More Thursday Night Madness In North London

I suppose its fitting that given how things have panned out for Spurs so far, the first draw since the opening day of the season should be a game that could have finished with any score you like to imagine. It could have been a 6-3 home win, it could have been a 6-3 away win. It could have been a 7 all draw. In the end both teams had to settle for a point. 

The match was bookended by Mats Hummels, Roma's German centre back with the highly illustrious career mostly behind him. At 35 years old, he moved to Rome in the summer but has barely kicked a ball. I assume he was signed by the then coach Daniele De Rossi, the club legend inexplicably sacked at the start of the season. His replacement Ivan Juric had a bit of a 'Nuno' and was fired a couple of weeks back and replaced by everyone's favourite Italian Uncle, the now 73 year old Claudio Ranieri.

A rusty looking Hummels gave away the penalty for a foul on Sarr in the fifth minute that Sonny converted but then eight-eight minutes later found himself free at the far post to crash in a cross for the late equaliser that saw the Italians leave with a deserved point.

Sonny puts Spurs 1 up 

What happened in between these two events could be likened to a couple of 12 year olds having a game of FIFA 25 on a Playstation. Chance after chance went by, both teams had periods of domination and periods of looking like a pub side. 

Roma's first equaliser came when Even Ndicka scored from a cross in a very similar way to Kulusevski at the Etihad last season when he headed one in off of his shoulder. Fraser Forster who had a really good game could do nothing.

Clap your hands if you're a guaranteed starter

Spurs went back ahead before half time when a lovely ball found Deki on the left, he beat his man and pulled the ball across the area for Brennan Johnson to strike his ninth goal of the season first time into the bottom corner. 

It would be nigh on impossible to list everything else in great detail that happened without ending up with a blog the size of War & Peace. At this point VAR had already denied Roma a second goal. Woodwork was struck by both sides, Spurs three times I think. At least two attempts were cleared off the line. Roma had another two goals quite rightly disallowed for offside. The referees assistant that flagged the first two offside Roma goals was sporting a classic moustache that made him look like someone from a previous age. Quite fitting for this match that was like a throwback to a bygone age of 2-3-5 formations and fags all round at half time.

The draw leaves Spurs sitting just outside the top 8 in the Europa League table. Next up is a tricky trip to Ibrox where I'm sure that they'll put on a warm welcome for former Celtic manager Ange. Rangers themselves have been struggling in the League (like Roma to be fair) but had a morale boosting four one victory in France over Nice. 

That leaves just the two games both towards the end of January. Hoffenheim away in Germany and Swedish club Elfsborg at home. Hopefully Spurs can show their class and win in Glasgow which will certainly take the pressure off of the last wo games. The last thing we need is to finish in the 'middle' of the League and end up with an extra two games in the playoffs. 


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