Home at last
Next up it’s Watford at White Hart Lane. Saturday afternoon sees us at home for the first time since January 16th when we saw off Sunderland. Since then we’ve played four games away from home and won them all scoring 12 and conceding just 2. A very impressive spell by anyone’s standard.
Supermarionation
If it weren’t for Leicester’s baffling triumphs this season then the performance of the Hornets would be the major little club done good story of the campaign. The partnership of Odion Ighalo and Troy Tempest has been paid the most attention by the media but goals are no good if it’s all going wrong at the other end and despite the presence of Heurelho Gomes between the sticks it is most definitely not going wrong for Watford.
House trained
Hugh Laurie lookey-likey Quique Sanchez Flores clearly feels that with his strike pairing doing nicely he doesn’t need to do much more with the players behind them than keep them organised, compact, in shape etc, all the buzzwords you hear when a coach is being praised and Flores certainly does deserve lauding, if the measure of a coach is to get more from a team than the sum of its parts then he’s certainly doing the job.
Watford’s clean sheet against Chelsea on Wednesday was their 9th of the league season, the vast majority of which have come at home. Away from Vicarage Rd they have won four and lost four scoring 14 and conceding 15. It’s all very tight. They’ve been on a bit of bad trot since we beat them just after Christmas; they lost four in a row but with a win and a draw in their last two they seem to be back in the groove.
Eric in the middle
Pochettino’s most surprising tactical rabbit from the hat in his tenure thus far was the switch to three at the back in that win at Watford. His reasoning for the change, the strong pairing up front, still applies so it’ll be interesting to see if he tries it again tomorrow especially as it might give new boy Wimmer an extra bit of help, not that he looked like he needed any on Tuesday evening.
Speculation
Elsewhere we can probably expect Davies and Trippier to come in and Lamela or Chadli may replace Son assuming that Alli is fit enough to play. The latter’s partnership with Kane has become key in recent weeks, their combinations with Eriksen also.
Cautiously optimistic
Watford are a well-organised side with an astute manager and at least one alert and on form striker. Another three points going into our game at Eastlands next week would be priceless but we’re going to have to work for it and take our chances – fortunately we’ve been doing both in spades lately.
Roger East is the referee.
COYS
Have something to tell us about this article?
