An utter disgrace...

Who had ten men? City or Spurs? What an utter disgrace. Too many players on the pitch tonight did not deserve to wear the shirt. Gus Poyet was, as ever, totally ineffective and Dean Richards was a lumbering, stumbling weighty centre-half. There have been rumours that Richards no longer trains, that he merely goes to the training ground for treatment and it showed tonight. Spurs were beaten by a side with more energy, passion and desire, a side that deserved exactly what they got against a side that deserved exactly what they got. Christian Ziege admitted on Saturday that he felt a twinge in his troublesome thigh, so he shoulod never have played. The German, who may well have scored a stunner and so nearly finished the game off, did nothing aside from that apart from give the ball away on too many occasions and shirk tackles. Who can blame him, coming that close to the end of his career, not getting hurt is high on his priorities.

On the subject of career's ending, Gus Poyet's surely must do. David Pleat should have replaced Helder Postiga with Mark Yeates, a striker who impressed on his loan spell with Brighton last month. Yeates is a big, burly centre-forward who would have given the City defence something to think about. Poyet wandered around and nearly popped up with winner, but nearly is not enough. He failed to get into the game at any stage and did not help Robbie Keane at any time. There were other performances too that were weak, but Ziege, Poyet and Richards are players that have been singled out before as members of the squad who should make way for the younger talents behind them and tonight has highlighted that in the brightest manner possible.