Last season, Andre Villas Boas was fired after a lackluster spell as manager at Chelsea. This year, he has found a new home with Tottenham Hotspur, and today he gets the chance to exact revenge on the team that let him go.
Tottenham face off against Chelsea in an intriguing London rivalry that features two teams in the top five of the English Premier League table. Tottenham are currently in fifth, only behind fourth-placed Everton on goal differential. Chelsea are currently atop the EPL, like they have been for much of the season. The Blues have opened up a four-point lead.
In Italy, the two teams that look most capable of capturing this year’s Scudetto will meet as Juventus plays Napoli. And in Germany, Bayern Munich puts its still-perfect record on the line against Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Finally, don’t miss one of the final weekends of the MLS regular season, where four playoff spots remain. Three of them could potentially be clinched in the Eastern Conference today, depending on the results of several matches.
If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):
7:45am- ESPN2- Tottenham vs. Chelsea
9:30am- GolTV- Fortuna Dusseldorf vs. Bayern Munich
10am- Fox Soccer Channel- Manchester United vs. Stoke City
10am- Fox Soccer Plus- West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City
10am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Fulham vs. Aston Villa
10am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Liverpool vs. Reading
10am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Swanswea City vs. Wigan Athletic
10am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- West Ham vs. Southampton
10am-beIN Sport en Espanol- Malaga vs. Real Valladolid
11am- Univision Deportes- Paris St. Germain vs. Reims
Noon- beIN Sport- Juventus vs. Napoli
Noon- beIN Sport en Espanol- Real Madrid vs. Celta Vigo
12:30pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Norwich City vs. Arsenal
12:30pm- GolTV- Werder Bremen vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach
12:45pm- ESPN3.com- Heracles vs. Ajax
1:30pm- MLS Direct Kick- Toronto FC vs. Montreal Impact
1:45pm- ESPN3.com- PSV Eindhoven vs. Willem II
2pm- beIN Sport- Valencia vs. Athletic Bilbao
2pm- Univision Deportes- Rennes vs. Montpellier
2:30pm- GolTV- Borussia Dortmund vs. Schalke 04 (Delayed)
2:45pm- beIN Sport en Espanol- Lazio vs. AC Milan
4pm- beIN Sport- Deportivo La Coruna vs. Barcelona
7pm- MLS Direct Kick/MSG Plus- New York Red Bulls vs. Sporting Kansas City
7:05pm- Fox Soccer Channel- U.S. Women’s National Team vs. Germany
7:30pm- NBC Sports Network- Houston Dynamo vs. Philadelphia Union
7:30pm- MLS Direct Kick- D.C. United vs. Columbus Crew
7:30pm- MLS Direct Kick- New England Revolution vs. Chicago Fire
10:30pm- MLS Direct Kick- Chivas USA vs. Colorado Rapids
Blah blah blah Leo Messi Hat trick blah blah blah
5-3 Barca, 77th
This game is nuts. Golazos left and right.
No goals for 15 minutes. Booooooooooring.
Red Card Mascherano for a 2nd Yellow, Barca down to 10 men!
Goal Deportivo! Takes all of 2 minutes into the 2nd half for the goals to start again, and Deportivo bury a free kick. 4-3 Barca, 47th.
And another incredibly soft goal courtesy of Victor Valdes. This guy is quite possibly the most underrated keeper playing today. I get that he needs to be a filed player more than a shot stopper in Barca’s system, but really, there’s gotta be a more suitable number 1 out there for that team.
Barca should fully embrace their system and play a midfielder in goal. Why stop at 10 on the field when you can turn it up to 11?
But that just angers Messi, who scores another! 4-2 Barca, 1st half not even done. Dizzying.
Deportivo La Coruna fight back with 2 goals, now 3-2 Barca 42nd!
Goal Messi! What a blast! The unstoppable Barca machine is firing on all cylinders today, 3-0 18th.
Oops. Tuned in to Barca 12 minutes into the game… and it’s already 2-0 Barca.
Milan getting run by Lazio 3-0… except as I type that they pull one back! 3-1, 61st. Time for Barca though.
Jozy not in the 18 for AZ? Ahh, right, the red card last game.
OK, that explains it. I just checked the AZ score and was wondering why he didn’t even make the bench. I thought Klinsmann might have gotten to the AZ manager. 🙂
Funny 🙂
Valencia – Bilboa heating up, Bilboa on top 2-1 37th.
Juv get 2 late second half goals to slam Napoli. An exciting game marred by players rolling around faking injury. Way to go against stereotype, fellas.
Agreed about Chelsea. Mata and Hazard are great.
Clint is doing fine for Spurs. Not great today and remember he did not join them until deadline day. He is settling in as well as anyone could at this point. Agreed he was not great on the ball today.
Juv-Napoli 2nd half starting back up, still 0-0 after a great 1st half.
Poor from Mannone and Santos to keep Holt onside. Errrrr
Wow, Bayern Munich rolling thru the Bundesliga early, 24 points on 8 games, which no team has ever done. Missed today’s game but really enjoy them with Robben and Ribery on the wings. It would be refreshing to see them make a serious CL run this year.
Do 2 out of the last 3 finals not count as serious runs?
I’ve been disappointed with Dempsey at Spurs so far. He’s been a threat as a poacher, but his passing and decisionmaking have been poor, and were especially poor this morning. It’s early yet, and he’s only had so much time to get an understanding with his new teammates, but he’s definitely off the standard he set last year at Fulham. Thankfully, from his perspective, Sigurdsson has been disappointing as well and Adebayor has been unfit and bad-to-terrible when he’s gotten on the field in limited minutes.
As a Bale replacement on the left wing, much of the time when Dempsey got the ball, he was completely isolated, surrounded by two or three defenders, had no passing options and eventually was relieved of the ball by Chelsea. He played on the left wing for Fulham but I think he got better support there.
Spurs are still sorting things out and I’d bet if his old partner Dembele was around he would have looked a lot better.
Impressive comeback by City, and even more impressive because I tuned in with them down 1-0, down to 10 men, and 100% expected them to win. Chelsea looking very strong for the title though, especially if Juan Mata keeps playing like he did today.
Performances like that are probably why Lichaj isn’t getting any call ups. He won’t even be on the bench for Villa playing like that. Villain fans on Twitter are not happy…
Phil @AvfcPhilR
Lichaj is shite, really really shite.
Liam Richard O’Dwyer @Liam_ODwyer
Lichaj distribution is terrible. Put us in trouble twice in 5 mins. #avfc
Brian @kenmcnaught
Lichaj passing is crap
Maradona_AVFC10 @Maradona_AVFC10
Also Lichaj’s fault for the goal!
A non-American perspective about Lichaj–not good.
Liga,
One big reason Lichaj is not doing well at Villa is that he is solid defensively but not that good on the ball going forward.
Lambert likes to have his fullbacks attack. So either Lichaj gets better on the ball or he goes someplace that needs a more traditional fullback.
You might note that JK likes his fullbacks to attack as well.
I honestly don’t understand what happened. He’s always been mistake-prone, but he seemed to get it together last year after his injury, and he was arguably Villa’s best player in the latter half of last season. Figured that was too long a run to be a fluke — but then this season comes, and his form has dropped off considerably.
There are interesting contradictions with Lichaj.
He has been at Villa for about four years so he has been around a long time. Yet he has played only a handful of Games for Villa in the league (i.e. not cup games) which is the standard by which these guys are judged. He is only 22 -23 or so which is young to his US fans but middle aged to the Villa fans.
In England given how long he has been around and the fact that Villa’s regular full backs have often been arrested for impersonating soccer players, if Lichaj has not yet won himself a starting spot ( not just ten games), he probably never will, at least at Villa.
His current plight is hardly shocking given that his ten game run of starts last year was under a different manager and fueled by the injury and incompetence of the regular starters. And Villa did not win one of those games and gave up ten goals in the process. Hardly encouraging.
Villa’s generally lameness and the revolving door at manager has not helped Eric either. What does it tell you about Eric that he has a hard team beating out Hutton for a job?
Right now his career looks very similar to Jonny Spector’s in terms of being a fill in, utility kind of guy , although Spector had played a lot more(and a lot better) than Eric at this point in his career.
US fan boys love Lichaj more than Spector mostly because Eric is fast and he is flavor of the month right now ( latest unfairly prosecuted USMNT player, guilty of the crime of being American and all that other BS) , even though Spector is probably a better soccer player.
As for his USMNT record, Lichaj was fine for Bradley until that awful Gold Cup final. USMNT fans are fond of saying that loss was JB’s fault and that Mexico only attacked down Jonny B’s side. If that’s true then we don’t know how well Lichaj would have held up to Mexicans attacking him do we?
And everyone forgets Lichaj’s botched handling of Gio’s pass into the 6 yard box that led directly to Guardado’s goal, Mexico’s second. If Goodson or Bornstein had done that, they would have been blasted as weak and their names would live in infamy, right next to Rico’s, for the next 20 years.
If you judge a player by how they do when the chips are down, then I remain not completely impressed by Lichaj’s USMNT tenure.
So many of you just want to hand this guy a spot on the roster. He has a potential future with the USMNT but should have to earn his way back to that spot. Let him earn regular PT at Villa or elsewhere and prove he is more than just a flash in the pan, fill in.
Dempsey should have been on Mata on that second Chelsea goal.
I don’t remember it, but Dempsey was playing up top as a forward today. I think we’ll see him in the midfield more with Scott Parker likely out until Christmas, AVB definitely values his defensive skills.
Clint was deployed initially on the left wing , more or less as a replacement for Bale. But Clint is not a winger and often found himself isolated out there. Later on he moved more centrally where he showed much better until he ran out of gas and was subbed out..
Dempsey isn’t a winger, but he played the vast majority of his games at Fulham as a left mid. He definitely knows how to play that position.
True but it seems they were trying to get him to replace Bale in the first half and that is not Clint’s game.
He was much better when he moved more inside. He and Defoe look good together.
The reality is Chelsea look very confident right now.
Fair enough. Didn’t see the first half, so can’t comment on how he looked. I actually prefer Dempsey cutting inside from the left, I think it forces him to be active. I think he gets a little complacent when he’s played centrally/as a withdrawn forward. But most people would disagree with me, I think.
I hate to say it, but Chelsea look incredible so far this season. They won the CL last season, but we all know they played very negatively. It looks like they could defend it this year while playing a much more attractive style.
Please note, Michael Stypulkoski, that I am not saying this in an attacking manner: I am a bit surprised way down here on this thread to learn that you were making comments about Clint Dempsey’s performance against Chelsea way up above without having watched his performance in the first half. I could be wrong, but I do not think it is possible to judge a players performance without watching it. That indicates to me that you negative comments above about Clint’s performance were not objectivity and I will have a hard time in the future taking your comments on Clint seriously.
And, GW, up above you are judging my objectivity, so would like your opinion: Would you agree that someone negatively judging a player’s performance without seeing it is, perhaps, lacking in objectivity?
biff,
Michael is perfectly capable of explaining his comments w/o my assistance.
His commnetary on Dempsey’s performance was hardly negative. I found it quite accurate. Clint has yet to reach his best “Fulham form” for Spurs.
Anyone who thought he would this soon, given his long layoff and the transitional nature of Spurs at the moment was being unrealistically optimistic.
Right now the most dangerous man on that team is Defoe. But it is clear to me that AVB will be working Clint into the attack. Subbing clint out made sense, he looked gassed to me and it seemed like a good time to work Adebayor in. The fact that Adebayor did not do so well does not mean it was a bad idea. AVB has to get Adebayor minutes and Clint looked like he was likely done for the day.
Spurs are a bigger club than Fulham or the USMNT so if Clint iisn’t producing they have others who deserve a shot.
O/T but it sucks that Canada will not be in the Hex. It just sucks. I mean they are really horrible
Btw I just watched a good bit of the spurs/Chelsea game, and from what I saw Spurs worst player was William Gallas who had a nightmare game. He was directly responsible for three of Chelsea’s goals, by either not clearing the ball properly or not marking an attacker. Spurs looked OK going forward especially near the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. If they hadn’t played so crappy in D (Gallas) I think this game ends completely differently. Also you have to question AVB asking his team to sit back after going up 2-1 with more than 25 mins left. Questionable tactics today.
Gallas had a shocker. I usually don’t credit players for single-handedly winning or losing a game, but I think he definitely cost Spurs a result today.
I thought Petr Cech was outstanding today as well. Even giving up two goals he made some fine saves by not giving any rebounds off some pretty decent shots by Spurs
is it me or do we finally have a solid no2? Guzan has started like the past 5 PL games. I love it 🙂
Guzan has always been solid. He just needed to get PT.
He is the only serious threat we have to Howard and it can only be good for the USMNT to have a legitimate alternate #1 to Timmy, who tends to lose focus.
Quick rundown of players I saw starting so far today: Tim Ream, Whitbread, Spector, Guzan, Cameron, Dolo, and of course Deuce and Friedel.
Notables on the bench: Jones, Lichaj, and Gooch.
Thats all i saw from games being played so far. Please add if I missed anyone and/or when more games start.
Thanks, great review of the Yanks in business today. So far the only soccer I’ve seen today is my son’s youth match.
Any good prospects you can tell us about?
Cap his son now!
LOL! Easiest goal in the career of Wayne Rooney? Own goal vs Stoke!!
Sigurdsson is not as effective as they had thought when they bought him this summer. Clint is the preferred choice
ehhhh
Dear Mr. Villas-Boas,
Very good game from Tottenham today without Bale and Dembele and a fine coaching job–until the 74th minute when you inexplicably (and stupidly) pulled Clint Dempsey for Emmanuel Adebayor and then moved Sigurdsson over to center attacking midfielder, where Clint had been playing. That effectively killed Tottenham’s offensive threat and your team fell apart. If you feel you had to put in Adebayor, then you should have pulled Siggurdson and left in Dempsey, who is much more experienced than Sigurdsson and thrives on pressure and has a history of scoring late goals in key situations.
You have now pulled Clint several times late in games and it has usually backfired for you. Please do not do it again. I know I can count on you. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Biff
P.S. Also, why do you focus your offensive attacks only from the wings. You should mix it up a bit and sometimes drive through the middle, which is a strength of Dempsey’s.
We all love Demps but lets be real.. Siggurdson and Lennon offer more creatively going forward
Those guys are completely different players. They’ve got totally different skill sets but neither can hold a candle to Deuce as a finisher.
Dempsey was out of gas! What DIDN’T you see about that? Good substitution and NOT the reason Spurs lost!
Biff, we get it – you really like Dempsey. But try – at least try! – to look at things objectively every now and again. What killed Tottenham’s offensive threat is the way they went into bunker mode after scoring their second. I didn’t see the first half so I can’t comment, but Dempsey was a non-factor in the second. (To be honest, the Guatemala game is the only time Dempsey has looked like himself since the end of last season. I still don’t think he’s up to speed after so much time off.)
I’m in complete agreement with Michael Stypulkoski here. Dempsey is without a doubt a dangerous player for the US and in the EPL, but I really haven’t been really impressed by his performances (aside from Guatemala) since last season. It made complete sense to put on Adebayor for Dempsey (even if Adebayor kinda flubbed that one chance on the rebound).
Caution, folks, I think I smell quite a few Fulham fan trolls on the board today who will never be able to forgive Clint Dempsey for not buckling under the pressure from Martin Jol to sign a contract extension at Fulham, but instead to go to a better team. They are out again today in full force.
Anyone tells me that, to be honest, the Guatemala game is the only time Dempsey has looked like himself since the end of last season, then I know that they are blinded by their hate of Dempsey for leaving Fulahm. Yeah, like Dempsey was awful a few weeks with Tottenham when he scored the winning goal to be Man U at Old Trafford for the first time in about a thousand years.
Tottenham was out of sorts today without Bale and Dembele. Dempsey had a better game than most of his teammates, especially Sigurdsson, who was particularly weak today. Dempsey has a bad game i will be the first to point it out. But sorry, trolls, today was not a bad day for Dempsey and AVB should have left him in.
Biff, I have always tried to remain civil with you, but you’re beginning to try my patience. Yes, I am a Fulham fan. No, I do not “hate” Dempsey. As a Fulham fan (and thus a Chelsea hater) I would have loved to see Dempsey put two or three past Cech today. And just because someone disagrees with you does not make them a “troll.” (I go by my full name on this board – hardly the calling card of a troll.)
No one has said Dempsey has been awful, but if you’re saying he’s been playing at his best you’re either clueless or lying. He had one (very) good game against Guatemala, and a goal scored on an empty net from about ten yards out in the Premier League. Eight games into the PL season, and he has one goal. Maybe you think that’s all Dempsey is capable of, but I think he’s a better player than he has shown so far this season.
Stop with the ad hominem attacks. In fact, stop with the attacks period. We’re here to discuss soccer, not to have childish arguments. If that’s what you’re looking for, there are plenty of sites that specialize in that sort of thing.
There are names up above criticizing Dempsey’s performance that I have never seen used on SBI before. That indicates those names will be used one time on this single threat and that a troll is lurking behind the post. I was not referring to you (Michael Stypulkoski) as being a troll, as Michael Stypulkoski is a regular name on SBI. I am not attacking you, but, yes, I am attacking trolls. I am all for open discussion and sharing of opinions, even those I disagree with, on the game we all love.
Biff, I’m more than happy to bury the hatchet. Just remember that just because people disagree doesn’t mean they have to be hostile. And as far as trolls go, the best way to deal with them is to ignore them completely.
I saw the whole game and Lennon was really the only Spur who had a good match.
I thought Vertongen aquitted himself well too. But yea, Lennon was their only real chance creator today.
Spurs’ attack looks disjointed.
Lennon looked good because he can get to the byline and put in a cross but Spurs very obviously are a team in transition. I think they really missed Dembele maybe even more than Bale
Mr. Stypulkoski,
biff and objectivity ?
Surely you jest. You are wasting your time. biff has a non existent relationship with objectivity.
yes, I am chuckling out loud at the, GW, because I like the style of your posts and I know you have a soft spot in your heart for my commentary.
Despite loss i’m pretty impressed with Vertong, Sigurd, Dempsey, and Dembele. Spurs are going to be ok this year without Modric. Walker really makes some boneheaded plays sometimes. Agree that Adebayor was off during his stint.
Thought Dembele looked pretty good, did you?
I think you know he meant something like “so far this season….” in regards to Dembele. Derrrrrrrr
I do not know that that’s what he meant, and I don’t see how you could possibly infer that, given the context of his comment. Deepvalue specifically referred to Walker’s “bonehead play” which earned him a yellow, and to Adebayor’s sub-par display.
Personally, I figured that deepvalue probably meant Defoe when he said Dembele, and I was just joshing with him. Lighten up. And saying something like “Derrrrrrrr” is pretty immature. You’re above that sort of nonsense.
Glad to see the Blues take their three points, but part of me wanted to see AVB get some revenge. Thought Clint did pretty well. I’m happy he looks to be settling in.
Chelsea are just too much offensively. Everyone is reading each other’s runs with near perfection. Mata and Hazard look primed to lead the team for years to come. Throw in Oscar, Sturridge, and an improving Torres…wowza
And as far as Demps, sure it wasn’t his best game but Adebayor came in and looked pretty crap.
After seeing Adebayor I understand why even a tired Dempsey is starting…just saying
If Dempsey had been in he would have finished one of Adebayor’s chances, and Spurs would have had a point.
Dempsey subbed off in the 74th min.
Deuce playing much better in the second half, distributing, taking fouls, moving well. Overall, an exciting match.
Dempsey was not bad in the first half, he had some good moments. The whole Tottenham team was weak in the first half and several easy give aways by several players. And now AVB pulls Dempsey for Abedeyor. I would have pulled Sigurdson, who missed several easy shots in the second half and was losing the ball regularly. We shall see what happens. In any case, a great game.
Yeah, Spurs looked much more effective with Dempsey, seemed to match the rhythm of the other attackers better than Adebayor is.
Adebayor with another silly turnover.
Mata is in great form. Crazy he was left of Spain’s squad. Wish deuce could have scored. But glad Chelsea pulled away. They are a joy to watch. KTBFFH
Dembele hurt playing for Belgium. Bale’s girlfriend possibly going into labor.
Dembele was hurt playing for Belgium, Bale is at the birth of his baby.
thanks. How bad was the injury? He’s already become so vital for Spurs.
I just joined in – where are Dembele and Bale today?
Dempsey is so much more effective when he gets rid of the ball quickly and then keeps moving. He has this tendency to rely on his dribbling skills, which disrupts the flow of the offense.
Chelsea has blocked a Lot of shots today.
Tottenham really look disjointed without Bale and Dembele. They look like they don’t know where to go with the out ball without Bale wide left, and Huddlestone/Sandro pairing in midfield can’t play the ball forward. The only player who can beat Chelsea’s pressing is Lennon, they gotta try and get the ball out wide right more in the 2nd half. Maybe bring on Adebayor to give them a target when they are under pressure at the back.
Nicely summed up. Deuce did not have his best match for sure, but Spurs, in general, we’re not able to move the ball freely or get any build up play whatsoever. Chelsea cut down all the passing lanes and, on the few occasions where the quick pass was available, They held the ball too long, trying to do too much individually.
Deuce not very good on the ball today, but involved in everything resembling a scoring chance (not much) for Spurs.
Dempsey off with his touches and understanding with teammates. Has started playing better right at the end of the half. COYS.
Verthongen looks really impressive. Breaks up play so well on defense and has begun most of Spurs attacks. Signing of the year so far for Tottenham.
Carzola is the signing of the year so far.
agreed – I meant for Tottenham alone.
Dempsey looking injured to me. Playing with little confidence.
Spectacular volley by Cahill opens the scoring. Set up by a poor header by Gallas on a corner.
Sure hope Gooch makes his La Liga debut for Malaga today
Come on Dempsey/Friedel
Loved Maca’s response to Dempsey downplaying his own tap-in goals against Guatemala. He said, “they all count – the easier the better for me.”
Big day for Deuce. A win against Chelsea would be massive for the Spurs.
I’m hoping to see Cameron in action today against United. That will be very interesting.
Bale and Dembele are both not starting.