Through to the Quarter-Finals

Last night's game against Stevenage was much closer than any Spurs fan would've hoped for. But at least we got the win, which was actually quite a comfortable one in the end, and a home quarter-final against Bolton next weekend.

The other Quarter-final matches are:

Everton vs Sunderland

Chelsea vs Leicester

Liverpool vs Stoke

(just an interesting observation - our next 3 league games are against Everton, Stoke and Chelsea)

Watching the match last night, I was rather disappointed with Bale's lack of involvement in the first half - but then in the 2nd half he suddenly came alive and was a completely different player. Hopefully this wasn't just a once-off performance and he'll be able to carry it through into the Everton match this weekend.

It's a pity that about the 2 injuries on the night - especially Dawson, who is out for the rest of the season. Since this is the time of the season when you can easily catch up to/get caught by other teams, you really need as much depth as possible.

Hopefully Lennon will be fit again by next weekend for our match against Bolton, since the Stoke game has been moved to Wednesday and then the Chelsea game is that Saturday.

Let's just hope that luck is on our side in the next few games (fingers crossed that Stoke don't injure any of our players) and that we can restore our 10 point lead on Arsenal.

After that we've got a relatively easy end to the season (as you can see in my earlier post about my predictions for Tottenham's remaining fixtures).

Hopefully he can repeat this with Spurs this year

The battle for 3rd place (Conclusion)

Taking Arsenal's win over Liverpool and Spurs' loss to United into account, my predictions stand as follows (for the remaining 12 fixtures):

Spurs - 24 points

Arsenal - 27 points

Chelsea - 18 points

Come the end of the season, this will leave each team on:

Spurs - 77

Arsenal - 73

Chelsea - 66

What I see as the main thing about this conclusion is that it is highly unlikely Chelsea will catch us (unless something goes horribly wrong), meaning that a top 4 spot is almost guaranteed, though hopefully we can maintain our current position.

COME ON YOU SPURS

The battle for 3rd place (Part 3)

Chelsea's remaining fixtures:

West Brom (A) - lost 1-0 (0)

Stoke (H) - should win, unless Stoke keep a clean sheet (3)

City (A) - can't wait to watch Chelsea get humiliated (0)

Spurs (H) - will probably be a draw* (1)

Villa (A) - without Bent, this will probably end 0-0 (1)

Wigan (H) - any team could win this game (3)

Fulham (A) - anything can happen in derby matches, I'll give it to Fulham (0)

Newcastle (H) - depends on Chelsea's form, but they should win this (3)

Arsenal (A) - Could go either way. Should be a great game (1)

QPR (H) - QPR haven't been very impressive this season (3)

Liverpool (A) - end of season, at Anfield, Liverpool should win (0)

Blackburn (H) - I wish Spurs had such an easy last game (3)

According to my predictions, Chelsea will only get a mere 18 points out of a possible 36 in their last 12 games of the season. This will put them on 64 points.

*in my previous post, I said that Chelsea would win this, however with AVB just sacked,

I changed my mind about the result

Ok, so Arsenal beat Liverpool (though I predicted a loss), that gives Arsenal an extra 3 points to add to their total.

Though to be fair, Liverpool should've won that game.

Szczesny made a lucky double-save from Kuyt's penalty and follow up

The linesmen continually made incorrect decisions against Liverpool, of which many may have resulted in goal opportunities for Liverpool.

Kelly missed an open goal.

Van Persie's 93rd minute winner was actually offside.

The referee blew the game early, and Suarez had just been played clean through as the referee blew for full-time.

I guess Arsenal are just disgusting* and we're going to have to live with that.

Hopefully we can get a win tomorrow, putting us back to 7 points ahead of them.

*Again, my opinion, though I'm sure that those of you who watched the game will agree with me.

The Battle for 3rd place (Part 2)

Arsenal's remaining fixtures:

Liverpool (A) - Liverpool will be trying extremely hard in this game (0)

Newcastle (H) - Could be a draw, but i'll give them the win (3)

Everton (A) - Most likely a draw, though could go either way (1)

Villa (H) - Arsenal should take this one (3)

QPR (A) - Unpredictable, but i'll give Arsenal the benefit of the doubt (3)

City (H) - Will be decided by City's form, but i'll say a draw (1)

Wolves (A) - Away, but an easy opponent (3)

Wigan (H) - At home against one of the worst teams in the league (3)

Chelsea (H) - Could decide 4th place, will probably end in a stalemate (1)

Stoke (A) - Stoke are a tough team to play away (0)

Norwich (H) - Like Wolves, this game should be a cruise (3)

West Brom (A) - Big much for Arsenal, not so much for West Brom (3)

If my predictions are correct, then Arsenal will get 24 points in their last 12 games, putting them on a total of 70 points at the end of the season.

*Remember these are just my predictions, so obviously some of them could end up being wrong.

If you want to give your predictions, you can do so by leaving a comment below.

The battle for 3rd place (Part 1)

So the fight is on for 3rd place between the 3 London clubs.

Currently we're 7 points ahead, and hopefully it will stay like that.

I'm going to take a look at each clubs remaining fixtures and predict how many points they will get in each game - to see how the table will probably end up looking at the end of the season.

Tottenham remaining fixtures:

United (H) - Anything could happen, so i'll just say a draw (1)

Everton (A) - Again, anything could happen away, so another draw (1)

Stoke (H) - As long as we score we should win (3)

Chelsea (A) - A tough game, probably a loss here (0)

Swansea (H) - This should be a comfortable win (3)

Sunderland (A) - It's away, but we should be able to get all 3 points here (3)

Norwich (H) - Another easy 3 points (3)

Bolton (A) - Without Cahill, we should be able to get a win (3)

QPR (A) - Just to make up for any earlier mess-ups, i'll give this a draw (1)

Blackburn (H) - This isn't even a question surely? (3)

Villa (A) - End of season, away at Villa Park, a draw should be fine (1)

Fulham (H) - Last game, at White Hart Lane, nothing less than 3 points (3)

So if you add up all these, we'll end up getting about 25 more points, putting us on a total of 78 points at the end of the season.

Come back tomorrow to read about my predictions for Arsenal's remaining fixtures and on Sunday for my predictions for Chelsea's remaining fixtures.

The Old and the Young

Harry Redknapp is a very unique manager,

as he is possibly the only manager of a 'big' team in England who prefers

to buy old players rather than young players.

Look at Wenger, Dalglish, Ferguson and AVB - all of them have recently bought young star players and put them straight into the first team.

Arsenal bought Szczesny, Chamberlain, Mertesacker and Gervinho.

Liverpool bought Carroll, Henderson and Downing.

Chelsea bought Torres, Mata and Luiz

United bought De Gea, Jones and Young

But during all of this, Harry bought Friedel, Parker, Saha and Nelsen

(and got Adebayor on loan)

Besides for a few exceptions in the bunch above (Mata and Chamberlain), all of those young players have played far below what was expected of them. The problem is that you can't buy someone with maybe 2 0r 3 years experience and make them the star player of the team.

It takes time for players to adapt to their clubs (and the tactics) and to feel confident when all the pressure is piled on them.

If you look at the players Harry bought, all of them have played far better than anyone expected them to (except Nelsen who hasn't had much game time yet) - and the best thing about it all, is that we got those 5 players for less than what Carroll cost Liverpool.

Also, if you look at Liverpool, one of their best players this season has been Craig Bellamy - who they got on a free transfer.

So maybe it's better to buy old players and replace them every few seasons, than to buy young who may or may not become good sometime in the future.

So why take this risk of guessing a player's ability, when you can just buy a player like Parker, Adebayor, Friedel or Saha who have already proven themselves as great footballers.

Well at least Harry understands this - and hopefully the other clubs will continue wasting money on the De Gea's and Torres's of the world,

while we grab all the 'golden oldies'.

Carry on doing what you do best Harry.