Man oh Man (U)

Yesterday morning, looking forward to the big game against Manchester United, Agatha enjoyed reading Daniel Taylor's (@DTguardian) Saturday interview with Gareth Bale. Further cheer was to be found in an article on Villas-Boas's support for Jermain Defoe. Norman (Agatha's other half) has long felt that Jermain has been underappreciated, and didn't get played as often as he should. On the other hand, you can always rely on  The Sun and The Daily Mail to pen spurious reports, this time on supposed dissent in the Tottenham team and the players' dissatisfaction with Villas-Boas. No sources or quotes, just general sniping. (The #DailyFail also picked up the Bale interview and ran with a ridiculous headline about Bale wanting to leave Spurs to play abroad).

What better way to counter such mendacious reports than to go to Old Trafford and play a blinder! From the opening goal two minutes in - Vertonghen's first for Spurs - it was sizzling! Agatha loves to see Bale outrun players like a wee boy at school sports day; he left Ferdinand standing to slip a second goal away. Half-time whistle came and we were still 2-0 up! Man U were always going to come out fighting after Fergie's half-time bollocking. Three further goals in 2 minutes kept the excitement up. Lovely to see Dempsey also get his first goal for Spurs. And then the lads dug in, and stood up magnificently to the relentless pressure from United. It was a long nail-biting half, and then the 4 extra minutes on top (isn't Ferguson a laugh? denying teams time to win!). Amazing result. We were brilliant! So chuffed. Happy, happy Lilywhites! We have such talent in individual players - old and new; the team is really shaping up fabulously.

Vertonghen Chant
Agatha and Mildred, we do like our chants. Interestingly, the "Super Jan" chant appears to have been supplanted, as foreshadowed on Twitter. Altogether now (to the tune of Volare):
Vertonghen, Oh-oh
Vertonghen, Oh-oh-oh-oh
He came from Amsterdam
To play for Tottenham

Mildred is now joining in the tweeting - follow us on @TheGirlsFromWHL

Euan the Octopus
And finally, watching the game with Agatha and Norman on ESPN yesterday was the son of friends, six year old Euan (a Chelsea supporter - we blame the parents). Before the game started he had predicted 3-2 to Spurs. Apparently he had a pretty good run predicting scores last season. So if you fancy a flutter, he reckons 3-0 for Spurs against Aston Villa on 7 October.

Agatha

Dembélé Debut

The White Hart Lane crowd gave Mousa Dembélé a warm welcome when he made his first appearance in the second half line up in our game against Norwich City today. He looked eager for the ball, and obliged with a lovely goal in the 68th minute. However – again – we couldn’t hang onto the lead; within 10 minutes Snodgrass had scored the equaliser, and we had to make do with 1 point.

As well as Dembélé, Brad Friedel and Jan Vertonghen both had great games, in Agatha’s humble opinion. She’s still not sure about Bale’s roaming role, but she did like Sandro playing deeper. Adebayor coming on in the second half also injected some spark into the play. It has been a bit of a frantic transfer window week, and it is going to take some time for our new manager to shape his team. Remember, we’ve lost Van der Vaart and Modric, Leldley has gone, and Scott Parker and Younes Kaboul are both out with injury.

Agatha felt uncomfortable at the match today, but it wasn’t the action on the field that was the problem. Don’t you hate it when you are sat next to so called fans, who complain loudly throughout the match about how effing useless their own players are? Substituting Huddleston for Defoe did seem an ill-judged decision, and Villas Boas sure got a lot a lot of stick for that from Mouth Man and mates (after the equaliser went in). And the referee and one linesman did make some dubious decisions. But booing at the end of the game? Not in my name, please. All that negativity floating around – so wearing. What's the betting that when our season tickets (eventually) come up, we’ll be sat next to them …

Agatha and Mildred