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Never saw that happening. Spurs hit the woodwork twice, three times in first Half?
Funny thing is, Spurs are barely above 2 points per game. That would never be enough to challenge for the league in the last decade I reckon.
And Spurs are said to have had a super season. City and Arsenal have been terrible, yet there are only 5 points between them. Maybe the new normal is a much more competitive league but one season isn't evidence of that yet.
I guess Spurs are having a good season because they're second and finishing strongly. Didn't they have an iffy start?
I wonder is the 25-man squad limit having any effect this season? Only thought of it after noting Leicester had "only" used 23 players all season (though it's still impressive that only 15 have really contributed)
Dropped the ball a little early on:Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Leicester City 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur 0 - 0 Everton
Sunderland 0 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur
Anyway, Leicester could clinch the league at Old Trafford next week.
Leicester could clinch the league at Old Trafford next week.
Leicester could clinch the league at Old Trafford next week.
Just shows you never know in football. A lot myself included thinking Spurs would win the last four and a case of Leicester slipping up but Leicester have hardly slipped up all season so credit to them. I suppose if they win it now Spurs could look at that late goal Leicester got at the lane and also allowing a ten man Arsenal back in when 2-1 up on them. Still a great season for Spurs no matter what.
A couple of interesting articles on football odds. It seems Leicester at 5000/1 is the most unlikely event ever to happen in bookmaking (not counting accumulators and match-rigging).
Greece were 150/1 to win Euro 2004.
Amazingly, Hungary were 500/1 to win in Wembley in 1953, as were the US to beat England in the 1950 World Cup.
Mali were 1000/1 to beat Angola when 3-0 down with 16 minutes to play.
A Finnish league game was won 8-0 at odds of 8787/1 last year - the losing club and their manager were both fined, though no firm evidence of rigging was found.
Couple of links here and here.
ONLY in the Premier League apparently, according to a downcast Souness, would a mid table team with nothing to play for put up such a performance (doh, like Swansea at Leicester for instance??). This "only in the Premier league" from Sky is enough to (almost) spoil what was an entertaining game. When the ball starts bouncing off the post and WBA are not put away, you always believe something could happen and nerves take over. After the equaliser you could actually hear the WBA fans singing "Ally Ally Ally Ohhhhhh Ally Ally Ally Ohhhhhh..." - so repetitive that I went to bed and couldn't get the bloody song out of my head but whether they enjoyed helping their midlands rivals taking a step towards the League title, who knows.
McLean played very well defensively and worked really hard - hats off to him.
Expectation levels are everything. Tottenham's improvement has been fairly radical also. For Tottenham, finishing above Arsenal is a super season, let alone finishing above Arsenal, City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea. For City and Arsenal, finishing below Tottenham and Leicester is catastrophic really.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I remember thinking when Japan beat South Africa in the Rugby World Cup that it has to be up there with the biggest shocks ever in sport. Leicester winning the league, should it happen, would dwarf it I think, given it's over 38 games and not one.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Just two days after 16th place Rayo Vallecano put Real Madrid to the pin of their collar in Spain, going into a 2-0 lead in the first half before eventually losing 2-3 with minutes remaining. Not to mention mid-table Valencia winning at the Nou Camp two weeks ago, etc., etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
33/1 apparently. The equivalent in football would be longer I guess - maybe twice as long - because the odds of drawing are much smaller in rugby.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
Of course, an individual match is always going to have shorter odds than a 38-game season. Even then, Japan were 1000/1 to win the World Cup before beating South Africa.
Yeah, the "only" things drives me nuts. The Times put it better and more modestly today: a mid-table team putting it up to a title-chasing team is what helps make the PL popular around the world, which I think is largely true.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
La Liga, despite Rayo at the weekend, just isn't as competitive. Look at the points per game of the big 3. Look at their goal differences too. Look at the gap between 3rd and 4th.
It's funny because during years of relative certainty of outcome and dominance of big / rich teams, and consequent financial irresponsibility, the EPL resisted any calls for financial regulation citing quality rather than competitive balance as a key factor in the league's global commercial success versus, say, Germany. Now, after introducing financial regulation and seeing a bizarre unpredictable outcome about to unfold, they bang on about how the unpredictability is what makes it so great!
I suppose the pre-regulation era helped build the brand(s), now the product's commercial life cycle has moved on to a different stage.
On McClean, Danny tweeted a good comment: McClean was picked in The Telegraph's EPL's worst XI of the season but as a left back. Is it a case of his politics influencing their selection? Telegraph is notoriously right-wing, pro-Establishment. By no stretch of the imagination could he be called a left-back, even if he has played there a handful of times.
33/1 was very stingy I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
The odds of drawing would be smaller in rugby alright, but it's easier to cause a shock in one-off football games I would say, as scores are much more difficult to come by.
100% - regardless of where he was selected. He's clearly had a very decent season. Sad ba$tards.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Cheering for Chelsea is weird. Cheering for Chelsea to help Leicester to win the league is weirder.
EDIT: How Spurs have managed to end this manage with 11 I dunno. Absolute filth.
No, I couldn't do it. Would have liked Spurs to have brought it to Saturday instead of giving that shower any happiness. And the filth was kind of refreshing in a mad way, total throwback.
Wow. Congrats Leicester.
I enjoyed it to a point. But it got ridiculous towards the end and Rose, Walker and Dembele should have seen the line.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
In saying that it was a cracker of a match!
Not condoning it a such it's just football has gone so soft and timid it was great to see a bit of filth and Chelsea being on the receiving end probably helped, even if they were happy out. Spurs should have definitely had three reds at least. It was counter productive for Spurs though really as they would have surely created another chance or two to win it had they kept the heads.
Dier could have got two reds! Well obviously he couldn't but you know what I mean.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
The team with the fourth lowest wage budget in the league, playing with a first 11 that cost a QUARTER of the fee paid by Real Madrid for Gareth Bale just won the Premier League.
Let's just savour that for a moment.
The money men were beaten by a group of nobodies.
Fan-fu*king-tastic.
Absolutely. Thought it was a great game and the aggression made it better. 9 yellows for Spurs without a red is amazing though; were they taking it in turns to hack Chelsea down?Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
If you can't win the league yourself, I guess seeing Spurs throw away a 2-goal lead is the next best way!
Saw a stat that the last time Hazard scored at home in the league, it was to decide the 2014/15 league season.
Delighted for Leicester though.
That's what really annoyed me. It was frustrated aggression. Not proper old school aggression. There was a tackle that Costa made at the end when he ran after a lost cause and "won" a corner (not given) making a remarkable tackle. Chelsea looked like they were trying to win the lague at the end. It was bizarre. Spurs have had so many opportunities to win this league the last month and bottled it each time.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
Uh huh. Yup. And even Mason at the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
I love aggression in a game but it got a bit comical toward the end. 9 players getting a yellow on one team is a record in a game in the EPL.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I'm raging Chelsea didn't try to score the last free though just to rub it in. Spurs lost me tonight.
Another trivia question - when was the last time a team won the English league for the first time?
Was it Forest?
It was indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Only team to have more European Cups (2) than League titles (1). That's my favourite piece of Forest trivia.
There is no doubt that Leicester utterly deserved it, they've been top virtually from the start. Spurs completely collapsed in their last 2 games going in front in both but could not show the courage needed to hold on to their leads.
Speaking for Forest Trivia, now that Aston Villa are relegated, it will the first time that former European Club Champions will play each in the 2nd tier of a league.
I'm trying to do an assignment and I keep getting distracted by reading stuff about Leicester. I still can't get it into my head.
Man City had a similar path to winning that first Premier League title coming from Division 2 in 1999 to eventually be champions. Nah, I'm kidding, this is just remarkable. I've watched a heap of Leicester matches this year (cos they're always on it seems) and they were like watching football that I grew up loving; soaking up pressure and counter attacking. Couple that with the Dortmund and Atletico sides now I'm being spoiled with my favourite types of soccer.
Even when the players are interviewed they just seem so grounded. Tonight, they just won the league and anything that's been released from a player has been one of complimenting team-mates above the self. It's wonderful.
I think this talk about Spurs 'bottling' it is nonsense. They've been brilliant and were the only team that made it any bit of a race in the end. They had a number of very tough fixtures in the run-in, coming from behind to draw at Anfield, blowing Man Utd away and winning 4-0 at the dreaded Britannia. They hit the post two or three times against West Brom before conceding fairly late. Even last night in a high pressure game they went and did their stuff until it unravelled. Okay they probably lacked a bit of experience as they haven't been in this situation before, they could definitely have controlled the last ten minutes of the game last night, and of the West Brom game, a lot better. They are the youngest squad in the league after all.
I just hate this default notion that if a team falls short then they've bottled it. They dug pretty deep to stay in it at all, they were never favourites and they never led, so in a sense they had nothing to bottle. The television generated schedule was ridiculous too I thought, having Leicester play first every single time in the run-in.
Great result for football though, insane really. It would be fantastic if it was the start of something, but surely normal service will resume next season? I suppose the likes of Wigan, Swansea and Birmingham have all won big cups in recent seasons too, so a few teams are having a day in the sun, but obviously this is an achievement from another universe compared to those.
I think they did bottle it against West Brom - they were cruising, and then maybe for the first time realised where they were. West Brom came more and more back into the game and Spurs couldn't do anything about it.
But that shouldn't take away from their season overall - or even from their title chase, where they put in some bloody good performances, as you say. And if course, they were the only challengers in the end.
Worth noting Leicester's Mark Selby won the World Snooker Championship last night as well. He won the 2014 world title on the same day Leicester got promoted, and won last night 11 minutes after the final whistle. So he essentially missed both occasions.
Stu thanked because of the Selby comment, not the bottling comment. I'm not sure Spurs bottled it either. In fact they played some great stuff against WBA and hit the inside of the post twice. They came up short and the most notable thing is how well LCFC played out their last 10 games.
I read a couple of weeks ago that since Arsenal beat LCFC in February, LCFC scored 13 goals and got 21 points. In the same period Arsenal scored 21 goals and got 13 points (or fewer - I can't remember the exact numbers)!
If anyone bottled it this season it was Arsenal. No ability to rise to the occasion. Top of league, lose 4-0 at Southampton. Lost at home to Swansea after being 1-0 up. Drew 0-0 at home to Southampton despite battering them. Last minute equaliser conceded at Anfield. Didn't even turn up for an hour at Old Trafford, and so on. All in a critical spell of the season.
Worth noting that Spurs' points haul is unremarkable by previous seasons' standards.
This is true - but then the game started to fade away from them, and they lost confidence.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
You certainly can't label them bottlers overall because (a) they were the only team challenging in the first place, (b) they never led the table I think (or if they did, it was for one day or something) and (c) Leicester were so consistent anyway.
But I think at some stage in the West Brom game, they became aware of what they were doing and forgot how to do it.
I wouldn't be too critical of Spurs in general as their form has been good.
But after WBA equalised, that was one moment when the chips were really down They had about 15-20 minutes to save their hopes of winning the league, and produced next to nothing.
That's not necessarily bottle though, if it is there are countless other examples where they showed remarkable bottle. Sometimes teams just run out of ideas, it's difficult to dominate for ninety minutes anyway. I remember Man Utd blew a two goal lead at Anfield late in the season that they won the treble. It could have destroyed their whole season. There were never any questions of bottle though the way it's being thrown at Tottenham for a very similar collapse last night.
I don't believe in 'points tally' comparisons either. Some seasons are just different to others, whether it's down to a more competitive league or whatever. This was a crazy season so maybe 80 points this season is a bigger achievement than 90 points another year. I'd prefer to just trust my eyes, and Spurs had clearly a lot more substance about them than in previous seasons.
Yep, who knows, maybe lower points per game is the "new normal"? It'd make sense given that all teams now have big money due to the latest TV rights sales. And yes, Spurs were a far more substantive outfit than in previous seasons. They were hugely impressive for a long period last night and at several times over the season. One thing I noticed is how regularly they had games won long before the end. They'd regularly score in first 20 mins and then at least a second by 60 minutes.
Worth noting that even Spurs, for all that their points tally isn't huge by recent standards, have only lost four times all season. Leicester have only lost three times. Just lots of draws is all - maybe the TV money is levelling things a bit, ironically?
Also interesting that, for all that Leicester eked out a lot of 1-0s and Spurs, as you say, had a tendency to hammer some teams, Leicester have only scored three fewer than Spurs, and have conceded six more.
Also, I like this edit on the "Sport in Leicester" wikipedia page -
Quote:
Notable former managers include Jimmy Bloomfield, David Pleat, Brian Little, and Martin O'Neill. Notable former players include Gordon Banks (England's World Cup winning goalkeeper in 1966), Peter Shilton, Frank Worthington, Gary Lineker (the third highest goalscorer of all time for the England team with 48 goals between 1984 and 1992), Alan Smith, Emile Heskey, Neil Lennon, and Simon Grayson.
Notable current players include Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Drinkwater, Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Matty James, Jamie Vardy, Andy King, Marc Albrighton, Ben Hamer, Daniel Amartey, N'Golo Kante, Jeff Schlupp, Danny Simpson, Liam Moore, Shinji Okazaki, Demarai Gray, Leonardo Ulloa, Nathan Dyer, Riyad Mahrez, Marcin Wasilewski, Christian Fuchs, Ben Chilwell, Mark Schwarzer and Gokhan Inler.
Yeah the 'eking out 1-0's Leicester' only applied to the second half of the season really though, they were scoring goals for fun in the first half, while conceding plenty as well. I suppose what they were doing in the first half of the season probably wasn't sustainable, but it was incredible the way they tightened things up with what seemed like a click of a finger, without their attacking play suffering too much, in terms of results anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Another snippet I hadn't realised - Claudio Ranieri has never previously won a top-flight league title, either as a player or a manager.
The 1 nils to the Leicester were mainly a feature in the last third of the season and 3 or 4 of them were against lowly teams who were set up to hold onto a draw, games where Leicester had to break them down.
I think in general Spurs have provided much of the best football played every week.
Their very slim title challenge hopes were dealt a fatal blow against West Brom and what we saw last night was the death rattle. In both games, Spurs looks utterly supreme for 40 or 50 minutes. Ponchartrain has done very well, they are in a very good position to consolidate their London supremacy.
Eriksen is my very best free kick specialist, playing football today.
No, and he will take his Leicester side to Stamford Bridge on the last day, which I am sure he will savour after the manner of his exit there.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Yep, he's lethal. Despite Spurs having had a great season and Arsenal by common consensus a pretty poor one, there's only 3 points between them. Between Spurs and Leicester they both avoided injuries pretty well. Arsenal, as usual, had their treatment room full of serial hamstring strainers. Bizarre how Arsenal have so many injured every season. Nearly always the same players too: Walcott, Oxlade, Ramsey, Rosicky (all season this year) & Arteta. Cazorla was a big loss. One source suggested it's because they play a precision passing game with short-ar$es who stretch for the ball a lot.
Man City were a huge disappointment this year.
Stefan Szymanski's take on the EPL (written 5 weeks ago):
http://www.soccernomics-agency.com/?p=890
I was a bit worried until I read this postscriptQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
"To be clear, I see no other link between Donald Trump, who is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist and misogynist and Leicester City, which is a fine, upstanding football club."