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northernsuperspur

Listed below are comments made by northernsuperspur between Monday, 16th November 2009 and Saturday, 5th December 2009 (5 Hours Ago) .

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England get luck of the draw 3:05pm on 05 Dec 2009 #104 - Might be worth sparing a thought for good old Rep. o. Ire who went through their whole group without losing a game and still never qualified
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By all accounts, Charlize Theron did her bit to make sure they werent forgotten. Rumor has it that in the practice draw, she drew "Ireland" instead of "France" for the first ball. Her comment in the actual draw when the French ball came up makes a little more sense with that bit of knowledge.

As I said last night, Englands group is a pretty good one to get, and you could hardly have picked a better setup. A little perspective though. the USA beat Spain this year, Slovenia beat Russia, and Algeria beat Egypt, all of which we would consider to be pretty decent sides, and not walkovers. Anything can happen in a one off game, but really, England have no excuse for not getting out of a group like that.

If England should happen to go all the way to the semifinal or final without playing a "top" team, then frankly I say "good!". Do you lessen the achievement of Spain in winning the Euro 2008 final because the German team was pretty dire?
England get luck of the draw 10:48pm on 04 Dec 2009 England couldnt have asked for a better setup. While the USA are a solid team, you'd take this group over most of the others any day of the week. The actual best thing about the draw, though, is the way it maps out later in the tournamant.

The real bonus is that if Brazil slip up slightly in their group, which isnt impossible, then they would end up playing Spain in the second round. Seeing one of those teams depart early would be fantastic. We already know that either Portugal or the Ivory Coast will also go early, and while you may not tip them as winners, you'd prefer not to have to play against them.

The Netherlands also have probably got a nice run through the knockout phases, and while its horribly early to make predictions, I can see a semi final lineup of Brazil/Spain,England, Italy and the Netherlands. Italy may not be pulling up any trees, but their record shows that they progress in tournaments.

On a totally unrelated note, does Kim Jong-il still intend to have his teams world cup matches edited for television so they look like the better side? If so I cant imagine their group matches adding up to a lot of screen time...
Wenger boys against men 7:37pm on 30 Nov 2009 #148 - And no Arsenal did not get thumped by Chelsea. Yes Chelsea won well, hats off. But there were sustained spells of pressure by Asrsenal that kept them pegged back. It was Chelsea's defence that won them the game more than their strongmen up front.
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I think you'll find that Drogba helped. Or are you backing up Wenger and his priceless "apart from the two goals Drogba didnt do anything" line?
Wenger boys against men 5:59pm on 30 Nov 2009 i'm not going to get into a "our fans are more hardcore in the face of no success than yours". Look at Tottenham - they still turn out...
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Two League Cup victories in the last 10 years! Its not as if winning stuff is completely alien to us, compared to, say, Manchester City.
Spurs show top four style 11:50pm on 29 Nov 2009 75# All this talk about a top 4 finish is a waste of time. Liverpool have been going through their worst run of form for 50 years and how much of a cushion have Spurs built up? A measly 3 points. Arsenal are only 2 ahead and Villa and City are now behind them. Liverpool might still not be playing well but are more than capable of putting together a run of 5 or 6 wins on the trot, which would effectively end your debate Phil.

On the other hand Arsenal are entering a point in their season where a wobble could become something more serious. They are too soft when teams roll their sleeves up to battle them. Great entertainment but not winners. Perhaps Spurs can pip them to Fourth?
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Way to totally rip your first paragraph apart by typing a second one. On the one hand you think its silly to suggest a team might finish 4th. and then you say that theres a reason why they might?

From a spurs point of view, it would be nice to sign another centre back that will actually stay fit all year. Woodgate and King would be the best pairing in the league, if we actually thought they would be able to complete 38 games between them.

Also, I'm not totally sure what happens at left back when Assou-Ekotto goes off to the ACoN next year. Its damned impressive to finally discover he can defend, but we could do with having him available given the famed Gareth Bale appearance record.
Spurs show top four style 09:49am on 29 Nov 2009 #7 - While you might call it dropping 2 points, the fact remains that having played against every other side with top 6 pretensions other than Manchester City, Tottenham are currently sitting in third place. If Chelsea win this afternoon they will be staying there till next week. If you ask pretty much any manager in the country outside of the big 4, they would bite your hand off to take that return.

Its probably going to be very close come the end of the season, Arsenal have just lost one of their best forwards for a long period, so they may not be racking up the points as quickly as they would like. There could well be a very small margin between 3rd and 7th come May.
Review of the week 3:05pm on 28 Nov 2009 The only downside to Spurs winning the Europa League, is that Harry has already shown an aversion to tiring out his first team with an extra 10-12 matches per season.

Therefore in the event of us qualifying next year, I dont anticipate any major attempt on European glory that might interfere with a top 4 campaign.
Jermain Deffo 5:54pm on 23 Nov 2009 #125 - And doesn't Tottenham start off like this every season, and every season they end the same?

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Tottenham tend historically to have an utterly pants start to the season. Even the years that Martin Jol took us to consecutive 5th spots werent as productive as this year has been so far. The fact of the matter is that in the time that Harry has been at the Lane, only 4 other teams have collected more points that Tottenham, and the gap is closing in the case of a certain bunch of misfiring reds...
What a weekend in Titletown! 7:56pm on 18 Nov 2009 Well, as noted by Kevin Cadle in the Sky coverage, Dallas have headed the NFC east at this stage in each of the last 4 seasons, and so far they have blown it every time. Theres no reason why this one should be different.

I know it was a scrappy game with a lot of penalties, but I do also think that the Packers carried out their game plan pretty well, and actually they didnt commit all that many penalties until the game was pretty much over. I agree they don't look like going to the Superbowl, but then again, who picked Arizona this time last year?
Shaun of the Dread 2:01pm on 16 Nov 2009 #22-24

I didnt actually watch the game, but I did see Ian Wrights post match comments which were pretty much along the lines of "They didnt pass it to SWP enough, I'm not just saying it because he's my boy but I think he could have won the game for us".

I think inane and asinane both apply to that sort of expert summary.

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