Despite seeing their title hopes ended following a 2-2 draw at London rivals Chelsea on Monday, Tottenham Hotspur still look set to clinch their first bit of silverware under Mauricio Pochettino after being nominated for the FIFA Fair Play Award. The north London outfit picked up a record nine yellow cards at Stamford Bridge after a series of reckless tackles and were applauded by pundits the world over for showing absolutely zero concern for the well-being of their opponents.
Despite the much-coveted prize not traditionally being awarded until the end of the season, new FIFA boss Gianni Infantino dropped a strong hint that this year’s competition was merely a formality after such a passionate and spectacular display of studs-up artistry. Speaking at a press conference in Panama City, the Swiss egg-lookalike extolled the virtues of this young Spurs team, saying that “the Fair Play Award was designed as a recognition of exemplary behaviour, and given that there are about seven billion people in this world who would love nothing more than to needlessly mow down Cesc Fabregas on the halfway line it would be remiss of us not to champion their efforts. Chelsea are the skidmark on the pants of world football and Tottenham's efforts to eradicate them from the face of the earth simply cannot go unnoticed.”
Gianni Infantino was generous in his praise of Tottenham
Maurading left-back Danny Rose set the tone early on with a robust challenge on Willian, provoking a touchline scuffle during which Diego Costa appeared to headbutt Mousa Dembélé’s finger. Eric Dier then went on a one-man destroying mission, scything down Eden Hazard as he was running at the Tottenham defence before launching himself with both feet at Fabregas’s shins in a robust but fair challenge which left the little Spanish weasel writhing in agony. Ryan Mason capped a sparkling cameo appearance with a last-ditch raking of Hazard’s achilles in the dying embers of the game.
Pochettino initially appeared disappointed that his inexperienced team had succumbed to Chelsea’s obvious baiting, however seemed to have changed his mind when pushed on the subject on the morning following the match. "In the heat of the moment I perhaps said some things that I shouldn’t have", opined the former Argentinian hatchetman on Tuesday. "However, having had time to reflect and re-watch some of the incidents it became apparent that Chelsea are basically just a massive bunch of wankers and, well, fuck them. Fuck them all".
The only sour note for Tottenham was Toby Alderweireld’s failure to pick up a booking from referee Mark Clattenburg, and the defender now looks certain to be disciplined by his club. Pochettino was understandably reluctant to discuss internal matters but admitted that "when even Christian Eriksen, the most inoffensive human to have ever existed, gets cautioned by the referee, you’ve got to be asking yourself how a strapping 6 foot 2 Belgian with an undercut hairstyle so extreme it’s illegal in 63 countries manages to avoid getting his name in the book".
No comments:
Post a Comment