Sunderland rock the Premiership as Tottenham bottle it, again
Oh hell yes.
OH. HELL. YEA!
Take that. And that. And that.
With due respect to Tottenham, who I respect and like as a club, they bottled it, big time. And Sunderland, for all their messed-up set pieces and their genorosity in giving away possession, stuck to the task as you’d expect a Roy Keane team to, and in the dying seconds of the game pulled out a rabbit - excuse me, Chopra - to win their first 3 points of an exciting Premiership campaign.
Tottenham have bought well but failed, despite high expectations, to turn it on in a difficult away game (the Stadium of Light packed with raving Sunderland fans wasn’t the easiest place to come to).
Sunderland contained Tottenham (McShane, take a bow) and while some people will say that Tottenham were unlucky, it WAS Sunderland who had two of the best goal-scoring chances saved by Robinson (while Gordon had two tame out-of-the-boxes chances to handle), and they got a goal when it mattered, while Tottenham’s 16m Bent and 10m Berbatov couldn’t.
Chopra who?
You can read the match report on the Beeb or Sky websites - I’ve done an analysis on the performances of both sides (including player ratings), which you can read here:
How long will Tottenham and Jol hide behind excuses?
Sunderland have a lot more work to do
And the winning goal:
Enjoy the party, what a start to the new season 
- Can Sunderland pull a Reading and surprise everyone?
- Sunderland have a lot more work to do
- January 2 - Transfers so far
- Sunderland heading for the Premiership
- Richardson will lead Sunderland to greater glory
Discussion - 32 Responses
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awesome game..the match despite the repeated loss of possession by players was quite exciting to watch and Chopra’s goal was the icing on the cake..awesome start for the black cats and hopefully more upsets to come..
PS keano get rid of etuhu…
jeeeeesus spurs were poor, no width or creativity at all
Well done Sunderland. What a dire game - but we didn’t even turn up today. Absolute lack of quality and creativity and Tom Huddlestone proved why he will never play for England seniors. Dinking around with the ball in front of the 18 yard box when we should have been chasing a win. Dire. Dire. Dire.
i thought etuhu was good in the middle of the park, especially in the first half. Very solid. Stokes looked out of his depth tho..
Spurs were awfull …. Why on earth does jol play jenas ,tainio and fliipin malbranque ..
why did tarrabt not play hes betta then tainio for the right wing or routledge… and what about boateng in the middle or hudds from the start……..jenas doesnt do anything all game…… except fall over.. there were onyl a few players out there that did well today the rest were cr@p……. im not being negative… but …we seem to be constantly puting out cr@p teams .. i rather see the younger guys play and lose atleast you then have some kind of excuse…. Malbranque loses the ball more then my gran would!…..
Were all the spurs fans now? Top four anyone ?nick the yid?
Spurs were absolute crap, no disrespect to Sunderland but Spurs should be winning this type of game and were outplayed at times. No creativity and very lazy complacent attitude. JJ was utter shit if we are using him as the key to getting CL qualification then we will be sorely disappointed.
YES YES YES and FUCKIN YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Tottenham top 4? What a load of bollocks! When will they realise they are not top 4 and probably won’t even be top 6. Watching that twat Robinson standing there as the ball rolled past him with 13 seconds of play left was nearly as funny as the day Tottenham got the shits and fucked up their best chance of a top 4 spot! Is that why they wore a brown kit away from home last season? One game gone and already one defeat! lol
boatang;taarabt not on bench play all strikers bring huddlestone on for 8 mins.martin jol must have been out on the piss last night.fair play to roy kean but we new this was going to happen
Spurs simply did not turn up and Jol picked the wrong team.
No width, no creativity, nothing. They passed back instead of playing forward. Every player looked as if they hadnt turned up. Where was routledge, taarabt, boatang or infact where was our left winger we have been looking for, for three years now?! Jol sort it out… this would of been a better midfield Malbranque - Hudds - Zokora - Routledge/Taarabt.
Even the subs bench, defoe and bent, we dont need both of them there it takes up another place which can be used for a midfielder to change the game!
Jenas is annoying me already this season as well!
Fair play to sunderland though, they worked and worked and kept everything that went in there box at bay.
Spurs fan here. We were horrible. Sunderland were not too great and either and neither side decided to win. Looks like Jol entered the game with the intention of not losing. Playing 4 central midfielders with very little pace or creativity. Poor performance. Hopefully a wakeup call. Also the good ol Stalteri/Gardner partnership screwed up again. Time for Jol to play for a win
Welcome back to the real world spurs fans and american soccer journalists. Idiots
Erm, I really think Spurs (both the club itsleff and its fans)have got it in their heads that they’re a young, up and coming team..’we buy fresh young talent, a lot of English talent we’ll have you know,and we’ve got the best strikeforce in the premiership in Berba, Rob K, Defoe and Bent..’must have been going through the minds of all things Spurs related,maybe even dreaming of breaking the top four hegemony (which is easily a top 2 hegemony of united and chelski these days); what a load of utter tosh. I don’t particularly like Spurs. I love Sunderland (yes, it’s because Roy worked wonders there last season and well just cos it’s Roy in charge init??) and so I’m a very happy man.
Well i saw the match being a red devil fan and u guessed it keano’s fan as well and what an amazing game it was chopra pulled a quick one in the dying minutes but i must admit that mcshane dude was really tough and even our own richardson who shite in the first 10-15 min but then played amazingly
Tottenam u had 4 quality top class strikers in the game and u still could’nt do it Jol now needs to give the hair dryer treatment
Cant wait for tommorrow
COMmmmmee on ROy keane rocks.It was as exciting for me watching a manutd match.I am a great devoted fan of roy keane and felt very happy for the win.You dont get better start for premiership with Keano Winning.Cant wait for tommorow.
as a fans,it really dissapointed tat tottenham lose the game,if u watch the game,u will realise wat the craps spurs plying,it look like spurs also a promotion team same as sunderland,wat the hell jenas&tiano doing,zokora&melbanque also no performance well,the overall performance is worst compared wit last season,stateri and chimbodia cant go forward,gardenar awful mistake,only kaboul seem be ok.whole match cant control the ball,no pressing and passing…long pass no suitable for spurs but they forced to ply today,uncreative and lack of passing.after see tis match,we can conclude tat spurs wan break into top 4?jz dream it if the performance cont like tis……..wat can high price bent do in front?jz running around and uncreative at all….
come on champions league for arsenal.have not seen the match highlights but how could they lose to sunderland? i dont care about the keane “influence”, because i hate the man and like patrick vieira. however thank you for beating the scum and already denting their cl ambitions (sunderland to go down, and spurs)
remember the name- mcshane, how the hell was he playing in the championship!! def a uefa cup player.
I’m sorry but which game were you people watching??? Malbranque might give away the ball but he was the ONLY Spurs player who looked dangerous aside from Berbatov, and he put in several excellent crosses. The people who really let Spurs down were Gardner (numerous calamitous errors), Stalteri and Chimbonda (good for most of the game but both at fault for the winning goal), Jenas (for generally being absent) and, above all, Martin Jol, for yet again his substitutions baffled. I can see no justification whatsoever for removing Zokora rather than Jenas, when the former had been doing an excellent job retrieving possession and gaining ground with the ball at feet. Equally, the decision to keep Keane, who, all due respect to him, did not turn up, on the pitch in place of Berbatov, who was still accomplished and a vital outlet in terms of his aerial threat and his ability to hold the ball up… well, it was ludicrous.
Im sure next week Tottenham will win and then all this will be forgotton. Tottenham fans, where is your loyalty? You have a good team, good players and will finish in top 6 this year. Its the first day of the season. Get over it.
notrub - you are wrong, all of this will NOT be forgotten. A select band of Spurs fans have been inveighing against Jol’s senseless substitutions and inane tactics for months and months. Even if we do manage to succeed this year, there are many who will maintain that we do not owe our success to Jol, but to ENIC and to Comoli and Arnesen.
Well done Sunderland.
Didn’t play their best but got the result.
Come on the Black Cats. Come on Keano.
McShane was man of the match
Ha. take that Spurs, You say youre challenging us for 4th place and you lose to Sunderland, how weak!
Arsenal all the Way
nah, even if spurs are getting beat, everton or newcastle will go 4th.
kyle, no, just no. newcastle or everton will take 4th.
McShane? ReAlly I never heard of him, but I think he’ll become big watching the game yesterday.
Also, did you notice there was a new Premier League scoreboard thingy on tele, Looked good, Ill get used to it, Last seasons was nice though, Ill miss it.
Yes it the 1st day of the season but why oh why is Jenas still playing for tottenham??!?! And to lose to Sunderland with what we have bought is shameful.
The midfield will lose spurs any chance of getting into the top 8 let alone top 4! Adel Taarabt looked excellent in pre season - surely he can deliver more than what they did yesterday?
We will lose Berbatov if he does not get a decent service from his midfield. Why did we pay 16.5 mil for ANOTHER striker we need a general in midefiled - not girls that failed to show up.
ok, there are a lot of unfair comments… i knew keane was going 2 do a reading. he played with ferguson n as much as i detest the man, he is decent a manager. + i have the feeling that keane is genuinely a better manager than fergie…
that said i do think way 2 much pressure is on the shoulders of tottenham by the press. ok, there has been many buys n they have 2 perform but give the players time 2 gel. a poor start of the season does not necessarily determine a poor season if u r not targetting the title or running from relegation. a slow start is nothing. think of liverpool of last season. drawing 1-1 with a side that will be relegated on first day of season, the team managed 2 reach the cl final n losing it 2 sheer bad luck. best of luck tottenham.
a last thing 2 help ignore the press. last season everyone was drooling over chelsea as it bought 2 world class players 2 strengthen its squad. this term its manutd. point is if u strengthen ur strengths n leave ur weakeneses intact its not much of an improvement. tottenham has brought depth, hunger in its squad- a thing it lacked. arsenal needed more clinical finishers , they let go of henry…( em, again i think bent was one mistake)
i can’t predit the future but i’m confident tottenham can make it in the top 4. but who will they dislodge ? chelsea? ha ha haaa… liverpool? ok, iwon’t smirk again. manu? i would love 2 but can’t see it happening… arsenal? i leave the answer 2 u…
[…] in detail about this game here and here and […]
Spurs fan here - do I detect a note of hostility from the board?
If half of you lot are to be believed that’s it then, the league is all decided on day one.
My view:
A scrappy nothing game, a lacklustre Spurs side who had all the possesion but failed to stick it in the net, an immense McShane, Chimbonda napping at the end. Plenty of gutted Spurs fans.
Read as much as you like into it if you want but at the end of the day not the start we wanted or needed, whilst Sunderland fans have every right to be pleased especially with McShane. Spurs will improve and will beat at least one top 4 side this season - we did it last term.
It is early days and Spurs fans are moaning a lot but you can’t waste any matches these days, if UR trying for the top 4 you have to consistently get results and then more results, whatever the competition. Each lost match is a bigger hill to climb. There are serious long term questions about Spurs;
Why do we fade at the end of most matches?
How do we improve commitment and creativity? Fast!
Given we were 2nd highest scorers last year, why did we spend so much on a new attacker? And on the day, why have 2 attackers on the bench?