It’s another Saturday without football, and that isn’t any fun whatsoever. So why not continue the Best Article Bracket while we try and figure out what we’re going to do while in pandemic-induced quarantine with no sports to watch?

Well, okay, since you asked nicely. Let’s finish out the Chirpy Regional first round.

Chirpy Regional

FIRST ROUND

#6 — Are Spurs Really A Title Contender? (Joel Wertheimer)

Never mind the headline, this is the article that introduced the concept of the “Air Raid Offense” to the world. What’s pretty cool about this is how quickly “Air Raid,” like DESK and FRAAB, began on a Carty Free article and quickly permeated throughout the Spurs soccerati both on Twitter and elsewhere. I think I heard James Richardson refer to the “Air Raid” on the Totally Football podcast at one point...

#11 — Why starting Ryan Mason is bad for Tottenham Hotspur (Bryan Ashlock)

Before the Winks Wars there was Ryan Mason, another homegrown central midfielder who, uh, divided fan opinion. Most of the Carty Free masthead was firmly on the “he’s not good enough” bandwagon at the time, even when he seemed to be doing well. And, well, starting off an article with “I hate Ryan Mason” sure is a pretty great hook!

#3 — What went wrong at Tottenham Hotspur? (Skipjack)

This was Carty Free’s first feature article ever, written just after the club appointed Mauricio Pochettino, and Skipjack did a fantastic job highlighting everything that went wrong at the club. It touched on the end of the Redknapp years, the AVB era, and “Tactics” Tim Sherwood. It was a labor of love, and a really fantastic piece of writing.

#14 — Tactics Tuesday: How to beat Tottenham with this one weird trick (brett rainbow)

Another excellent Tactics Tuesday piece from brett rainbow, this one again dug deep into why Tottenham Hotspur dropped points and the weaknesses of Mauricio Pochettino’s tactics. (Hint: it involved Ryan Mason in midfield)

#7 — Indefinite articles: fixing the grammar of Tottenham’s striker search (The Sleeper’s Sleep)

Another Sleep article that also originated a long-lasting meme. Remember THE? As in not A striker but THE striker? That’s this article! It’s also fun to read and you should do that. This article even pre-dates (barely) the Leandro Damiao transfer madness.

#10 — What is the best method for predicting football matches? (Michael Caley)

Wanna know what’s the most clicked-on article in Carty Free history? It’s this one, where Michael explains his model for Expected Goals (xG) and why it’s a useful tool for football analysis. Caley wrote a number of xG articles on Carty Free, including his full methodology and his model’s weaknesses, but this is the one that keeps popping up again and again in Google Analytics.

#2 — A Christmas Tom Carroll, Part 1 (Skipjack & Earl of Shoop)

Oh my god, this series. THIS SERIES.

#15 — Your Team is Getting Relegated: Manchester City (55thVin)

A few years back we had a series copying a Drew Magary thing where we basically crapped on every one of Tottenham’s opponents and said why they sucked. It was all #banter, of course, but we eventually dropped it because the commentariat thought it was cursed or something, IDK. Anyway, this was a good one from Vin.