Camden New Journal

FOR a horrifying moment on Saturday evening, I was tricked into thinking Spurs might actually have turned themselves into a world-beating team as they did everybody a favour and crushed Manchester City at the Etihad.

Of course, it has now turned out that anybody can beat Pep Guardiola’s team – or at least claw back three goals in the last 15 minutes of matches. They’ve lost five and drawn another in hilarious circumstances, and none of us are sad about that.

This disastrous run of form began with losing to Tottenham in the League Carabao Cup Trinket thing when Guardiola – the best manager in the world as long as the club he’s managing has infinite resources – made Erling Haaland travel down to London for the tie.

He then weirdly kept him on the bench at the bowl, even though his team was losing. It was almost as if he thought it unbecoming for him to be seen chasing a game by bringing on the best striker in the land.

Now, it’s understandable that this competition isn’t the most attractive to the guy with the expensively-assembled squad who wins the league every year, but then why bring Haaland down to Tottenham to watch from the bench?

I’ve said it before but these messiahs you all talk about would struggle at Plymouth or Portsmouth, and my most unpopular opinion remains that Jurgen Klopp has been revealed not to be the world class operator that Liverpool fans insisted he was.

Its sacrilege to them but Klopp, now head of marketing at Red Bull or something, was holding them back.

Liverpool have not signed anybody new and yet Arne Slot is managing to smash down every team in his way with the same personnel.

What was Klopp doing over the last two seasons? His only league title, remember, was secured during the chaotic Covid year.

Already, Slot looks a more dangerous foe.

So much hype is heaped on the supermanagers with apparent extra-sized football brains.

Even our very own Mikel Arteta goes wrong when he tries to be too clever: dropping Gabriel last season, selling Emile Smith Rowe, refusing to buy a striker, playing Saka for every single minute and, time will tell, maybe even signing Mikel Merino.

The 2024 managers like to play 4D chess – sorry to use that hackneyed term, lets say 5D bridge instead – each trying to reinvent a very simple sport.

Premier League

TOTTENHAM 4 (Johnson 49, Solanke 75, 79, Maddison 90+6)

ASTON VILLA 1 (Rogers 31)

TOTTENHAM have put on a Jekyll and Hyde performance over the Halloween period.

At Crystal Palace last weekend they were monstrously bad, losing 1-0.

Today (Sunday), against high-flying Villa, they were avenging angels.

Four second-half goals from Brennan Johnson, a Dominic Solanke brace and a late James Maddison free-kick sent Aston Villa packing after the visitors had enjoyed a first-half lead via Morgan Rogers.

This was a ninth win in 11 games: the two defeats being at the hands of Brighton and Palace – games that Ange Postecoglou previously said were not a reason to panic.

The Spurs boss added today: “We did not have a great day last week [against Palace] but that did not mean we had fallen off a cliff. We fix our eyes on what we want to become, we don’t get carried away with last week and we don’t get carried away today.”

Postecoglou said that despite trailing at half-time, he felt his side were well equipped. “I said it isn’t about looking for excuses, it’s about looking for solutions,” he continued.

“We did that. Villa are a good side, consistent, we had to work hard. In the second half we stepped up a gear and there was only going to be one team that was going to win it.

“I was not happy being one down but I was happy with how we were going about things. It was about going up a notch and taking the game to them and seeing if they could cope. I felt there was energy in the room – the players could not wait to go out again.”

Villa are no slouches, having lost just once before all season. A win would have lifted them to third. It was obvious to see why they are doing so well in the opening period. Villa were solid.

Unai Emery told his team to be patient, let Spurs do what they wanted at arm’s length, and hurt them when the spaces opened up. It was a savvy away game where they did not force the pace.

Tottenham set out with determination, but they were slipshod creatively.

After a half-hour of Spurs failing to seriously trouble Emiliano Martinez, Villa probed. A Jacob Ramsey shot won a corner. It wasn’t cleared, and a second corner saw Rodrigo Bentancur and Pedro Porro play pinball before Rogers thumped in from close range.

Villa had been content to contain. But the goal felt like they had decided to stretch their legs.

While the weight of past disappointments was palpable, the moodiness on the terraces was swept away by an equaliser coming with enough time to go on and win it.

On 49 minutes, Heung-Min Son delivered an axe-swipe of a cross that knocked the Villa defence out with a clever trajectory. Johnson was on hand to finish.

Tetchiness crept in as Villa tried to slow things down, and Spurs retaliated. Porro earned a yellow for grappling Ollie Watkins. Cristian Romero was, as always, on hand to whip up drama, a hot-headed challenge on Rogers backfiring as the Tottenham defender limped away to join Micky van de Ven on the injury list.

On 74, his replacement, Ben Davies, won a terrific block tackle, and found Pape Matar Sarr ahead of him. An exchange of passes with Dejan Kulusevski resulted in Solanke breaking the lines, and the Spurs striker produced a chipped finish over the advancing Martinez.

Tottenham had pushed, pushed and pushed again – sometimes without cuteness, but never without determination – to find a winner. At 2-1, the lead was vulnerable. But instead of trying to switch to keep-ball, Spurs put distance between themselves and Villa.

On 79, Sarr motored forward again, Richarlison took it on and cut back into his strike partner’s path. Solanke needed no second asking to belt home.

Substitute James Maddison responded to being benched by curling a free-kick home in added-time.

Villa came with a solid game and it worked for 45 minutes. Last week at Palace, Spurs were a horror show. Today Postecoglou’s players offered action and adventure.

Tottenham: Vicario, Porro, Romero (Davies 61), Dragusin, Udogie (Gray, 82), Bentancur (Bissouma, 55), Sarr, Kulusevski, Johnson, Son (Richarlison, 55), Richarlison (Maddison, 80), Solanke

Substitutes not used: Forster, Bergvall, Werner, Moore

Premier League

BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 3 (Minteh 48, Rutter 58, Welbeck 66)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 (Johnson 23, Maddison 37)

TOTTENHAM slipped up on the South Coast today (Sunday) after squandering a two-goal lead against Brighton – leaving manager Ange Postecoglou fuming at his players, calling the second half, three-goal fold the worst display he has seen since he took the job last summer.

First half efforts from Brennan Johnson – his sixth in six games – and James Maddison gave Spurs a hefty half-time advantage. It looked like there could only be one winner after a dominant showing – but Brighton somehow came out a different proposition after the break, and goals by Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck turned the game on its head.

Speaking after the game, a shell-shocked Postecoglou said: “Disappointed, frustrated and absolutely gutted with that. The worst defeat since I’ve been here. An unacceptable second half.”

The Tottenham boss accused his players of getting ahead of themselves after recording five wins on the bounce. He added: “We were nowhere near where we should be. We got carried away with how we were going.”

Postecoglou also expressed concern over how easily Brighton saw out the game as his stunned side failed to respond. He continued: “We kind of accepted our fate and it is hard to understand as we’ve not done that while I’ve been here. We paid the price. The problem is when you are travelling along too smoothly, football will trip you up if you get too far ahead of yourself.”

Postecoglou could have been forgiven for walking into the dressing room at half-time feeling like a champ after seeing Spurs ease into a 2-0 lead. But it went from a sublime first 45 minutes to a ridiculous second half.

Brighton’s first goal on 48 minutes seemed to spread an unnecessary sense of trepidation through the away ranks. Livewire Kaoru Mitoma caused Tottenham issues in the first half without his teammates following suit. In the second period, however, the winger upped his game still further, and with Johnson offering little in defensive support to Pedro Porro, the Seagulls made hay down the Spurs right almost every time they got the ball out wide.

On the opposite flank Destiny Udogie looked uncharacteristically loose on the ball, and it was his loss of bearings that aided Brighton’s bid to battle back and take all three points.

Spurs began well. Within the opening minute, Timo Werner had broken clear and his cross was just a fraction too far ahead for Johnson.

Dejan Kulusevski looked eager and saw a shot deflected over the bar, while Maddison thought he had opened the scoring when a Werner header struck him and dribbled in. The linesman called rightfully with Porro offside in the build-up.

But the goal was coming, and on 23 minutes Johnson showed how much confidence he has at the moment with a dead eye finish following a slick pass from Dominic Solanke.

Tottenham doubled their lead on 37. Werner got free again and played the easy pass for Maddison. The midfielder set his sights and curled a low shot into the bottom corner, under Bart Verbruggen’s despairing dive.

It was all Tottenham deserved – but how they would later rue the many missed chances they created. Whatever was said at half-time in the home dressing room, the Seagulls came out fighting and got an early goal back via a Spurs mix-up. A cross from the left evaded Micky van de Ven and Udogie got himself in a horrible tangle, allowing Minteh to finish low.

Brighton got the scent of blood in their nostrils and suddenly Tottenham’s slick passes were being snapped up by the team in blue and white stripes.

Guglielmo Vicario had been forced to stop two efforts before Rutter steamed through and equalised just before the hour mark.

Spurs had done nothing to suggest they could rediscover their first half levels, and their goal looked troubled. Welbeck’s winner came from an unmarked header centrally after Rutter had got the better of Rodrigo Bentancur and managed somehow to lift a cross over his challenge.

Even with 20 minutes left to conjure up a response, Spurs looked like they had run out of ideas and wanted the referee to put them out of their misery. A late Udogie effort was easily gathered, otherwise Spurs simply offered nothing in the opponents half.

The full-time whistle blew, and Tottenham’s collapse was pronounced: for a side packed with experienced heads, the rapid demise and inability to rouse themselves shows a frailty that Postecoglou’s teams attractive spells can’t mask.

Brighton & Hove Albion: Verbruggen, Veltman, Dunk, Webster (Julio, 9), Kadioglu (Estupinan, 46), Baleba (Wieffer, 74), Hinshelwood, Minteh (Gruda, 87), Rutter (Enciso, 73), Mitoma, Welbeck

Substitutes not used: Steele, Lamptey, Ayari, Ferguson

THERE are three posters on the walls of Camden Town underground station which I am finding aggravating.

First off, no matter how many times you show me a poster for The Play That Goes Wrong, I’m not going to buy a ticket.

Secondly, north London does not need to see Erling Haaland promoting sportswear with the catchline: Winning is a habit.

Let’s see if that’s the case when Manchester City’s lawyers have to explain away 115 charges of financial doping during that ugly period when a club nobody cared about with no trophies became a club nobody cared about with all of the trophies.

And finally, have you seen the one which reads: Destination Tottenham?

Amid all the garish fairground colours, the text asks us to understand that the newish Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is more than a football ground – it’s four attractions in one!

This theme park offers go-karting fun – as if go-karting has ever been fun to anybody other than an awful, cackling best man – and the chance to climb on top of the roof, like even duller stag parties do at the Millenium Dome each Saturday for the ‘daytime activity’.

The general idea of the promo is that here is a place where you can have fun… even if, ahem, the football can be a bit rubbish.

The ad push seems to be that you can forget all that Premier League nonsense, and come and have a fun day out at Tottenham regardless.

This is where I can come in and maybe offer a little help and money-saving advice to their marketing squad.

Lads, relax! You’re doing great!

You don’t need go-karts, abseiling, cheese rooms or even Beyoncé – you’ve already made ‘Spurs away’ a lovely experience for us all. Thank you!

In fact, our annual trip up the once rocky road has become a stress-free, relaxing jaunt which may finally provide an answer to the age old question: What’s your perfect Sunday?

It is so generous that instead of creating a Spurs fortress where everything may have seemed hostile, your wonderful operation has created a no hassle trip in which we can watch Arsenal beat Tottenham in comfort every season – and then toast the success with your quick lager delivery machine. That’s five stars on Trip Adviser!

Destination Tottenham? Yes please, we’ll be sure to call in again.

Spurs defender Molly Bartrip [Alexander Canillas/SPP]

A FRESH London rivalry awaits Tottenham Hotspur’s women on Sunday when they kick off the season against newly promoted Crystal Palace at Brisbane Road.

Palace are the 19th team to compete in the Women’s Super League and Spurs have a decent record against newcomers, having won six of their last eight matches against such sides.

But defender Molly Bartrip is fully aware of the dangers this latest London derby could pose Robert Vilahamn’s side, and speaking at a WSL media day in Birmingham she told the New Journal: “It’s going to be a battle. At the end of the day they’ve got no pressure, they’re in the league and they want to show what they’re made of – similar to Tottenham a few years back.

“Everyone has kind of been in that situation where they are the new ones and you don’t really know much about them, so it’s going to be a tough game regardless, but we fully have to focus on ourselves and what we know we can do.”

Spurs won three of their six London derby clashes last season, doing the double over West Ham while beating Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

They closed out an unbeaten pre-season last weekend with a 1-0 friendly win over Manchester United – the club that inflicted a 4-0 defeat over Vilahamn’s players in May’s FA Cup final.

And while they have lost on-loan Grace Clinton and Celin Bizet to United, the club has strengthened with the arrival of Australia stars Hayley Raso and Clare Hunt, and their head coach is expecting a “fun season”.

“It feels like it’s fun to start with a derby against Crystal Palace,” Vilahamn told the New Journal.

“Pre-season has been good. When you are a new coach last year, it’s kind of nice going into the second season and you know the staff, you know the club, you know the league. I feel like we are in a good spot.”

Tottenham Hotspur kit makes up a third of confiscated items by trading standards

FAKE Tottenham Hotspurs shirts have piled up in the council’s confiscation unit tackling counterfeit goods in Camden Town.

Figures released by the Town Hall show that trading standards teams removed more than 4,500 shirts from traders in the High Street over a six month period from October to the end of March.

Nearly a third of these were dodgy copies of Spurs strips. Around ten per cent of seized items related to Arsenal.

Rogue dealers offer knockdown prices to tourists and fans priced out of Premier League club shops.

The real thing in the Spurs club shop

Tottenham are not alone in selling its adult replica shirt for £125 each. To get a home and and away shirt with a name and number printed on the back would cost around £300.

Camden has erected posters around Camden High Street warning shoppers of the risk of counterfeit products.

Timo Werner, Cristian Romero and Heung-Min Son all on target as Tottenham win 3-1 to revive their race for Champions League football