The recap

It was a wet and brisk night in Birmingham, Aston Villa hosting Tottenham Hotspur. This time last year, Tottenham were fighting to get out of the relegation zone, only sitting on 17 points compared to Villa's 25 points. This year though is different, as Liverpool has collapsed and the hunt is on for the Champions League spot. Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool are also fighting for the spot, so the meeting between Villa and Spurs was a important one, for both clubs. If Villa won, they would go even on points with Tottenham who lead the race for the open spot, and if Tottenham won it would widen the gap between the teams racing to scrap up enough points.

The first half, Tottenham played like crap. I felt like I was watching little kids play against pro's. Passes would be horrible, and Spurs might as well been teamed up with Villa as a larger amount of their passes ended up going to Villa players. Villa deserved to score their first goal, not because they were playing extremely well, but because Spurs were playing horrible.

Second half made up for it though, for most of the second half, Villa were stuck in their own box, not being able to clear the ball, and when they did, they had nobody foward to help the counter attack so the ball would be played in again. You see this kinda of play when the 'Top Four' play the bottom teams in the league and in lower leagues, but to see this happening to the #5 team who want to challenge for the fourth place was astonishing. After 78 minutes of Villa players diving infront of every shot taken by Spurs players, Dawson made a beautiful goal from the edge of the 18. This tied the game, Spurs had many chances, and it looked like they were playing like they did last weekend, during their 9-1 thrashing of Wigan. Lennon came out to play in the second half. He played poetically, and the fans read it as they watched him dance his way through the Villa defenders and into the box time after time. However, all the effort and all the hard work put into the second half, the Spurs could not capture the 3 points they hoped to steal.

So and the end of the day, Tottenham tied 1-1 with Villa. Spurs fans may be dissapointed, but to come out with a point from Villa park is an achievement. Last year we would not of been able to come out with a result. Im happy with one point...
So it goes like this
1st: Chelsea 33 pts 13 games played
2nd: Man U 31 pts 14 g.p.
3rd: Tottenham 26 pts 14 g.p
4th Arsenal 25 pts 13 g.p
5th Aston Villa 23 pts 14 g.p
6th Man Citeh 22 pts 13 g.p.

Still close, and close to the end of the 1st half of the season.