Spurs Punish Charlton's Naivety

As someone who was brought up in North East London, and has more friends that support Spurs than any other club, our games against them are the most eagerly awaited and hence it upsets me greatly that we seem to have such difficulty against them at home. Admittedly we've beaten them three times at home in the past six seasons (and are unbeaten at White Hart Lane since the 1980s) so they are hardly the bogey team par excellence, but their painful 4-2 (FA Cup), 4-1 and now 3-2 wins have seen us take the lead each time.

The game was shown here in full (but delayed) in Spanish two hours after kick-off so whilst events were taking place at the Valley, I was pacing up and down like an expectant father with my phone firmly switched off (couldn't risk any pithy text messages from Spurs fans) awaiting the coverage. After a dodgy first 15 minutes, we began to control matters and we took the lead via a route which is proving highly (and perhaps surprisingly) fruitful, namely a simple ball over the top to Darren Bent (his two goals at Sunderland were very similar). Quite what Naybet was doing wasn't clear, and his last gasp attempt to fool the linesman by stepping up with his arm up was thankfully ignored for what it was. Robinson helpfully was slow off his line and Bent took his chance with his usual aplomb.

The remainder of the half belonged firmly to us and we carved them open again before half-time, the Spurs defence again more square than Trafalgar, this time Smertin bursting through but Bent was, for once, wayward with his left-footed effort coming to him whilst temporarily unbalanced. However after the interval, it only took him a few minutes to put matters right, with Bent put clear by Thomas and despite seemingly having blown the chance, he delivered the type of cool finish which Charlton fans have waited years to witness from the main striker.

Curbs has said before that 2-0 is a 'difficult scoreline to defend' which I've never quite understood (surely it's better than 1-0?) but the impact on the respective psyche of each team when the losing team pulls one back is meaningful. This impact was exacerbated by the nature of the goal, a free-kick recocheting off King's shin, but the lesson is that once you lose the first header at a set-piece then you have to be willing to pay the consequences, even fortuous ones. With Davids beginning to win the midfield battle, Spurs began to command more possession and sensed an equaliser, even if it came from their first deliberate shot on goal, Mido benefiting from a combination of Smertin's heel and Andersen's failure to heed what any debutante graduate of finishing school knows....always keep your legs closed (in public at least).

On 71 minutes, we suffered a double blow - Bent clashed heads with Stalteri (the former's last act of the game), the ball got returned to Murphy whose outstanding pass found Young and he somehow failed even to make England teammate Robinson make a save. When games are on tenterhooks, you tend to get punished for not taking gilt-edged chances, and so it proved nine minutes later when Powell lost possession on the edge of the Spurs box, and fast interplay between Defoe and Keane saw the Irishman put clear and he finished superbly. It's hard not to feel a little envious that they have a player of his quality in reserve (whilst we had Bartlett) but whilst Spurs have strength in depth in central midfield and attack, they look average in other departments.

We then threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Spurs but we created only half chances, and the game drifted away from us. It was a cracking game of course, the type which may tempt some of the missing fans back, though as I've argued before at length, it's not the quality of the matches per se but the lack of competitiveness in the league, Chelsea's demolition of Liverpool merely hammering home the point. Winning a hard-fought local derby is nice, but both clubs are already nine points behind Chelsea and the clocks haven't even gone back yet.

A few observations (I had the benefit of watching the game in full twice, as it was repeated in English later on): Kish didn't have such a bad game after all and wasn't at fault for losing possession leading to a goal, though he is not the long-term answer in midfield if we genuinely want to move to the next level. Smertin and Murphy were okay but Davids isn't called the 'Pitbull' for nothing. However quite how Sven could conclude based on Saturday's performance that Jenas is more worthy of an England squad place than Murphy is beyond me; I genuinely can't recall him having any meaningful touches during the entire game. Andersen is getting some stick but it's probably a little harsh - the first goal was a fluke, the second and third were powerfully struck and unfallingly accurate. Bent was top-notch - he won virtually every header and took his goals well - £2.5m is looking an absolute bargain and seven goals in any seven games in the Premiership is highly impressive, let alone the first seven for a new club.

The most important observation though is whether we have sufficient height given our current formation. We conceded a goal at WBA and another on Saturday due to failing to win basic headers, and we didn't look entirely certain whenever Spurs got a corner on Saturday (and they are not a big side). El Karkouri offers different qualities to Hreidarsson, and assuming the Herminator wins his place back, I wonder if the Icelander's future really lies at left-back which would allow us to play an with an extra six-footer at centre-back (El Karkouri, Spector, Sorondo or Fortune) and thus provide the extra height that Powell lacks, particularly if Perry continues to play. The fans favourite has done little wrong, and we can forgive him his error on Saturday (it was ninety yards from goal after all), but I think he needs to step aside for tactical reasons alone. In both Young and Hreidarsson we have full-backs who are both strong defenders, and capable (albeit not outstanding) going forward, and their presence on each flank, but more importantly at set-pieces, gives us extra solidity in my view. Moreover, it gives us an extra target at our own set-pieces. Lining up as we are currently makes us highly vulnerable, in my view, to big direct sides like Bolton (who we play in a couple of weeks).