Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Hull were consigned to the EFL Championship last Sunday after a heavy defeat to Crystal Palace and now they have to deal with the hangover from the week before as they play host to a Tottenham side who although second place show absolutely no signs of letting up.
You would have to say that Marco Silva’s men only have themselves to blame for not being able to at least take the fight for the survival to the last day of the season. The defeat to Sunderland would have undoubtedly been a hammer blow but you cannot legislate for their performance at Selhust Park 7 days ago.
In what was for all intents and purposes a sudden death play-off for Hull they got off to the worst possible start as Andrea Ranocchia’s air kick allowed Wilifried Zaha to latch on to Andros Townsend’s flick on and open the scoring after just 3 minutes.
It was the worst possible start and you could see the displeasure on Marco Silva’s face as he knew that Hull’s Premier League status was slipping away from them and it would be all but out of their grasp once and all when Christian Benteke made it 2-0 before the break.
This was a Hull side that had not won away from home since August and now needed to find three goals in 45 minutes to stay up, unfortunately for them they gave away two more as Sam Allardyce’s men emphatically secured top flight survival.
It really was a case of might have been for Marco Silva as he did an incredible job to turn the fortunes of Hull around after they looked dead and buried when Mike Phelan was shown the exit door halfway through the season. The pertinent question that now needs to be asked is whether or not this will be Silva’s last game in charge.
His stock will have certainly risen after the work he has done with Hull and it would come as no real surprise if he was to move on, he will surely be on the radar of clubs both here and abroad as respective owners look to shuffle the pack over the Summer.
You only have to look at Watford’s plight after getting rid of Walter Mazzari and Silva would arguably be and ideal fit at Vicarage Road, then again the former Olympiakos boss may have even loftier ambitions. One man who is definitely staying put is that of Mauricio Pochettino.
He has committed his future to Tottenham after masterminding their highest ever Premier League era finish last Sunday. The win over Manchester United not only gave White Hart Lane the perfect send off but also meant that Tottenham would secure 2nd place in the table.
You would be forgiven for thinking that their trip to Leicester on Thursday night would be something of a dead rubber, but boy you would be mistaken. There was absolutely no let up at the King Power as Tottenham hit Leicester for 6.
A 6-1 win which saw Harry Kane score an incredible four goal haul meant that not only did the North London outfit exact a modicum of revenge for Leicester’s title win last season it also meant that Kane has moved to the top of the scoring charts in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot.
Kane started Thursday two goals behind Everton’s Romelu Lukaku but finished the night two goals ahead, it was a relentless performance from the England international who has now found the net for Spurs on 51 occasions, impressive enough but even more so when it took just 58 matches in which to do so.
The momentum that Tottenham are in right now they almost do not want the season to end, when it does that will of course bring the transitional period of Wembley. The question now is just how exactly will they cope with that and whether the head of steam they have built up over the past two seasons will be derailed.
That is a question that will not be answered until next season but in regards to this afternoon although Hull will want to end with a flourish before going down the way Spurs are playing right now then I can only envisage an away win and certainly not a repeat of Tottenham’s final day 12 months ago. Spurs win and Kane to secure the Golden Boot.
