I KNOW a few Tottenham fans who have told me they would love to see Ange Postecoglou put the kids out to face Manchester City on Tuesday night, so Arsenal can’t win the league.
I have to be honest — it’s a f***ing weird take.
You hate another team so much that you want City to win it, again?
Not a chance.
I’m getting to a point where, as a football fan, I want a different team to win the league. Not because City are terrible but it just gets boring.
We want to see the likes of City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and, hopefully, Spurs all pushing and competing until the final ebbs of the season.
I want to be sat there thinking, ‘Blimey, who’s going to win the league?’ rather than, ‘This is a done deal, it’s City, roll on the summer’ because it becomes a waste of time.
So, here we go: Tottenham should WANT to help Arsenal win the title by getting a result against City.
It will give themselves and everyone else hope that they can win it one day.
Arsenal are on the cusp of ending a 20-year stint without a league title.
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Who is to say someone else cannot do that next season with the right manager and right recruitment?
But, currently, Spurs know they’ve mucked up a top-four spot. They won’t catch Aston Villa and they’ve hit a wall.
They’re having a horrific end to the season.
However, the players would never quit or give up during a game. I’m sure of it, regardless of the situation.
Even last weekend, against Liverpool, they were 4-0 down and they still didn’t stop pushing and grabbed two goals.
The sporting integrity, elite mentality and winning morals that have got them to this level will not allow them to not do it.
However, once you go a goal or two down to City, there is a bit in your head that goes, ‘F***, I hope this isn’t six or seven’.
You don’t stop attacking but you really, really focus on defending and that will sap the already bizarre atmosphere inside the ground.
Spurs normally do well against City and they will come out for their last big hurrah of the campaign for the first 30 minutes. But if City score, it will break their spirit.
It will then be one of those games where City put together 800 passes, job done.
Arsenal will hope. I just cannot see it but they should still be happy with their efforts this season. They have closed the gap.
We all know that they, alongside City, are the two best teams in the country. Fact.
The problem mainly Tottenham fans have is that everyone knows City are the superteam.
So if Arsenal win the league they will be considered the greatest of all time, even better than the Invincibles, who didn’t have a team like City to compete against.
But even if Arsenal do lose out, as early as Sunday as I reckon Man United could nick something at Old Trafford, no one is going to say they’ve bottled it.
If anything, Liverpool’s drop-off is more of a bottling.
They were top, it was going to be Jurgen Klopp’s fairytale ending but now that has fallen to s**t.
All the pressure is on City this weekend.
On paper, you’d think beating Fulham is a given — they’re on the beach, they’ll smash them.
But City play before Arsenal, which is always the worst.
WEST HAM’S decision to replace David Moyes with Julen Lopetegui is a disgrace.
I don’t buy all this, ‘Be careful what you wish for’ nonsense. The fans want a change and they are within their rights to demand that.
They want a different style of play, more attacking excitement. But then the fans get lumbered with another defensive-minded coach. I don’t understand it.
And even worse, this guy quit on Wolves the week before the season started.
That’s the question the West Ham players will want answering: Why did you quit? Will you quit on us?
Lopetegui has a poor record in England. A 37 per cent win rate at Wanderers is hardly stellar.
Basically, he’s got a nice Spanish-sounding name, so he is suddenly the best man to replace Moyes and yet Gary O’Neil has done an amazing job with Wolves.
It’s classic football snobbery.
