Four Things We’ve Learned – Tottenham, Blackburn, Everton, Michael Oliver

Tottenham look realistic challengers for Champions League qualification

As the weeks pass, it’s becoming obvious that being humbled by the Manchester clubs is not necessarily a true indicator of where a team is – it’s going to happen to a lot of teams this year.

Luka Modric looks happy, Ledley King is playing, Gareth Bale looks to be regaining his form, and Emmanuel Adebayor is scoring goals. As long as all four of those remain constant, then Spurs are the fourth best side in the country.

As is the club’s habit, they made winning at Wigan far harder than it needed to be, but it’s a sign of progression from last year that they headed back down the M1 with three points rather than one. What marked the successful 2009/2010 season out, was Harry Redknapp’s ability to take points from lesser teams on the road – Wigan, Stoke, West Ham – and that seems to be a habit that’s been rediscovered.

Now the tricky start has been navigated, the fixture list is extremely kind to Tottenham between now and Christmas – Redknapp will consider every game until Chelsea visit the Lane on the 20th December as ‘extremely winnable’. If Liverpool continue to stutter, and Arsenal don’t snap out of whatever is afflicting them, then Spurs could have a very healthy advantage by the time 2012 comes.

Blackburn need to change their manager…now.

Steve Kean has Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker to thank for keeping him in employment, because without Blackburn’s anomalous result against Arsenal nobody would have any doubt that he’s not capable of taking them anywhere but the Championship. In retrospect, that win might do the club more harm than good, because it incorrectly suggested that a corner had been turned. One week later, and one insipid performance against Newcastle later, and the reality looks a little more stark.

Look around the sides that will be fighting to stay out of the relegation places, and look at their managers. QPR, Swansea, Wigan, Norwich, maybe West Brom – would you take Steve Kean over any of those managers? Not based on anything we’ve seen from Kean so far.

The owners need to forget about the circumstances by which they appointed Kean, because fans will forgive boardroom mistakes – what they won’t forget is the failure to correct them.

Complaints about Everton’s negativity at Manchester City are absurd.

This is part of a general point, and a bit of a personal grievance against something that’s been around for a while now. Arsene Wenger used to make the same complaint when visiting teams set-up defensively at the Emirates Stadium and likewise Jose Mourinho whenever his team dropped any points – moaning about a team being negative.

It’s not a footballing crime to settle for a point when away from home against a more illustrious and better-resourced opponent. That it’s contrary to the instant gratification, entertainment culture of English football is completely irrelevant.

Given what Manchester City have already done to Bolton, Swansea, and Tottenham, is it not reasonable for teams facing them to adopt a guarded approach? Outside of Manchester United and Chelsea, any team that wants to trade blows with City will get an absolute hammering.

If you’re David Moyes, and you face the kind of players that Roberto Mancini has at his disposal, then you’re fully-entitled to employ whichever tactics you feel give you the best chance of a positive result.

The people that complain about this are the same set of dullards who bemoan Stoke’s style of football – it’s a complaint without any basis, and I’m yet to hear a convincing argument against ‘parking the bus’.

Michael Oliver enjoys making ‘big decisions’

What’s the quality we crave in refereeing more than any other? Consistency. We want an equal application of the rules at all grounds by all officials.

Michael Oliver was praised for his zero-tolerance of shirt pulling in his decision to give a penalty against Armand Traore, but isn’t that contrary to the consistency that we’re asking for?
That kind of offence takes place in every game, every week and is almost never punished – so either contact with the shirt is always a free-kick or penalty, or it never is.

Oliver has a history of giving what look like incredibly soft penalties for shirt-pulling, there was one at West Brom two years ago which was mystifying. Now, that may be a literal and correct interpretation of the rule, but then all the referees have to act in the same way. You can’t have one rogue official with a personal agenda against a particular nuance of the game, it doesn’t work.

Behind this, you also suspect that Oliver quite enjoys the attention that such decisions award him with – there’s a bit of the ‘Uriah Rennie’ about him. The game should be about the players, not the officials.

No more of this please.