get all three points at Villa Park. I think in the most sort of hopeful scenarios, we might have been able to eke out a draw there. But that three points is, come on, it's massive. It's massive. But the thing that's more, well, it's not more, is it? It's a stupid, that's one of those stupid OTT things that say, the more important thing than the three points is the spirit that the team displayed. Because that's not actually true, is it? Because the spirit doesn't keep the team up. But what's heartening to see is the way in which those lads were playing today.

2:04Conor Gallagher has had an awful, awful lot of criticism, abuse, everything go his way since his move to Tottenham. Outstanding today. Absolutely outstanding performance. Look, again, yeah, sure. Maybe it's not the type of performance that wins you a Premier League or something like that. but that's not the conversation we're having right now and that's not the conversation we're probably going to have for quite some time. When you want somebody to be dogged, when you want somebody to fight, when you want a scrapper in this position at the bottom end of the table, he did everything, everything that you could have wanted from him and more.

2:42An incredible goal and just an all-round phenomenal performance from him. I think Giao Polinha was really good I know that's some kind of thought crime amongst the Tottenham community to give him any sort of praise. And again, yes, I understand the context being that he's not the type of player that wins in the Premier League. But right now, I'm dealing with the next few games that we have for the remainder of this season. And that's it. I'm not thinking past that right now. I'm obviously thinking past that in a scary negative sense. If we go down, these terrible things happen. But right now in every single game, I want to see a fight.

3:36I want to see desire. And we saw a ridiculous amount of that today. We saw a level of fight and a level of hunger amongst these players that I didn't think this group were capable of at all. I don't want to go like, I don't want to be seen to be being too OTT in the praise of this off the back of a result. But I think Deserby thus far has been building to this point. You can clearly see, you can clearly see the upward trend in our performances all over the pitch. Talking about the organization, we're talking about, like we say, that intensity of the press. We're talking about the crisp passing movements that these lads are putting together.

4:24It looks structured. It looks organized. It looks like they're working for one another. It looks like they have an actual plan. It looks like they finally have some belief. This was... Aston Villa, yeah, great. They were a heavily rotated side. People can say whatever they want about Aston Villa and their rotations. Look at how decimated Tottenham's team is. You know? I dare say like our enforced rotation is way more stark than their decision to rotate some players in between, you know, in a Europa League semi-final sandwich, right? It's just not a good faith conversation and it's from people that want Tottenham to get relegated ultimately.

5:11but regardless of that it was a fantastic performance it was a great performance they're no mugs you know they're not let's keep the same energy that everybody had before this game saying to saying to Spurs fans Spurs fans getting all excited that West Ham have lost or they're acting like they're just going to show up at Villa Park and just kind of walk all over them even if they do rotate Emery's a great manager even if they do rotate they've got a great squad they do all of these things are true but the point that Deserby was making before this is so do we so let's not forget that and he was he was primarily addressing Spurs players Spurs fans and Spurs staff you know his whole kind of thing about like losers cry and all that type of stuff I don't want to be around losers you know whatever like whatever whatever message that he's proliferating throughout the squad throughout the the lofty halls of tottenham hotspur it's obviously having an impact isn't it and look you know i had i had my skepticism huge skepticism about him it's not even skepticism i was outright critical of him you know i wasn't i wasn't sure of his character i wasn't sure of his sort of temperament and if he was the type of person that I wanted coming into Spurs but and some of those concerns are still there you know if we go down I still have my concerns that he isn't going to be our manager next season I still have my concerns that in 18 months time yep things might be going wrong as I say right now whatever it is that he's doing is working because the Spurs we saw today I genuinely think is a Spurs that we haven't seen since when it was good with Conte or Pochettino era.

7:02We're talking about a side that had a lot of confidence. We're talking about a side that was just comfortable in control of a football match that seemed to know what one another were doing all of a sudden. How long? We've had months. We've had months where you watch a Spurs game and it looks like they're all strangers. It looks like they have no idea of what it is that they're supposed to be doing. I mean, in these few games that Roberto De Serbi's had in charge of this team, it really just hardens my resolve that Thomas Frank was just so out of his depth, so woefully out of his depth. And the funny thing is like the stark contrast in, I guess, those playing styles, the way in which matches were approached, the belief or spirit that has been put into those players, you know, it couldn't be further from one another.

8:03it's it's it's crazy but it also shows you you know it also shows you that like Roberto De Zerbi is he's he's a manager that has a lot of promise about him but I think there's still question marks over him and a lot a lot of people have said that right a lot of people said that when we when we hired him but what it shows you is that a coach that is good can come in and turn good players into the best version of themselves, right? And I know we sort of like, we clung on to the one things for certain, we will lose game stuff. But that's all that we ever got from Thomas Frank. That's all that we ever got from him.

8:47It's difficult. People need to understand we're turning around, we're turning around an oil tanker, an oil tanker. like with all due respect like you're you know you're a massive premier league club that still has whatever we say about Enoch and I don't think this takes away from it they backed him they gave him money to spend on players they won a Europa League last year and he's talking about turning an oil tanker around and all this type of stuff you know and many of the articles um I think it was like miggy delaney and a couple of the others matt law i think did one as well a couple of them did these pieces with their sources from inside spurs that was basically like within days within days of thomas frank being in the building people were like oh my god what have we done and you know if if the way in which a you know a tottenham huts per side that had far more players available to it than the one now is anything to go by i mean that's not very good you get the point i'm making right tie myself in knots with what i'm trying to say here there's just no comparison between them um and you know i think all all you can say is like on on this in terms of like the manner in which we've been playing, the results, you have to hand it to De Zerbe.

10:22You have to. It's clearly coming from him. It's clearly coming from him. And it's really, it's astonishing. It is truly astonishing. Because I do take his point on board. So in his rather like impassioned speech before this game, in the press conference when, you know, he was essentially saying like, look, Villa are a great side, but if we go up there and win, it's not some miracle. Like we're a good side. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves. Stop saying, oh, you know, we've had injuries. And he even referenced like fans looking for theories about our stadium pitch or our training pitch, saying our medical department aren't good.

11:07You know, he went on with all that sort of stuff. And his point at the end of it was like, lose all this stuff. This is all nonsense. This is all baggage that we're weighing ourselves down with here. Like, we're a good side. We're a great side. We've got great players. Yes, we've got injuries. Yes, Xavi Siemens has been one of our best players for the past few games. And he's missing. But as he said, we've still got Tell. We've still got Richarlison. We've still got any listed, like all these other players that we have, who, yeah, have come and done good. And look, whether that's the truth or not, right?

11:41If we stay up, maybe there is a chance when he's like, right, I'm getting rid of blah, blah, blah, and blah. And what he's doing now is just a master, a masterful job in raising team morale, raising team spirit. Whatever it is, he's playing a blinder. He's not being too proud to do it. He's not sitting there bemoaning his luck. He's not sitting there saying, do you realize how hard this is going to be for me? Do you realize how hard, what a situation we're in. everyone's very sad and this and that at all points he's basically just been totally positive about it he's not he's not wasted bandwidth in trying to control things that he can't you know he got he they tried to sort of lure him into going off on one about brian brobby and all that after the premier league refereeing panel decided that it was you know an incorrect decision to not send him off and all he said was just something like well can I replay the game no and that's it and he moved on you know that's what he's done at every point um it's today is today's phenomenal it's it's brilliant and look I think as as we all know you know we've it's not over, you know, it's definitely not over.

13:03West Ham are hungry. They've been playing well. They, you know, they have a good side still. They have some good players. They have a talisman in Jared Bowen that I don't think we have. so you know it's not over it's not done um but days like today are are massive aren't they like absolutely massive and as I say that spirit and the sort of the drive from every single player on that pitch today it was just something that should be a source of I think great pride and And look, you know, there's stuff to this effect on Twitter. And of course you're getting people being like, where's your standards?

13:56This lot have been useless all season. It's like, is that, I mean, is that the energy you're clinging onto right now? Save that for the summer. Like, I don't think anybody's saying, right, these lot are beyond reproach. These lot are all beyond criticism. And no, we were all wrong all along. We were all wrong to have complained about them and to moan about them at any point. I don't think anyone's saying that. I just think the point is that we've just beaten Aston Villa away from home and the players have put in a good shift. They've played brilliantly, really. Buendia's gotten one back, which is kind of annoying at the end, just in a, I don't know, in a sense that it takes a little bit of the gloss off the win.

14:39Who cares? At the end of the day, it's three points. but if you get what I'm saying in terms of like just the mood of it the emotional beats of that one to not keep that clean sheet for Buendia to just get that goal at the end it's kind of frustrating but it was also a brilliant goal it was incredible head it was great yeah it was great cross to him and it was a remarkable header actually to be honest um but it's annoying for the defense who were impeccable all day today um Villa you know they hadn't had a shot I think they said on TNT that if that had have obviously continued that way, it would have been the first game under Emery's Aston Villa stewardship tenure where they hadn't had a single shot on target.

15:27So yeah, that sort of speaks to the job that the defence did and also that the midfield did. Ben Sanker has been sublime since he's come back in. hopefully he's just a bit tired just a bit worn out and he'll be fit again for the next game because obviously he did sort of break down towards the end of that one um but basuma was decent when he came in and you know i'm a fan of basuma anyway i think he's a good player it was a great job today from the team um you know they were they were brilliant danzo was fantastic van der ven was just solid um i saw a couple of people say that's van der ven not winning an aerial duel with buendier i think that's probably a bit harsh i would say i just think it was i think it was a pinpoint cross and as i say like uh just a truly remarkable header so you know I'm sure he'll be glad to know but I'll let van der Ven off the hook for that one it's yeah great performance Kinski he had a couple of ropey weird kicks actually right towards the end maybe in like the 82nd minute or something he did that weird kind of kick out of the goal and then started gesturing to the to the team almost saying like calm down or something like that.

16:56And I think the commentators were a bit confused because it seemed like a farcically bad kick, so much so it could have almost been intentional, like he was kicking it out of play for an injury to be dealt with or something. It seemed to be just an error. But other than that, he, yeah, he was brilliant. You'd imagine he is going to be our goalkeeper to the end of the season. And I hope he is. because I don't think it's a coincidence either. The defence suddenly seems much more assured now that they don't have Vicaria behind them. And look, yeah, Vicaria can make some very good reflex saves at points.

17:37But as I've said on here before, I honestly, I just don't rate Vicaria. I don't think he's a particularly good goalkeeper. like I genuinely I genuinely don't think there's masses between Julien Mavacario and someone like Gazzaniga who was like our third choice goalkeeper a few years ago and again like people can argue with that but we're talking about a team that's been on the brink of relegation for the past few months and still is really um so there's got to be something going wrong somewhere and it can't all just be Thomas Frank although you know a lot of it seems like it must be uh I just mean it's brilliant I don't want I don't want to sit here and complain about Vakari I want to talk about how good I think Kinski's been I want to talk about how good I think he's been to dust himself off since that Champions League match um it's just brilliant it's it's brilliant to see it coming together at this point fingers crossed right Eddie Topher says Tottenham away LA LA Texas Spurs says let's go Harry Kane in it come on let go let's go

19:03Ridley82 says, There's a scene in Brooklyn 99 where Terry gets so nervous he forgets how to breathe. That's me. James Reid says, That was big bollocks Tottenham. They embodied every adjective we've accused them of lacking. Fight, determination, passion, desire, all there in bucket loads. I am reconnected. or darest facie um or facie i think it's supposed to be but you know whatever um yeah pretty on the nose that you pretty much summed up what i've been wibbling on about for 19 minutes there in a in one message james but you know well done um jm ll2vv says feeling hot hot hot

19:54um paul hagenson says can all the thomas frank apologists in the media do one please i've seen the alison rudd article doing the rounds again today um and so it should peter gordon says um the lock and soul express says yes jack yes to you lock and soul express and on nomad says i feel like we've just had a glass of fresh water after marching through the desert what a win is what a win it's that it's that bloody film that i always forget the name of the old black and white one when a guy goes through the desert and he has a beer on the bar waiting for him that's what it is um phil mayo yes jack Chris Jones says, can I just shock you?

20:49I like linking part haircuts, despite what I just said earlier. Yeah. Ample Sample says, let's go. First time we've looked like a proper team for ages. Jack Underhill says, I'm starting to understand what a Connor Gallagher is. Coise. Adnex says watching Spurs actually play is fun isn't it? I've forgotten forgotten that feeling forgotten that feeling of seeing your team be competent be able to knock the ball about and actually create chances and finish chances lovely Richarlison's goal was lovely as well brilliant, brilliant goal I mean look we probably won't have much choice in the matter but it's again it's such a stark difference having him and Solanke up front I see a lot of people say I think Solanke's technically a better player but I don't even know what's the basis for that honestly like I know Richarlison's scrappy and I know he's got that going for him that you know I think Solanke does hold the ball up well and I think he does put in you know a level of fight in the opposition half and all that type of thing I just think I just think he's not that deep is it I just think Richarlison's just better than him I think he's just I don't know more tenacious more skilled um yeah we're talking about a guy that's been Brazil's number nine that's scored like a side volley bicycle kick type thing at a World Cup it's you know if he can stay fit that's the problem isn't it that's always going to be the problem with Richarlison but I do think it's you know I wouldn't really want to see him shifted out wide to accommodate Solanke, to be honest with you, but there we go.

22:47Simon Rush says, huge. William Gardner says, yes, Jack, what a feeling. We played brilliantly. Polina was incredible. Stel Morrison says, fair play to you, Jack. You've done these post-match videos. there's loss after loss providing therapy. So enjoy today. Embrace this win in full. All Spurs fans, job's not done, but we fight. Yes, mate. That's it. That's it. And it's so, it's bizarre, isn't it? It's been, it's been absolutely, and I mean this quite genuine. It's been months of like, in a footballing sense, misery, right? Any of us, like not even doing podcasts and stuff, just talking about it.

23:27Talking about it with your mates, you know? Like a lot of the time when I start talking to my dad about it, he's just like, I don't want to talk about him. don't they depress me i don't want to talk about them at the moment um and then he ends up going on about them for ages and it usually comes back to kyle walker his his borderline irrational and quite deranged dislike of kyle walker um but yeah you know it's it's not it's not been pleasant as it so suddenly having these results playing like that and getting a result like that you sort of sat here like how do i react to this what am i supposed to say how am i supposed to feel is this what is this what happy is again like again in a footballing sense you know there's a long way to go like i know it's only a few games but it is a long way to go um so you know let's just let's just wait and see benedict fox says frank frank had me convinced they were all garbage turned me against a lot of them but there's quality across the team and they are worth loving still i think that's a good point i think that's a good point to make um you know i tell you what you know what a couple of pods ago i was sat here and i was going on about like randall callamani calling him a bum and just being like worst player I've ever seen in the shirt and all this type of thing and I think there's there's a couple of things here right like we're fans we're fallible we're people we're emotional it's been a hell of an emotional journey watching Spurs this season and lashing out of players yeah is par for the course and look again I'm not condoning abuse outright sort of abuse of players but they are in the public eye they paid a hell of a lot of money part of that is being criticized and being judged by people that have no place to do so right no real qualification to judge these people but that's that's what it is we all have opinions on stuff if it's tv shows or movies or you know football matches whatever it is we all have our opinions on stuff right but there was that moment when he came off the pitch today and he put in a shift today he did he put in a shift day you know I don't think he was particularly brilliant but he tried hard and he came off the pitch and he went and he was doing that sort of like you know high-fiving loads of the fans and sort of g in the crowd up at the front and I just kind of thought fair play lad you know what I mean like fair play and I had this instant like feeling of guilt about again sort of sitting here giving pelt as to what a 24 25 year old kid that's probably probably miserable probably quite depressed with how this season's gone you know it's ahead of a world cup for him blah blah blah look i know i know like it's again it's kind of the world's tiniest violin when you put it into the context of everything that's going on in the world and all that type of stuff right but equally you know on a personal level it's probably quite bad and so just seeing him kind of have a little moment with the fans I thought that's quite decent that's quite nice you know cut things in football just sometimes be quite nice fine you know whatever I know we all have our opinions on him as a player and this and that but just in that moment that was nice and I felt a bit guilty and I you know I've said that before I had that before with like Madison's vlogs and all that type of thing.

27:17He sort of shows you a side of the players that really just makes you realize they're just little kids. Like a lot of them are just boys and you're sitting there saying, he does this, this one does that, that one doesn't care. This one's a disgrace. This one's this, this one's that. but when you see him like and i know this is all very like soft lad patter but at the same time like they're just someone's kid aren't they they're someone's big or little brother or whatever that plays football and i don't know it's hard isn't it football's such an emotionally charged game and like it's a results business and all that type of stuff and they are paid a lot of money that's the thing they are paid a hell of a lot of money to be specialists in their field so look we are all going to get annoyed with them when things don't don't work out

28:14back to benedict fox's point though

28:19there is some love there to be had um they are showing that you know they're not they're not orchestrating our demise they don't want Tottenham to get relegated so they can all get an easy move out of the club in summer you know all that type of thing I think I sort of made this point before because Andrews Townsend had been speaking about this um on like the Monday night club or something more often than not in these situations players are just sad they're just sad and they don't believe in themselves and they think we can't win because of me because i'm not good enough i'm not doing my job properly and so it makes sense doesn't it that somebody like deserve he comes in and says like stop all this crap what are you complaining what are you going on about do you think you got signed for this club for millions of pounds do think this club's paying you loads of money because you're not good snap out of it snap out of it and show some of that fight that got you to this position in the game in the first place so no i'm completely fanficking i'm doing the that arsenal fan photographer going in and doing the the speech at half time aren't i just go home horse horse throat trying to hold back the tears you go out there and you show them what he means to wear this badge on your shirt blah blah blah all those sort of hazy cliches stupid things that you say as a fan because you think you know you think you know as i sat there do you know as i as i as i sat there watching peak athletes running around playing football as I drank a Coca-Cola and ate some Snackajacks.

30:20Do you know what I mean? I'm sat there, face full of snack. You're passing it that way. You know? It's just ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

30:34Deuces Wild says, that first 30 minutes was as good as Prime Angible. Buzzing. I think it was better. I think it was more structured. Soz, Angeball, peak Angeball was nice. It was swashbuckling, but people forget a lot of the time it was very last minute. It was very chaotic. That was, that was a strong composed game. Soz, I don't, why have I done it? I don't want to get into all this Ange stuff again, but that was more structured. It was more composed. It felt more deliberate. and I said it Phil G says I wasn't stressed through that at all I don't believe you I don't believe you Ridley82 says Connor Gallagher redemption episode Pirate Dread Roberts says we're staying up Coys and cheers Jack you know please John Benfield says get in for the first time I am looking up the league 0s and 1s says Villa are washed dusty ballers chopped unks or chunks as I've heard is the abbreviation of that Mr Stephen Starch says come on you effing Spurs they were all superb tonight next week is the big one relying on Woolwich to do the job and we could go four points clear with a win on Monday our goal difference is massive

32:14jrc1538 says mattis tell assist again three fire emojis phil g also says get the likes on this video for conor gallagher yeah go on go on look quite quite a few of you watching right not as many likes hang on let me try and point to it there we go not as many likes as there are people watching so get the likes up please and uh yeah i'll take this moment to say if you are listening to this you can subscribe to patreon patreon.com slash rtr pod we can get all episodes ad free uh that's on the support tier and if you want to go to the the inner sanctum then you get extra pods and stuff so anyway less of that yeah ratings reviews and all that type of thing as well please lovely lovely johnny cudworth says three weeks ago i accepted the inevitable today i have been pacing checking the clock waiting for kickoff with trepidation i'm not built for this mate honestly all day long seven o 'clock on a sunday seven o 'clock on a sunday are you mad what are you doing to us i was a i was a one-year-old's birthday party earlier it was not in any weird way right before anyone starts saying anything.

33:31I was at a one-year-old's birthday party and I ended up having pints to take the edge off waiting. Pints. Standing around like a degenerate lout drinking pints at a child's birthday party because I was nervous about football. It's pathetic. It's pathetic.

33:54Scaninho says, Yes, Coise. Zedia PH says, let's have it. Wallach says, Villa showed us what fielding a weakened team does to you. We've done it for three years. Dustin Abus says, wait, are we good now? The transformation of this team has been incredible. Roll this into Leeds and we're looking so much better. Hang on. Somebody here by the name of Ricochet Pig, who says three points is everything today. Now, I've got to point out at this point, Ricochet, you did make a promise that the name would be revealed, the meaning behind said name would be revealed when we won a game. Now, we did win one last week and we're still owed that.

34:42So I think the people deserve to know what Ricochet Pig actually means. What are you laughing at? Why don't you try this? ricochet but well i don't know i guess it's from like my my guess on ricochet pig is it's some sort of computer game character or something like that not like a pokemon but it's it's something it's a type of enemy in a in in a game or something a ricochet pig that's that's what i'm going with um there we go lord spurs fucking loves football oh dear uh peter gordon says nats the way we've actually played tell needs to use his brain a bit more though oh come on man like tell is giving us something that we've not had like i get it again but you know if we're talking about starting next season then yeah let's start that but right now he's showing a lot of fight he's showing a lot of desire and he's he's got a spark about him there's a spark of invention about him and his general play so you know let's just let's just do it um delpho chronic says now villa know what it's like to watch your team with eight players missing every week west ham are getting nothing out of arsenal leads at home is huge i mean it's it's massive and leads have been leads have been really good.

36:14Leeds have been really good. But again, again, they are, I'm pretty certain that they're safe now, aren't they? I'm pretty sure Leeds are safe.

36:3143. No. No one's ever lost, like, no one's ever gotten relegated in a 38-game season with 43 points, so while they're not mathematically safe, They're basically safe. And if Arsenal beat West Ham, they are mathematically safe. So if you didn't hear that, Charlotte said, nobody has gone down on 43 points in a 38-game season. And if Arsenal beat West Ham, then Leeds are mathematically safe, even if they're not technically mathematically safe right now. So chances are Leeds are sort of on the beach. and again again it's kind of one of these things isn't it like being and I think this is the point when you have to give the players their dues and everything today and it is great but you also have to have that that context which is if you can't be if you can't be a Leeds side at home that has themselves been on the brink of relegation you don't deserve to be in the Premier League I mean that's probably quite harsh but what i'm saying is in our position right now when you're fighting with these teams around you to stay in the league right you need to claw your way above those around you don't you like that's just as simple as that you know if it's a if it's a zombie apocalypse right and you're having to if you're if you're in like imagine if you're in a crowded train station right and then suddenly you know like the scenario they they lay out in 28 days later they were at Kings Cross station and suddenly somewhere in the crowd, somebody got infected and it starts spreading.

38:12If you're in that position, it's rules of the jungle. You know, you got fight, claw, kick, bite, pull people out the way, get you and yours to safety, get them away from the, from the infected. And that's what Spurs are right now. Spurs are slap bang, slap bang in the middle of Kings Cross station. And there's some infected behind us. Leeds, leads are in our way. Leeds are in our way screaming, saying, what's happening? Where do I go? Where do I go? In this instance, you're not the good person. You're not saying, come with me. You grab onto your family and you push leads away by the face. Or you pull them into the way of the zombies.

38:50So you get over there. Get over there. Get out of my fucking way. Right? That's what we've got to do right now. That's where spurs are.

39:07um sigh or three nw says if we stay up i'll have a newfound love for villa going forwards up the spurs i did say on um just to sort of you know boil a bit i did say they've um they failed their they failed their big six audition today didn't they it's not that easy is it lads it's not that easy is it going deep into european competition and having to sort of rotate a squad and all that type of thing, right? You know? Heavy is the head that wears the big six crown. So, you know, just bear that in mind. Just bear that in mind when you try and lord your 19th century trophy wins, all right, over the mighty Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.