And as an aside, brilliant description from the BBC last night:

“Spurs goal: You won’t see a better goal on a full league debut ever. A Spurs corner from the right is punched away by Manuel Almunia to about 30 yards out where Danny Rose is lingering and the youngster hits the most glorious, sizzling, thumping left-foot volley you could ever want to see. Think Michael Essien vs Barca last season, but with bells on. Utterly sensational.”

Rose’s goal.

It’s going to be a good day.

I’m not a person that likes to make excuses, but I did feel that there was some genuine injustice in the game yesterday, hence my post earlier this morning.

It wasn’t a good performance from Spurs – we seemed to play within ourselves, perhaps trying to conserve energy for the tough run of games coming up. Three of our key players – Modric, Defoe and Dawson – were all well under-par, although in the case of Dawson and Defoe, it could be argued that they were half-fit. Huddlestone also looked far from 100%.

All this said, we still managed 35 shots on goal, and dominated possession – it could have been so different, but for the Wembley pitch, and an inept performance from Alan Wiley. A frustrating game to say the least.

Piquionne’s goal.

Portsmouth are awarded a questionable free-kick some distance out, which is floated in.

Kevin Prince Boateng beats Bassong in the air all too easily – he out-muscles him.

Then the vital moment. Michael Dawson loses his footing on the (now infamous) Wembley turf.

This leaves Piquionne with the simple task of beating Gomes, who is admittedly in no man’s land.

Boateng’s goal.

Dindane leads a counter, as Spurs are pressing for an equaliser. Palacios admirably tracks him and, despite not looking like making up the ground, he gets side on, and makes a challenge. I must admit, from my angle up the other end of the pitch, it looked like a nailed-on pen.

But Palacios clearly takes a healthy chunk of the ball.

You could argue that he goes through the player first, but I think this picture illustrates nicely that he doesn’t – he stretches a leg in to take the ball. Referees often rely on the direction the ball travels in these situations but, unfortunately for us, it gets caught in Dindane’s feet, and doesn’t move the way that you would expect it to.

And this, the moment that we’d been hoping to avoid for 9 matches – he was even rested for 2 of them! His 10th yellow of the season, which means that he misses the Arsenal and Chelsea games. A nightmare at the best of times, but with Huddlestone half-fit, and Jenas not having played since the 10th Feb, it will leave us desperately short in the centre of midfield (again).

A well placed penalty from the entirely dislikable Boateng. Why did it have to be him?

With the positive news that Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone, Vedran Corluka, Ledley King and Jermaine Jenas could all be fit for selection, Harry Redknapp has some big decisions to make ahead of the FA Cup semi-final with Portsmouth tomorrow.

Should he keep Wednesday’s game in mind? For me, he needs to pick his best side, rather than preempt who may or may not be fit for Wednesday.

Defence

We know that Woodgate is injured, and that Kaboul and Walker are ineligible. Potentially, though, we could be able to choose what is, in my opinion, our best back four:

We badly missed Michael Dawson at Sunderland last week, and it would be great to see him back, be it alongside King or Bassong. Corluka is also absolutely vital, particularly as the only eligible right-back currently at the club.

Midfield

I would be very disappointed to see Modric playing centrally again, for two reasons:

1. He is not good enough defensively.
2. He is restricted offensively.

We know that Modric likes to wander and, in Palacios, we have a player that covers ground all over the pitch, rather than holding in his position. Were we to have a Carrick type player, I think Modric could possibly do a job in the centre, but we don’t, and I don’t want to see our central midfield overrun like it has been at times over recent weeks.

In his free-role from the left, Modric is able to largely forget his defensive responsibilities and instead focus on wandering into those pockets of space that he loves to find. He is much more of a threat when he can do this, and has certainly shown his best Spurs form when doing so. The prospect of Modric tucking in whilst Bale overlaps is mouth-watering.

If it means that Luka is in his wide left role, I’d even rather see Jake Livermore get his first start, but hopefully Huddlestone and/or Jenas will be fit enough to partner Palacios. However, with Palacios still walking the suspension tightrope, I do have a bad feeling that Redknapp will start with Huddlestone and Modric in the centre.

It looks as though it’s a straight choice between Kranjcar and Bentley for the right-midfield role, as Lennon’s not quite ready. Both have good and bad elements to their game, but I feel that Bentley gives us better natural width, so he would be my pick.

Forwards

With Defoe back after injury, and Crouch having scored in his last two appearances, I’d fully expect them to start up front together. Pavlyuchenko’s display at Sunderland was pretty appalling, with his first touch consistently letting him down; I do wonder whether he offers enough in general play. That said, he is clearly a natural goalscorer – you can’t have too many of those, and he has 8 goals in 9 appearances, which is impressive form.

Pavlyuchenko and Defoe are very similar players, so I think Redknapp will go with one or the other. Gudjohnsen could be useful from the bench, but I wouldn’t start him.

I’m hoping that we are able to select the following, which is arguably one player (Lennon) off being our best side:

Subs:
Pavlyuchenko
Gudjohnsen
Kranjcar
Bassong
Assou–Ekotto
Livermore
Rose/Lennon?

I will be watching from block 140 tomorrow – COME ON YOU SPURS!