Mourinho on warning the boys of complacency ahead of the derby pic.twitter.com/4vrbQc6xu6
— TheBoyHotspur (@TheBoyHotspur) December 4, 2020
“I think they know it“, could well be José Mourinho’s famous last words should his Tottenham boys fail to get their act together this weekend and put Arsenal Football Club firmly back in its rightful place – which given Michel Arteta’s achievements this season thus far – might already be the case!
My hopes hinge entirely upon the courage and dedication routinely exhibited by the likes of Heung Son-Min and Pierre Hojbjerg. Evidence based appreciation of football is the way forward, not weirdo ‘belief’ in some ‘philosophy’.
C’mon boys, make Sunday count.
To be honest this fixture usually makes me feel nervous and it’s no different this time around. Not because of the way we have been playing this season, far from it, in fact there has rarely been this kind of disparity in form (in our favour) going into a NLD. However, there is still something about that horrible old adage … ‘on paper’!
Yes, on paper, we are much better, the table doesn’t lie. 8 points better and a 14 goal differential better, after just 10 games. However we all know the dangers of a derby match, from both sides of the coin. Remember ’91, when they were League Champions elect going into that F.A. Cup semi-final. How did that turn out?!
Conversely I remember us going to the Emirates under Harry in scintillating form and taking a two goal lead in the opening 20 minutes. How did that turn out? A 5-2 hammering against us! The bottom line is this game is a potential banana skin and we will need to be bang on it from minute 1 until minute 94 to get a result. If so we will win.
I’d even play Dele Ali – he understands what a NLD is.
It was the same with Jack Wheelchair – there are always players who raise their game for a NLD. Giroud was another – Lamps missed a trick not playing him against us last time out.
If we don’t beat that lot at home then it will be a bit of a serious blip on our season so far. I can’t see anything other than a Spurs win. We should be bruised a bit from LASK and it’s the NLD. I wouldn’t have thought ‘complacency’ would even be a factor.
We could do with Kane, Toby and Lamela passed fit – those three start, we win