Spurs focus on Europe

Thursday, 09/02/2012

by James Willis, Shoot's Tottenham blogger

While Harry Redknapp was rounding up a two week case in court on Monday night, Tottenham took to the stage in the final Premier League game of the weekend against Liverpool.

At least, in theory it was meant to be a big, impressive clash, only outmatched by Manchester United against Chelsea that weekend.

The game turned out to be quite something else as a boring 0-0 stalemate came about. The return of Luis Suarez was perhaps one of the only notable newsworthy pieces to come out of the game and there was the expected controversy too, when the striker "accidentally" kicked Scott Parker in the stomach when both going for the ball.

Despite split opinions throughout the UK on whether that should have been a straight red card, most fans will agree that the most entertaining the game got beyond that point was a cat running onto the pitch for a short period of time. Hardly a top of the table, eyeball melting classic that people were hoping for.

Redknapp was absent from the match having had trouble with his flight to Liverpool after finishing in court for the day. His absence can hardly be used as an excuse for Tottenham's flimsy performance, although injuries to Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon and Rafael Van Der Vaart may have had a slight effect.

Injuries or not, Tottenham shouldn't be looking for excuses for their performance but instead reasons for it and ways to improve on that. It's something the coaching team will undoubtedly be looking at this week ahead of Saturday's match with Newcastle.

And after Redknapp being cleared at his court case, Spurs must now keep their Champions League qualification bid on the rails.

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