SOME PIECE

Ange’s Spurs plans are destined to fail

Those with long memories will recall Arsenal losing a game like this in their 1989 title race, Derby won the third last game of the season. This will be different.

The Bees will sting, Ivan Toney to score.

If the Clarets want to remain in this sort of company, then they need a big team talk from Kompany.

The Blades have been blunt all year. Forest should stay up but they are not out of the woods yet. VERDICT: Away win

Only a madman would tip Wolves. I’m not mad.

A luxury Villa on the south coast. Put your house on the visitors to win.

VERDICT: Away win

Chelsea had a great win in one London derby this week. Can they make it two from two? Yes.

Spurs are weak. Liverpool will finish the league strongly.

vVERDICT:

Home win

VERDICT:

Home win

VERDICT:

Draw

VERDICT:

Home win

VERDICT:

Home win

VERDICT:

Home win

Selhurst Park is not the type of place United’s flaky stars will enjoy.

VERDICT:

Home win

HAS Ange gone a little der-ANGE-d?

Looking at the headlines on Thursday, angry Ange seemingly does not believe in set-pieces.

Fans only dream about their team winning and if you don’t have the humility to work tirelessly on such an important part of the game as set-pieces then you’re living in dreamland.

The truth is that Ange has something special in the way he coaches teams, but even special managers tried to sort out the Spursy mess before and it always had such a predictable ending.

Manchester City have won the last three Premier League titles and are dreaming of a record fourth in succession.

Yet Tottenham are a bigger club than City and after receiving so much praise earlier in the season when they were top of the table, Spurs are now seven points off Aston Villa in the race for fourth.

Same old, same old Spursy. Tottenham were useless in that first half at Stamford Bridge. They were soft, chaotic, a team of moments and that is why Ange was going ballistic on the sideline.

How ironic it was then that again, it was a set-piece — which Ange feels is unimportant — that was despatched elegantly by Trevoh Chalobah.

Building

According to Ange, the season is now about building.

Well, good luck with that one old son because with the financial rules that are in place, if Tottenham don’t get Champions League money they are in big trouble.

Looking at this Spurs team, I see problems all over the pitch.

Guglielmo Vicario, in goal, is good, rather than great.

Their left-back problem continues and the defence are like the Inbetweeners, with Spurs fans convinced that Ange-ball and the club’s tradition should dictate that their defenders should also be great attackers. Get a grip.

The great teams — the successful ones, the winners — always have top defenders who first and foremost are brilliant at defending.

This Spurs team, this Spurs defence, is typically wobbly in the Spursy tradition.

At the start of the season, I said that the protracted nature of the Harry Kane exit would damage Spurs in the long-term while giving the new manager a honeymoon period, because there’d be such low expectations.

But while the Spurs owners are obsessed with finance, in modern football, the wealth of the big clubs is dictated by performances on the pitch.

Spurs have arguably one of the best stadiums in the world.

But here we are with Spurs apparently having a good ‘building’ season and yet they are a distance off the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Against Chelsea in midweek, Spurs were a creative mess. And you can imagine how positive James Maddison was — even though he was dropped for the first time since

JAMIE CARRAGHER certainly had a good night in Germany on Wednesday.

Some people thought his drunk interviews were offensive.

And clearly alcohol is the biggest drug in football and in society.

But people are a mile offside to criticise Carragher (inset) for having a good time when he got to sample the atmosphere in front of Dortmund’s yellow wall.

We have no right to judge anyone.

And he would not have been doing it if his employers for the night — CBS Sports — were not loving the hilarity of it all.

Madness

Carragher became a top player because of his determination and a top pundit because of that edge that he has.

And do you know what, in spite of the madness, he was his arrival from Leicester City last season.

Ange had put Richarlison back up front and had moved Son to the left. But Richarlison, like so many in this Spurs squad, is good

PAST HIS BEST?: Son actually still sharp enough to grab a priceless interview with Jadon Sancho.

I have had some great football nights watching big games in Dortmund where the atmosphere is unique.

And if CBS are happy for him to be downing pints and slurring his words then people need to stop being hypocrites and acknowledge the reality that despite the dangers of alcohol, it is an integral part of so many people’s social lives. Of course it must be handled properly.

CBS will be delighted with the publicity.

But I am not sure Sky Sports — his main employers — will be happy.

Because how can he demand professionalism from players and managers from now on whenever he is on punditry duty? rather than great.

Son used to be great but he will be 32 this summer.

His best days are gone.

Reality

In Europe’s top eight teams, he would be no more than a squad player. That’s a reality.

The culture of Spurs, from top to bottom, seems to ignore the reality that big clubs have to win the big trophies.

But Spurs have never won the Champions League, have not won the league since 1961, have not won the FA Cup since 1991 and have not won the League Cup since 2008.

Maddison is an example of what this Spurs team are.

Is he a good player? Yes. But does he have that great speed and strength? Does he contribute adequately without the ball? Not really.

Rescue

And when he came on midway through the second half to try and rescue a lost cause, you had to glance at the person next to him.

It was Pierre-Emile Hojberg. How he is even at that club? Spurs’ best player is Romero. He is as hard as nails and at a club that has failed to win a trophy in 16 years, they are blessed to have a World Cup winner.

Shouldn’t Ange build a team