John Terry’s goal – After Vertonghen concedes a free kick, Mata delivers a teasing in-swinger, which Terry guides into the corner.

Blame me. I think I cursed Vertonghen. I tweeted at the end of the first half that he was playing the best defensive game I’d ever seen from him in a Spurs shirt – in the second he was far less impressive, and seemed to really struggle with Torres’ movement.

He conceded a free-kick when lunging in on Ramires – a challenge for which he might have seen red, as he was technically denying a goal-scoring opportunity, since the Brazilian had a clear run on goal had he not been brought down. Mata took the resulting free kick…

As Mata prepares to take the kick, Ivanovic is grappling with Dembele. I’m not sure if it’s a deliberate ploy, but essentially Ivanovic pushes Dembele deep and this causes Terry to be onside. Dembele has to be stronger and hold the line here.

Dawson steps up to play Terry off, not seeing that Dembele has been pushed back. Vertonghen can now see Terry, who has made a break in front of him.

In stepping up briefly, Dawson has cost himself a yard.

Due to Vertonghen being static, Dembele being pushed back and Dawson p up, Terry ends up having a free header.

Terry has time and space to guide his header into the corner unchallenged.

A very scruffy goal from a Spurs perspective, with mistakes from Vertonghen (initial foul, and then not reacting to Terry’s run), Dembele (not standing his ground, and therefore playing Terry onside) and Dawson (being out of kilter with Dembele, costing himself a yard).

This goal was coming, though, and I was a little disappointed with AVB’s use of substitutions this week, unlike last week against Cardiff.  Mata’s introduction made a huge difference for Chelsea, and Dembele and Paulinho just failed to get close enough to him. Paulinho is good defensively, but was caught between being the link man in between Dembele and the number 10 (Eriksen and then Holtby), whereas Dembele is much better with the ball than without it.

Despite Dembele protecting the ball and using it mostly intelligently when he had it, for me I’d have withdrawn him after 55 minutes and brought on Sandro to deal with the threat that Mata was constantly posing. Alternatively, AVB could have taken off Paulinho and given up a little of the forward thrust that the Brazilian offered. Either way, we needed to do *something* about Mata, who was absolutely bossing the second half whilst Chelsea had eleven men.

Holtby to Lamela to Paulinho – GOAL!

Villas-Boas is often criticised for his delayed substitutions; he generally waits until quite late in games to make a change, which can frustrate us fans. But on Sunday, two out of the three substitutes that AVB introduced were involved in the winning goal. Hats off to him, as they say.

Lamela replaced Sigurdsson after 71 minutes – just as Cardiff were having a slight resurgence. He initially drifted over to the left, but was soon moved to the right, where he was clearly more comfortable. He made five crosses, one of which was successful – the vital pass for the goal.

Lamela is still finding his feet at Spurs, and looks a little nervous when it comes to beating a man – the fact that he only attempt one ‘take-on’ (in stats speak) is telling, but his contribution was still hugely important.

AVB showed a lot of faith in Kane by bringing him on for Townsend on 81 minutes, with other attacking options available. The 20-year old repaid the Head Coach’s faith with a strong showing, adding presence and control to the left side, from which he cut in and either fed his team mates, or looked to angle crosses in. One such cross was especially dangerous and might have led to a goal. Kane also curled a low shot narrowly wide.

It’s no surprise to me that Kane had his best performance in a Spurs shirt in a more natural position for him. He is certainly more of a support striker than an out-and-out line leader (as he has previously been used in our first team). Hopefully this cameo will give him some confidence and he will be able to produce similar displays more consistently.

Lewis Holtby arguably had the biggest impact, despite only leaving the bench on 89 minutes. In his five minutes on the pitch he managed to complete 13 passes, including one key pass which sent Paulinho through for his chipped effort on goal. Importantly, of course, Holtby also got on the end of Lamela’s knock-down and found the Argentinian in space with a slide-rule pass, which allowed him to cross for Paulinho’s goal.

Whilst last season we often relied on Bale to come up with a bit of magic to win us these sorts of tight games, it is testament to the newly beefed-up squad that we are now able to put faith in our substitutes to come on and change games – and this without the likes of Defoe, Adebayor, Lennon and Chadli.

I’ve been pretty vocal on Twitter regarding my feelings on Stubhub, and I’m not alone. Along with a number of other Spurs fans I have put my name to the following letter, and will be signing this petition too: http://www.change.org/stopstubhub.

Please take a few minutes to read our letter and petition, and make your own mind up.

We are Tottenham Hotspur supporters who believe the club’s deal with StubHub is not in the best interests of fans buying or selling tickets, and has serious implications for football supporters in general.

With a growing backlash against ticket pricing at the top level of the English game, a deal which best serves the interests of those wishing to make a profit from their fellow fans damages the reputation of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club (THFC).

The way StubHub works is intrinsically against the best interests of supporters. The absence of restrictions on pricing has led, in some cases, to tickets being listed at up to 1,000% of face value. The average list price for a ticket on StubHub vastly outweighs the ticket’s face value. THFC and StubHub actively encourage supporters to list tickets at high prices, emphasising the seller’s freedom to determine a ticket’s list price is a benefit in publicity for the service.

We would like to have seen an upper pricing limit introduced, in line with MP Sharon Hodgson’s attempt to introduce legislation in Parliament to restrict the resale of tickets to 10% above face value. THFC has an ideal opportunity to set an example by aligning itself with this initiative, therefore gaining respect and goodwill.

We note that secondary ticket agencies have been described as “legalised touts” by Malcolm Clarke, the chair of the Football Supporters Federation. Furthermore, we note that the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has called for tickets to be sold at face value.

After the Swansea game, the first game for which tickets had changed hands via StubHub, we received reports of supporters having to wait for over an hour at the StubHub pick-up point, with some missing up to 35 minutes of the first half because they were still waiting to be handed their tickets.

We have concerns about the effect this deal has on the value of existing membership schemes because of the number of tickets that will be made available to members. We also have concerns about a number of security issues.

We believe the club’s deal with StubHub should be terminated at the earliest possible opportunity. It should be replaced with a scheme in which the club buys back and sells tickets at face value, possibly through an existing ethical ticket exchange. We would also like to see resale to existing club members prioritised.

We would like to see THFC work with fans’ organisations and other clubs to create an ethical, fair and safe secondary ticketing system, possibly looking to shape legislation to regulate the market.

This deal was agreed without consulting the supporters it directly affects, and has been implemented without their consent. Such actions undermine the efforts of everyone trying to build a constructive dialogue between the club and its fans. We therefore ask that, in future, proper consultation – which means more than informing fans after the event – takes place over any measure that directly affects fans.

Total Tottenham website
The Fighting Cock website
Dear Mr Levy website
Alan Fisher – Tottenham on my Mind
TottenhamBlog
Mel Gomes @ The Substantive website
Spurstalk website
Chris Miller – WindyCOYS.com
Martin Cloake, author and fan
Supported by the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust

Sign the petition here: http://www.change.org/stopstubhub. #stopstubhub

Spurs fans were very excited about their central midfield options prior to the season’s kick off; understandably so. Whilst admiring the size, strength, stamina, and defensive capabilities of the players available – Sandro, Capoue, Dembele, and Paulinho – we were calling it the best central midfield in the Premier League.

We all expected a shift to the 4-3-3 that André Villas-Boas was renowned for in his year at Porto. There, he utilised Fernando as a dedicated holder, João Moutinho as the “recycling” link player, and Fredy Guarin as the breaker – tasked with getting forward to support the central striker. The majority of the creativity, it could be said, came from wide areas, where Hulk played as an inverted winger – cutting in and firing shots away – whilst Silvestre Varela was more of a touchline hugger.

At Spurs, the mapping of skill sets seemed to suggest that Sandro or Étienne Capoue would play as the deepest-lying player, Mousa Dembélé would take on the João Moutinho role, and Paulinho would be the one to break forward. This sounds plausible on first thoughts, but when you consider the respective playing traits more closely, it becomes clear that it doesn’t quite hold up – there’s a distinct lack of creativity, as none of those mentioned are particularly adept at moving the ball forward, and moving it forward quickly (albeit Capoue gives it a good go).

Dembélé is a wonderful dribbler and rarely loses the ball, but his tendency to dwell in possession in addition to his lack of vision do mean that we are sometimes restricted when we have the ball. As a result of both this and Sandro’s lack of match fitness, AVB started with Sigurdsson as a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1 in our first match of the season, at Crystal Palace.

Whilst Sigurdsson didn’t have a particularly good game, he made a number of forward passes, had a couple of efforts on goal, and set up some shooting opportunities from wide areas. Soldado touched the ball 41 times in the match and was relatively involved.

Against Swansea, Villas-Boas made a more defensive selection, opting for Dembélé as the most advanced central midfield player, with Paulinho and Capoue alongside him. Dembélé’s attacking dashboard illustrates how he struggled to involve himself in the final third, and Soldado ended the game with just touches 21.

Villas-Boas stuck with the same midfield against Arsenal, with similar results. Soldado was isolated again, and ended the game having had 25 touches. Dembélé again struggled, and barely managed a successful forward pass in the final third.

As the transfer window came to a close, Spurs confirmed the signing of young Dane, Christian Eriksen. In the last year of his contract, signing Eriksen for the cut-price fee that could rise to £11m was a no-brainer. His age and European reputation mean that his price will unlikely fall below that level, even if he fails to settle. However, if his debut performance is anything to go by, his stock should continue to rise.

Although Soldado wasn’t that much more involved than the previous two matches (he had 32 touches), Eriksen’s introduction led to Spurs seeing a lot more of the ball in dangerous areas, and we scored our first two goals from open play this season – Eriksen grabbing the assist for Sigurdsson’s first (after a nice piece of link-up with Soldado) as well as the assist of the assist (!) for the second.

He had license to roam – playing most of his passes to the right (as the above graphic shows) presumably because we had much more natural width on that side, with Townsend more of a touchline hugging winger than Sigurdsson (at least as a starting position, as he typically comes inside once he receives the ball). The improvement in the team after the introduction of Eriksen is not purely down to the individual – although he’s clearly a talent who should prove to be an exciting signing for Spurs – but the ‘type’ of player required to play that role.

The team is set up perfectly for an intelligent number 10 to thrive, so long as he is found often and early. The defensive screen is excellent, and the only question mark is whether we have enough quality in the deep midfield region to move the ball quickly to a 10 – it is vital that he receives the ball before the opposition has a chance to reorganise after a turnover. By that I mean that when the defensive midfield players win the ball with their high tempo pressing, they need to play quick passes into Eriksen’s feet if possible so that he can exploit teams during transitions from attack to defence.

With Lamela also adept at playing the role, as well as the returning Lewis Holtby – so impressive against (the admittedly poor) Dinamo Tbilisi – Spurs now have the right kind of players to play off Soldado, and do not need to fit square-ish pegs into round-ish holes. For the foreseeable future, I would expect AVB to stick with the 4-2-3-1, with two from Sandro/Capoue/Paulinho and Dembélé as the ‘2’ – most likely a combination of one of Sandro/Capoue and one of Paulinho/Dembélé once all are fully fit and available.