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Season 2012-13 / 2011-12 Comparison Thread

A creeping sense of déjà vu spooks Tottenham Hotspur after this match and it has little to do with Harry Redknapp. The sight of their former manager in the opposing dugout surely triggered memories good and bad but what really chills Spurs is the knowledge that this limp performance at a critical juncture of the season was similar to the ones that heralded collapses in each of the past two campaigns. André Villas-Boas's task now is to do what Redknapp was unable to do and prevent a slip-up turning into a prolonged slide.

A 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers at a similar stage last season was the start of a sustained dip that saw Spurs win only six of their last 18 matches and allowed Arsenal to come from 10 points behind to leapfrog them into third place. That ultimately cost Spurs a spot in this season's Champions League. The previous campaign unravelled in similar fashion, as Spurs fell out of the top four after winning only one of 10 matches between March and early May.

Those collapses have left scars. "It is in everyone's minds because it has happened before," said Tottenham's midfielder Scott Parker, who hopes those disappointments will drive the squad on to avoid a relapse. "As a team and as a squad we need to maintain our performances. Maybe what happened in the past will stand us in good stead. I just think we can learn from two years ago and last year and stay strong."
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Well, last season our form started to go down from January onwards. The previous season it was from March. The team has not changed much since then, apart from 1 or 2 players. If Levy do not strengthen the team with quality signings in this transfer windows, we might as well look for a a new chairman.
 
13 Chelsea
12
11 West Ham
10
9
8 Swansea
7
6 Liverpool
5 West Brom, Sunderland
4 Tottenham
3 Stoke
2 Reading
1 Man Utd, Emirates Marketing Project
0 Everton
-1 Southampton
-2
-3
-4 Norwich
-5 Wigan, Aston Villa
-6 Fulham
-7
-8 QPR
-9
-10
-11
-12
-13
-14
-15 Arsenal
-16
-17
-18
-19 Saudi Sportswashing Machine

We lost to ManU last season, so could climb with a result today. Arsenal only team in top half to have dropped points compared to last season.
 
I'm not sure if I'm being an absolute macaron here but is this saying that if we were to extrapolate the table above to the remaining fixtures, we would finish 19 points ahead of Arsenal this season?

Obviously it wouldn't extrapolate like that but Arsenal have lost a huge amount of points.
 
Hootnow said:
I'm not sure if I'm being an absolute macaron here but is this saying that if we were to extrapolate the table above to the remaining fixtures, we would finish 19 points ahead of Arsenal this season?

Obviously it wouldn't extrapolate like that but Arsenal have lost a huge amount of points.
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Going by last season's results they have a much harder remaining schedule than us. They have so far dropped 15 points compared to last season. The yellow line shows how they would have fared using last season's results on this year's fixture list.

fixturecomparisoncharta.png


fixturecomparisonchartt.png
 
Great stuff. And I guess actually even with Chelsea's huge points gained this season, we'd still finish 3rd based on these predictions.

Obviously doesn't necessarily show anything as teams can plummet in the 2nd half but emphasises how good a job AVB has done so far.
 
Our next 5 games...

Norwich A
WBA A
Saudi Sportswashing Machine H
West Ham A (West Ham instead of Bolton, Blackburn or Wolves)
Arsenal H

gave us 5 wins last season... :-"
 
I think our next 2 games are tricky. I don't think Norwich away is easy at all. I also don't think West Brom away will be easy, one of those games we have struggled with in the past and Lukaku has the talent and strength to really cause us problems.
 
Mumorn said:
I think our next 2 games are tricky. I don't think Norwich away is easy at all. I also don't think West Brom away will be easy, one of those games we have struggled with in the past and Lukaku has the talent and strength to really cause us problems.
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Norwich have 1 point from their last 6 matches, Saudi Sportswashing Machine 1 from their last 5 and West Brom 1 from their last 4.
 
Norwich on that bad of form at the moment, wow, I didn't realise that. I thought they were doing well under Hughton. Well then you'd think that would be a routine 3 points.
 
Norwich away (won 2-0)
WBA away (won 3-1)
Saudi Sportswashing Machine home (won 5-0)
West Ham (Wolves) away (won 2-0)

Our next 4 fixtures. We are 5 points better than equivalent fixtures last season.



Our last 23 matches last season 9-8-6 35 points 34-23

This season 12-5-6 41 points 40-28
 
I'd take 11 points from our next 5 to leave us one point up on last season. But 10 would be ok as long as we didn't lose to Arsenal, cos we'd still be ahead of them.
 
I'm a little nervous about Saudi Sportswashing Machine - their new signings should be eager to impress and won't have been completely demoralized by Pardew yet. So I'm expecting a spirited performance.

We tend not to do very well against teams in poor form since they're even more determined to park the bus and press (low confidence will affect them in front of goal, but that doesn't mean they won't run themselves ragged out of fear of conceding), but I'm hoping we'll have Holtby or a new signing or two by then.

Liverpool's form and Arse's constant luck still make me nervous :(
 
ArcspacE said:
Why would you say Pardew demoralises his players?
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"Demoralizing" isn't quite the word - what I mean is more that he doesn't play to their strengths, so most of them can't show their best form outside the one or two (Ben Arfa) who get to do whatever they want. Like all under-fire managers, he's been getting public backing from his players, but if you look at the Saudi Sportswashing Machine forums, there's a lot of discussion of how his long ball tactics really work at odds with the football that players like Cabaye prefer to play (Saudi Sportswashing Machine are in the top three long ballers this season iirc). That's been apparent for a while - the results they had last season, especially towards the end, were born out of the form-inertia and cohesion of a very consistent first XI (think Aston Villa under O'Neill) and masked some pretty iffy performances.

Pardew also comes out with some really dour, self-excusing stuff in the media. He keeps talking about how his squad players aren't good enough so they're the reason for Saudi Sportswashing Machine's poor form - 'we need our first teamers back, then we'll start picking up wins again', 'we need players or we'll get relegated'. That is not exactly encouraging stuff to hear for any youngsters or anyone outside Pardew's first string. Why should a squad player fight for a place when his own manager not only has no confidence in him, but moans to everyone how crap he is?

You can contrast that attitude to Laudrup, who's not in a relegation fight but also has a thin squad. Laudrup said that he was excited by the challenge of winning a cup, regardless of injuries. I don't doubt that Saudi Sportswashing Machine's injuries genuinely have affected their season greatly or that they do need new players, but I don't think slamming your own players in the media to save yourself is either wise or honorable.
 
Denmark Spur said:
Our next 5 games...

Norwich A
WBA A
Saudi Sportswashing Machine H
West Ham A (West Ham instead of Bolton, Blackburn or Wolves)
Arsenal H

gave us 5 wins last season... :-"
Click to expand...

I think there is a real possibility we could record 5 wins again this season! The three away games will be tough but we are more than capable of winning all three.
 
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