Pizy

Like Liverpool, Spuds don't really have more than one or two individuals that scare me but are so fantastically coached by their managers that they worry me more than say City or United who are loaded with top class players. Their relentless pressing and feeding off of what will be a super hostile home crowd is our main threat. I don't know what a coach can do in training to prepare for the high press effectively but whatever it is I hope it's all we did these past few days. Really don't want to see us get rattled by an early goal like we did at home against them.

Nervous a hell already with 7 and a half hours until kickoff! Chance to pencil ourselves in for the title, chance to break an all time record and do so at the home of a hated rival with the whole football world watching us. What a fucking massive statement a win would be. All of our title rivals would be completely demoralized. Fuck a draw, WE MUST WIN!

If we win this tomorrow everyone here gets a blowie

Win this and in my opinion the title is sewn up. Can't see a Conte team with this many pedigreed, seriel winners letting an 8 point gap slip. Especially if we also make a couple of good signings for depth this month, I would do anything for a win tomorrow. Haven't been this desperate for a win since....well, we ended Spuds' title hopes last season.

Bournemouth could have claimed two massive scalps in Liverpool and Arsenal but they somehow blow a 3-0 lead. Shocking. Eddi Howe and his players probably won't be sleeping well tonight knowing what could've been.

Damn, I was really hoping José and United would miss out on the top 4 again but with the way Arsenal are collapsing and the run United are on it looks like this may finally be the season Wenger misses out. Embarrassing with the squad he's got.

Would be a decent backup or option for Conte but would be a pretty dumb move for him. Doubt he'd want to come and sit on our bench when he's playing every match for Wet Spam.

Biggest thing we have to expect and deal with is them targeting our wingbacks. They have loads and loads of pace in wide areas and that's what Alonso struggles against. Also, as great as Cesc has been lately this is the last opponent he should be starting against. Matic is a must. I really hope we don't allow them to play the sort of game they always want to play. Don't let them pin us with the press constantly. The most infuriating thing is seeing us get rattled by pressure and not being able to string 2-3 passes together. It pissed me off when they came to the Bridge earlier and would get stuck into us and disposess the ball immedietly. We have to keep composure and try to dictate the tempo.

They'll be treating this like the CL final and their players will be absolutely desperate to win. Let's hope our players treat it the same way. The Spurs players will all raise their games and be super hungry. A win could be a huge catalyst for them to mount a late title push as they'd only be 7 behind us if they win. Hopefully Conte learned a few ways to deal with their high pressing that dominated us in the first half when we played them a few weeks back. We can't count on a magical goal and them tiring in the 2nd half again to turn things around. The Hazard we saw against Bournemouth is the one we'll need rather than the more subdued one we saw yesterday. If we win this I'll be almost positive that we'll go on and win the league.

The powers that be will have a word with the ref to go easy. They'll want Spuds at their best for the marquee matchup on Wednesday. I never wish injury on players but....yeah...I kinda hope for a couple for Spuds. Hate the dirty bastards.

And to think at half time 90% of you were slaughtering Willian! Delighted with the 3 points, disgusted by the shambolic defending on both Stoke goals. What were our players doing!? They just stood off and stood off and looked like school boys who didn't know how to defend. Embarrassing. Cesc was superb. Costa brilliant. Willian found his shooting boots and was great in the second half. Azpi was nearly perfect. Hazard didn't really do much today which would've made things more comfortable.

That was vintage Tony Pulis Stoke there. Pack the box so there's no way through on the ground and lump it up to a giant striker. Need to get Hazard on to the ball more in space. Way too many long balls for my liking even though some were very effective.

Yikes if Luiz gets his 5th yellow today. Who would even come in for him against Spurs? That'll be a nightmare fixture without him. Especially if we drop points here.

Huge confidence boost for Cesc. If he gets space and time in midfield with all of Hazard, Pedro, Willian, and Costa up there he should destroy Stoke.

They'll probably play with like 5 midfielders in order to press and harass Matic and Kante the whole time. I think this'll be another annoying match like the West Brom and Sunderland matches rather than a comfortable one like Bournemouth. They'll probably do all they can to frustrate and negate us rather than actually trying to play football. Guess we have to get used to seeing that this season, though.

He's definitely a "win now" sort of signing rather than a long term one. I still wouldn't mind, though.

Like Verratti, Vidal would be an unbelievable signing. Also like Verratti, he's already at a big, super rich club who have no reason to sell and are in no need of money.

He's wanted by many of the biggest clubs in the world so I suppose he's super talented. Honestly, as long as he is strictly a Conte target and not a board target I don't care who we sign. We all scratched our heads at Alonso but he's been very good. He was obviously a Conte signing.

LOL! Right...

Also going to AFCoN this coming month so if we did sign him we wouldn't be able to use him any time soon. We'd have to wait about a month for the tournament to be over and then even longer than that for him to get up to speed with the squad.

Just comparing him on YouTube with Bakayoko who we were linked with last week and I think Bakayoko looks easily superior.

So if Conte doesn't think Bats is ready (meaning we have ONE striker in the squad) then surley another goal scoring attacking player should be brought in in January? What happens if Diego gets a long term injury?

Beginning to wonder if Batshuayi was even a Conte signing now. For the huge price we paid for him he's not even good/ready enough to start against Bournemouth at home? Conte trusts someone who isn't even a striker over an actual one? I trust Conte of course, but damn do I feel bad for Bats.

Just didn't improve at all in his time here. Wasn't great at any one aspect of football and was just decent at several. Also never helped that he didn't have a natural position.

Hopefully we don't pocket the money until the summer and we actually invest it to help us win the league this season.