Winning isn’t everything, but losing isn’t anything. Isn’t that what they say? Oh, well, its what I say. Pretty much every week at the moment, just after they announce the football scores. But not on Thursday night!! No! It was all about the sweet smell of victory, the joy of the result, the total exhilaration of… of hanging on til the final whistle even though its all going to shit and you’re just a shadow of the team who came on 90 minutes ago. And about praying. Lots of praying. Which worked.

Because this was a lacklustre, underperforming, lower-table shit team of second-bests, has-beens, yet-to-be’s and third-rankers. And so was Hoffenheim. Who lost to Bayern 5-nil last weekend, just to prove their credentials before this vital Europa League match. Yet still, Spurs managed to make ‘a walk in the park’ look like ‘climbing Everest on a wheelchair laden with weights wearing a blindfold’. It’s a skill. We flew to an early 2-nil lead and then… and then…

But heh, we won. 3-2 is a win. As long as our number is bigger than their number, we win. If only someone would explain that to Manuel Arteta.

Equally as amazing, Manchester United won a game too! Who’d’a thought they could do that. Because, like Spurs, they’ve… struggled this season terribly. Changing the manager hasn’t done much to improve that either. But they won. In Europe. Where, as for Spurs, it looks nice in the next day’s newspaper but it doesn’t help us win the league over here, where it counts.

Arsenal had a convincing win in this week’s Euro fixtures, Liverpool won, just not quite so convincingly, and Manchester City were winning but then didn’t. Which was definitely the most pleasing result of the week as City squandered a 2-nil lead at Paris St Germain and lost 4-2. It was worth the price of admission just to see Phil Foden look that crestfallen at the whistle.

But football’s not all about schadenfreude, it’s also about… errrr… well, it’s about wallowing in the misfortunes of others, as well. But only if you don’t have anything left hope for in your own team.

And yet we have riches. We are 1-nil up against Liverpool in the Carabao cup semi-final. We look like we’re qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa League of not quite so greats as the other thing. And we’re playing Leicester tomorrow. Lower league rubbish. Even lower than us. Not by much, but should be enough. And as we’ve lost to most of the bottom, relegation-battling teams already, it’s about time we beat one.

Tomorrow’s game is immense. Even more massive than the ones we play every other week. I’ve decided to deploy Joey. Just in case we’re struggling. He’s there. And ready. And dangerous.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx