Late on Saturday night Juande Ramos - approaching his 1-year anniversary at the club - was sacked by chairman Daniel Levy. It had become almost inevitable after the club’s poor start to the campaign, and the fan’s increasing frustration at team selection and tactics - along with the role of Damien Comolli as sporting director.

The replacement is one Harry Redknapp, who is rated as one of the best managers in England. It has cost Spurs £5million in compensation to Redknapp’s former employers at Portsmouth. Tottenham fans may have been surprised at the news on Sunday morning, but Portsmouth fans were surely even more so. Despite Redknapp almost leaving the club for Newcastle in recent times, he was surely expected to stay.

Redknapp said on the clubs official website;

“I’ve gone from being in the comfort zone at Portsmouth, the club is seventh in the Premier League and into another big challenge, a real pressure-cooker situation for the rest of the season but this was a chance that I couldn’t turn down.

“Tottenham is a big, big club and this is a big opportunity for me. I thought let’s give it a go before it was too late. I could have gone to Newcastle before, didn’t take that job and many people said ‘he hasn’t got the ambition’ but this is a chance for me and let’s see how it goes.

“It was difficult to leave Portsmouth, for sure. If I hadn’t been at such a good club and enjoying my life so much, it would have been easy (to move).”

His talk of a ‘pressure-cooker’ situation is no under-statement. Tottenham had only gained 2 points from their first 8 premier league matches before he arrived. Had……

Mr Redknapp could not wait to get started, and was at the team hotel to meet the players early Sunday morning befoe their encounter with Bolton Wanderers. Clive Allen picked the team, but Harry was heavily involved throughout the day.

Redknapp said;

“I met the players at the hotel, had a chat with them at about half past 11, came in with them on the coach, went into the dressing room and got cracking straight away.

“I only joined the club on Saturday night, so Clive put the team together, it was fine and I said ‘great, let’s go with that’.

“I could have sat in the stand and watched the game but there was no point in that, we haven’t got time. I needed to get cracking so I got into it straight away.

“My first priority here is to stay in the Premier League. The record was two points from eight games and we’re in trouble, no queston. The priority is points and getting up that league table and it was a great start for us.”

The new manager’s presence helped Spurs achieve their first win of the season, beating Bolton 2-0 at White Hart Lane. Roman Pavlyuchenko scored his first league goal for the club on 17 minutes, heading in from a pin-point cross from summer signing David Bentley.

Redknapp did witness first-hand the challenges that await him however, with the defence looking particularly unstable, and keeper Heurelho Gomes continuing to look poor to say the least. Tottenham survived though, with Gavin McCann being sent off just 10 minutes after the interval making things a little easier.

With 15 minues remaining Darren Bent wrapped up a dream first match in charge for the new boss, as he scored from the penalty spot after he was adjudged to have been brought down by Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

On a side note, Daniel Levy has published an open letter to all Spurs fans on the club’s website that all of you should read. Find it Here.

Champions League week 3 certainly produced plenty of goals this evening. 36 in the 8 matches played to be precise.

There were three British teams in action, with Man Utd hosting Celtic, and Arsenal travelling to Turkey to face Fenerbahce.

Old Trafford: Manchester United 3 v 0 Celtic

Dimitar Berbatov has certainly upset a few Spurs’ fans this season - and that was before the club found themselves rooted to the bottom of the table - and tonight the Bulgarian showed why the club is missing him so much. Celtic, meanwhile, will be wishing he stayed at White Hart Lane.

The former Tottenham star hit the target twice against the below par, and under strength Celtic side - although BOTH strikes looked to be offside.

John O’ Shea flicked the ball into the box for his first, with Berbatov clearly in an offside position. The officials obviously missed it, and allowed Berbatov to flick the ball home from close range.

Just six minutes into the second half and Berbatov doubled the Premier League champions lead. The ever impressive Christiano Ronaldo’s 20-yard shot could only be palmed away by the Celtic keeper, allowing the £30million signing to score from the rebound. Replays suggest that Berbatov was in an offside position when Ronaldo made contact with the ball.

Wayne Rooney finished Gordon Strachan’s men off with just 14 minutes remaining. A brilliant shot on the turn from 20-yards screamed bast Boruc in goal. 3-0 United.

Whereas Celtic may have some grievances with regards to the two ‘offside’ goals, the truth is they were completely outclassed here tonight, and United are deserved winners.

The win leaves United sitting pretty at the top of Group E, level on points with Vilarreal. Celtic have it all to do with only 1 point from 3 matches.

Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium: Fenerbahce 2 v 5 Arsenal

Arsenal produced a thrilling opening to this one, scoring 3 in the opening 21 minutes (4 if you count Silvestre’s own goal!).

Emanuel Adebayor opened the scoring after just 10 minutes after receiving a beautiful through-ball from Cesc Fabregas before racing clear and placing the ball superbly past the oncoming Volkan.

The often intimidating home crowd were immediately silenced, and Arsenal took full advantage of this, scoring again just one minute later. Fabregas was again the provider, but this time it was in-form Theo Walcott who finished the move, taking the ball around Volkan before finishing.

The Turks then pulled one back on 19 minutes, when a free-kick resulted in Guiza volleying across goal for Silvestre to finish coolly, unfortunately in the wrong net of course.

With Fenernahce looking for an equaliser, Diaby hit them hard on the counter and restored the two goal lead. The Turks though were looking dangerous, and were by no means out of this one. Three or four close calls before the half-time whistle - including a disallowed goal from Guiza - ensured Wenger, and the Arsenal team, had to take the threat seriously.

Song Billong added an Arsenal fourth four minutes into the second half, before the impressive Guiza pulled one back with just 12 minutes left on the clock.

Arsenal were just too good for Fenerbahce tonight, and the nail in the coffin came in the 94th minute when Ramsay hit a powerful effort past Volkan from the edge of the penalty area.

Despite a decent fight from the Turkish side, they were beaten with class in Istanbul this evening.

Note: Congratulations to Fenerbahce fans for their sporting behaviour tonight. Despite seeing their team suffer a huge blow to their Champions League hopes, they applauded Arsenal off the pitch in admiration of their superb attacking football. If only all fans could act this way.

Elsewhere

Bayern Munich beat Fiorentina 3-0 with goals from Klose, Schweinsteiger, Ze Roberto. Dinamo Kiev defeated Porto away 1-0. Juventus beat Real Madrid 2-1 in Turin with goals from Del Piero and Amauri. Van Nistelrooy scored for the visitors.

Steaua Bucharest were beaten 5-3 at home to Lyon, and in another thriller, Villarreal beat AaB Aalborg 6-3.

Finally, last years UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg came from behind to draw 1-1 with BATE Borisov.

Tottenham’s worst league start for years has left them at the foot of the table with just 2 points from 8 matches, and not a win in sight. Only one team in the history of the Premier League has managed to avoid relegation after being in the situation that Spurs find themselves in now (for those of you interested, it was Southampton in the 1998-99 season).

Ramos said;

“At this moment everyone is very sad and I am worried about it as I don’t like this situation. We need to work very hard to change this situation and only hard work can change it.

“This is my job and I am working very hard each day to finish this situation.

“The responsibility is on all the people working in the club, starting with me and finishing with the last person - we all have responsibility, when we win and when we lose.”

Tottenham have a tough task ahead of them, and need to pick up some confidence - and quickly. Unfortunately for Ramos, there are some tough matches to come. A trip to Udinese (currently 2nd in Serie A) is followed by a weekend meeting with Bolton, a midweek trip to rivals Arsenal, before Liverpool visit White Hart Lane on Nov 1st.

Lewis Hamilton demonstrated the mindset of a world champion with a measured but blindingly fast drive to finish ahead of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen at the Shanghai circuit today.

Unlike in Japan, Ferrari did not beat Hamilton off the start line – he led into the first corner, and then to the chequered flag.  Although the trio ran similar fuel strategies, Hamilton was faster than both Raikkonen and Massa  - he had one extra lap of fuel than Massa, but ran the same two-stop strategy as Raikkonen, pitting on laps 15 and 38. The McLaren mechanics were faster in the pits today than Ferrari, too.

Meanwhile, Kovalainen struggled to match the pace of his team mate – at times he was one second away from Hamilton’s pace. He briefly fought Alonso for fourth place at the start, before suffering with overheating brakes and a puncture.  Alonso drove a steady race to fourth but did not have the pace to take his third consecutive win.

BMW limped to fifth and sixth, ending Robert Kubica’s distant championship hopes. Kubica has fallen out with the BMW management on occasions this season as their development focus switched to the 2009 car. Kubica could still be in this title race had the car improved – will BMW curse this decision next year?

Martin Brundle commented that the pressure had shifted to Massa for this race. I didn’t get that – Hamilton proved that he can be provoked into desperate manoeuvres when challenged and did so in China last weekend.

Massa has Raikkonen to thank for his second place – On lap 49, Raikkonen obediently slowed and let Massa past. Both were coy about this switch in the press conference, although Raikkonen conceded that he knew what the team expected of him.

With Kovalainen scoring no points for McLaren, Ferrari are favourites to take the constructors title - they now stand 11 points clear of McLaren on 156 points.

Donkey of the day was undoubtedly Giancarlo Fisichella. Plodding around the back of the pack, Fisichella held up both Ferraris whilst he was lapped – and earned an appropriate hand gesture from Raikkonen for his efforts.

Regardless of where the Ferraris finish in Brazil, Hamilton needs to finish fifth or higher to take the 2008 driver’s championship. 

In a post-race interview, Hamilton openly acknowledged that his first lap performance was a massive gamble, and admitted that his aim for the rest of the season is to win races. Ron Dennis may have something to say about that. In Singapore two weeks ago, Hamilton raced with the championship in mind. He may have “only” finished third, but he increased the points gap over Massa to seven points.

So, what went wrong in Hamilton’s opening lap? After losing the lead from the start line to Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton made a desperate attempt to regain the lead into the first corner which forced Raikkonen off the track.  On the second lap, sixth-placed Hamilton sneaked past Massa at the turn 10 chicane after the Brazilian ran wide. Massa then clipped Hamilton into a spin as he rejoined the racing line.
Both Hamilton and Massa earned drive-through penalties for their efforts, which were both justified – Massa did not acknowledge Hamilton’s presence on the racing line, whereas Hamilton managed to disrupt half of the grid behind him in his lunge at Raikkonen into the first corner.

Where does this leave Hamilton’s title chances? He was fortunate to only drop two points to Massa this weekend, leaving him five points in front. McLaren must control Hamilton’s final two drives and focus on points over victories. If he doesn’t, he will be runner up for the second consecutive season.

Fernando Alonso drove another opportunistic – but perfectly judged - drive to take his second consecutive victory. His performance in the last two races will leave both Honda and Renault salivating at the chance to secure his services for next season. Honda have put every resource into next year’s car, at the expense of this year’s development programme.

Will Alonso leave an improving team to join Honda, based purely on their own hype for next year? His best shot at victories next season must lie with Renault.

With Hamilton on pole following his near perfect qualifying lap on Saturday, he was more than favourite to extend his lead over Massa in the drivers’ championship.

Unfortunately for the Brit - in his second F1 season - started terribly, allowing Raikonnen to take the lead. All hell let loose in an eventful, and somewhat controversial first lap.

As Hamilton attempted to take the lead back on the approach to the first corner, he only succeeded in pushing Raikonnen and himself wide, and off the racing track. This allowed Alonso and Kubica through - with the McLaren of Hamilton pushed back into 7th place.

Hamilton was soon to be controversially punished for the incident with Raikonnen, but Massa would be joining him.

On turn 10 Hamilton out-braked Massa’s Ferrari and got his nose in front, taking the racing line and squeezing Massa onto the grass. Massa, though, was not about to let his championship rival take the position away from him.

With Hamilton seemingly in front, Massa came off the grass and collided with the McLaren, resulting in Hamilton spinning and having to wait for the entire field to pass him before he could turn his car around and resume racing.

Disaster for Hamilton who now had it all to do from the back of the field.

Both Lewis and Felipe were punished with drive-through penalties, despite Massa’s collision with Hamilton being (arguably) much worse than Lewis’ incident with Raikonnen.

Alonso it was though, who for the second consecutive race stayed out of trouble to take the win. Kubica managed to keep Raikonnen behind him to take second place and Nelson Piquet showed some great pace to finish in 4th place.

Massa did manage to grab himself a world championship point finishing in 8th place (originally - more on that later), with Hamilton out of the points in 12th.

After the race, an investigation into a collision between Massa and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais on lap 51 resulted in the latter being penalised 25 seconds, demoting him to 12th - resulting in Massa being awarded 7th place, and more importantly, 2 world championship points.

It was a bad day for Hamilton, and he was lucky it didn’t turn out to be worse. If Massa had won in Japan today he would have leap-frogged Hamilton in the driver’s standings, and would be strong favourite to take the title.

It’s fair to say that Massa’s actions were unsporting, and against the rules, but the truth of the matter is, Hamilton should never have put himself in that position in the first place. What we need to see now is a calm, and collective Lewis for the remainder of the season. The Brit does NOT have to win every race to take the championship title, and he needs to fight the natural ‘racer’ in him and approach the races in China and Brazil with his mature head on…..

Come on Lewis, we are all behind you. But, please don’t throw it away again! Two races left, and leading Massa by just 5 points now. Keep calm, and you will be champion. Lose your head, and it’ll be 2007 all over again.

Fernando Alonso finally wins a race in 2008!

With Kubica, Kovalainen and Vettel all taking their maiden GP wins this year, the double world champion delivered a timely reminder of what he can do with a competitive car in the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend.

Alonso’s plans for next year are still under wraps. Renault must be more optimistic about retaining the Spaniard for next season after his victory in Singapore. Honda and Ross Brawn have openly stated their interest, with Brawn saying that the driver’s market is at a standstill until Alonso makes his decision.

My money was on him going to BMW,  Kubica was reported as being unhappy with the BMW management, whilst the team have been less than impressed with Heidfeld’s inconsistent performances this season - but both drivers have now been re-signed, to my surprise.

Honda have the expertise of Brawn, which must be a draw for Alonso. But they also have an established driver in Jenson Button, and Alonso is unlikely to get the number one status he craves. So - I reckon another season at Renault is most likely, with an eventual move Ferrari when Raikkonen gets bored with F1.

Ferrari’s automated pit-lane release system appeared to fail again in Singapore, causing Massa to leave his garage with the refuelling pipe still attached to his Ferrari, into the path of Adrian Sutil. Massa’s mechanics then made a 200-metre dash down the pit lane to release the hose from the side of his car. The McLaren mechanics certainly enjoyed the show, cheering the Ferrari team as they ran past their garages. Perhaps some sweet justice for the harsh decisions against McLaren in recent races.

Carling Cup fourth round draw:
Sunderland v Blackburn
Arsenal v Wigan
Chelsea v Burnley
Swansea v Watford
Manchester United v QPR
Stoke v Rotherham
Brighton or Derby v Leeds
Tottenham v Liverpool

Ties to be played on Tuesday 11th November 2008

Title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa started alongside each other on the front row, with the Brazilian edging it in qualifying.

The well discussed first corner was negotiated well, with all drivers getting through - despite a few close calls from those behind the first few rows. With the knowledge that the first lap was always going to be the best chance of out manoeuvring, chances were few and far between.

Massa was looking impressive in the early stage, opening up a relatively comfortable lead over second placed Hamilton. As he pitted under safety car conditions, the Ferrari team’s pit equipment gave the driver a green light to exit before the refuelling hose had been detached. As he pulled away he ripped the hose away from the equipment, and dragged it behind him down the pit lane - after knocking one of his own mechanics over in the process.

The Brazilian then had to pull over at the end of the pit lane and wait for his mechanics to sprint down to him to remove the hose. To make matters worse, he then received a drive-through penalty for the dangerous pit-lane exit. Race over.

It was left to Hamilton, and the McLaren team to score as many points as possible. Despite dropping behind Webber and Coulthard when most teams pitted under the safety car, Hamilton finished 3rd gaining 6 points and move 7 points clear of the unfortunate Massa.

It was Alonso, however, that won the race - despite starting from 15th after problems in qualifying on Saturday. His team put him on a short first stint, and the former double world champion managed to negotiate his way up to 11th.

Nelson Piquet’s spectacular crash on lap 15 that resulted in the safety car being deployed played greatly into the Spaniard’s hands. Alonso was the only car that did not have to stop for fuel and tyres and he suddenly found himself in 5th place. Rosberg and Kubica - who were ahead of Alonso - had to serve stop-go penalties (for pitting while the pit lane was closed).

The Spaniard showed great pace to open up a big enough gap to allow him to make his second stop and still come out in front - despite Trulli and Fishichella being on single stop strategies.

Nico Rosberg’s performance deserves credit, as he managed second place despite his stop-go penalty.

Ferrari’s day was made even worse on lap 57, when Raikkonen crashed into the wall at the chicane (turn 10) while running in 5th place. Ferrari’s failure to score any points results in McLaren jumping ahead of them in the race for the Constructors’ Championship. It’s fair to say that the Italian team will be feeling a little sore this evening.

It’s not the first time Ferrari’s pit-lane technology has hampered a race this season, and I’m sure the team will be investigating Massa’s incident. Something went badly wrong in Singapore today, and it’s lucky nobody was seriously injured.

Singapore Grand Prix Result:

1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault one hour 5 minutes
2 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 2.9 seconds behind
3 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes +5.9secs
4 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota +8.1secs
5 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari +10.2secs
6. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +11.101
7. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault +16.387
8. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota +18.489
9. Jenson Button (GB) Honda +19.885
10. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +26.902
11. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +27.975
12. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari +29.432
13. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari +35.107
14. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari +43.571
R15 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 57 laps completed
R Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 50 laps completed
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 49 laps
R Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 29 laps
R Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 14 laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 13 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen one minute 45.599 seconds on lap 14

Links: Video - Massa Incident

Not only was I correct in picking Argentina to defeat Russia, but I was also accurate when I thought the match would come down to the wire.  The Tie started out heavily in Argentina’s favor, when Nalbandian and del Potro destroyed both Andreev and Davydenko, respectively, in straight sets to take a 2-0 lead heading to the doubles.  On Saturday, they almost sealed the victory when Nalbandian and Canas battled back from two sets to love down against Kunitsyn and Tursonov.  However, the Russian duo was able to secure the victory.  First up on Sunday, Davydenko showed some grit in grinding down a weary Nalbandian in four sets to set up a live rubber between del Potro and Andreev.  Much to the home crowd’s delight, this was never really a match, with del Potro sending Argentina through to the finals with an easy, straight set victory.

Argentina who will be facing Spain, who defeated the defending champions  from the U.S. with relative ease, although not the drubbing I thought it would be.  Sam Querrey, forced to make his Davis  Cup debut in Spain, against Rafael Nadal, performed far beyond expectations and actually took the first set off the world no. 1.  Nadal rebounded to win the next three, but it was still tightly played.  Roddick also played well, and took Ferrer too the limit before going down 8-6 in the fifth.  The new duo of Fish and Mike Bryan did well to capture the doubles on Saturday, and give the Americans life heading into reverse singles.  However, Nadal absolutely annilahted Roddick in the opening match to send the Spaniards to the finals (Querrey lost the final rubber in two tiebreakers to Lopez). 

Roddick’s opening day match was the real heartbreaker.  If he had been able to beat Ferrer, and assuming Fish & Bryan still would have won the doubles match, the American’s would have had a fighting chance on Sunday, only needing to win one singles match (I don’t actually think they would have, but I knew down 2-1, there was NO way they were going to win both singles matches).

Finally, there was my incorrect prediction of the Brits being able to defeat Austria at Wimbledon.  I was spot on when I wrote that Andy Murray would win both of his singles matches, however no Jurgen  Meltzer was a bit too much for the rest of the Brits.  He defeated Alex Bogdanovic on day one and teamed with Julian Knowle to win the doubles match.  The Tie came down to the 5th rubber Bogdanovic and Alexander Peya (Peya is actually ranked two spots lower than Bogdanovic at 164th), and Bogdanovic could not deliver a victory for the hometown crowd, going down in four sets to send Great Britain to the Zonal Group next year.

Other Playoff winners, in addiction to Austria, include: Chile, Switzerland, Croatia, Israel, Netherlands, Romania & Serbia; all of whom will play in the Main World Group in 2009.