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It was a great game but with a very cruel ending. Well into time added on, the great Gareth Bale sends over a cross which Defoe’s little legs who had run into the ground over the previous 93 minutes stretched but failed to make sufficient contact to turn the ball inside the post. A choker but then City go up the other end and Ledley fouls Balotelli, who should not be on the pitch after stamping on Parker and all of a sudden what looked 3-2 to Spurs, then well at least its 2-2 went to a very painful 2-3 to Citeh. I’ve never seen Spurs players so animated at the end of a league game … but surely that’s the point, how often has a league game meant this much at our end of the table. Spurs played a solid game in the first half, like a first leg away in Europe and were comfortable in the game when City scored just before the hour when the brilliant Silva threaded a great pass through and Nasri made no mistake. Walker was caught a little on his heels for this goal but his is already such a great player it is experience like this at the top level which will make him even better for Spurs in the future. City went 2-0 through a messy goal at a corner on the hour – not great but it happens - and thoughts drifted back to Old Trafford at the start of the season where a decent first half melted away without too much pressure. But Spurs are even better these days and a fantastic goal from Defoe who showed great composure to slot home after creating his chance got Spurs back into it. Defoe has now scored in the last four league games he has started and has proved a great team man taking his turn on the bench when VdV gets the nod. It was not long before the fantastic Gareth Bale had Spurs back in it with another wonder goal. Bale this week got in the UEFA team of the year and he is already one of the all time greats for Spurs as he has so many memorable performances in top games. Four goals in ten minutes and Spurs with the momentum. Things could have been very different had Lescott got the deserved straight red for flooring Kaboul soon after, and then again could have gone down to 9 when Balotelli stamped on Parker but a quality game looked to be going into a draw before the events of injury time, turned the game one way and then the other. For all those who will cuss Defoe for the miss in injury time, bear in mind that a few minutes before he had pulled up short with cramp after covering every blade up front for Spurs. It was agonising, like Gazza in the 1996 semi for England. Redknapp is the greatest manager I have seen at Spurs and I am not fit to query any of his decisions but perhaps Pav on after 80 minutes may have given some fresh legs up front, but then again you never know whether he’d have had the inclination to get into the position for the chance. Citeh went up the other end, BAE could have done something more sensible from the throw but Ledley who along with Kaboul were superb for the 90 took Balotelli down and that was that. This is the sort of high quality, high drama game which means the EPL sells for billions around the world. Lets not forget it was Spurs involved in a title 6 pointer in January and holding their own and more for most of the game. It was a choker to lose but you cannot be upset. Being part of these games, games which will be part of Spurs folklore, is what its all about. When your team is shit, in 12th and have just lost 1-0 away at Bolton and not done anything in years – now that’s the time to have a good moan! I think anyone who things Webb had anything other than a very decent game is kidding themselves and it’s a bit small club ish and a bit embarressing to keep whining on about officials when things don’t go Spurs way. Sure he could have seen Lescott’s elbow on Kaboul and Balotelli’s stamp on Parker but he cant have eyes everywhere and it was just one of those things. Equally he could have seen BAE holding someone in their box at a corner for a penalty but he did nt. It is very cruel when the man who gives a cowardly stamp on our heroic midfielder Parker is the one who wins and then slots home the winning penalty in injury time .. but fuck it, that is the drama and story which makes this game some wonderful and stuff we’ll remember for years. Citeh have been a joke team for years – play offs with Gillingham etc but have probably the highest quality midfield/forward line ever assembled in the EPL and will be very worthy champions come May. Another win for that so so Man U team would suggest that like last season it did nt take much winning. Aguero and Silva are exceptional players and although neither scored today, they were perhaps the only clear player for player differences between the sides (Aguero for admirable VdV and Silva for Modric). Spurs have assembled the squad with significant but much smaller resources than City which is no detriment to Citeh, United and Chelsea who have significant resources in excess of Spurs but just a statement of fact of the good job Redknapp and Levy have done since they have ditched the director of football nonsense in 2008. The premier league is not a handicap and the league is won by the best team and the best team tends to be the best resourced team, with the 2nd best resourced team in 2nd, 3rd best in 3rd etc. No one moaned when Spurs had enough money to land Greaves in 61, Gazza in 89 under the noses of United, so equally as the balance has shifted away from Spurs, we should take with good grace that other teams can out bid us thesedays. Whining about having less money than City or anyone is pathetic as we should also remember that Spurs have a much a greater access to resources than most clubs. Spurs are the 5th/6th highest financed club in the league and any league finish above the financing pecking order is a significant achievement. It is also a great thing to remember when pegging expectations Where do Spurs go from here? Wigan up next, 3 points and take it from there but the 90 second turnaround from 3-2 to 2-3 has probably ended title hopes. Recent form is W4-D3-L2 in the last nine games and even if that does include two rather unfortunate defeats (and allows for a normal dip), is more UEFA than title challengers, its gonna be hard work from here on in for Spurs and with Citeh now eight points clear. I always think goal difference is a great judge of the superiority of teams (unconstrained by the limits of 3points) and goal differences of +42 for City, +33 for United vs a very creditable +17 for Spurs (and +11 for Chelsea) is difficult to argue with. Its not over, but its going to take another 10-12 game unbeaten run with plenty of wins while Citeh and United slip. Not impossible but realistically its about a generational high finish of 2nd or equalling the 3rd places of 1990, 1987, 1985 would still represent a great season. Taking one game at a time, not worrying if its not Brazil70 each win and going onto the next one while remembering one point is better than none and lets see where that gets us. Its an exciting ride Spurs have now scored in 21 consecutive games and yet some of our less patient fans are calling for new strikers, or new defenders or something. Of course Spurs should be looking to upgrade in any window but the message from this game and the message from this season as whole is keep on keeping on. We have the best side in living memory. A solid keeper, two flying full backs (who like any attacking full backs are prone to the odd lapse), four quality centre backs (if a little injury prone and someone like Samba looks a useful recruit), two fantastic central midfielders in Sandro and Parker, two flying wingers, Modric whatever he does to justify his £40m superstar tag which is lost on me (but most proper fans love and rate him), VdV, Defoe and Adebayor who have 28 goals between them already and a host of good squad players like Pienaar, Livermore, Pav etc … and the greatest Spurs manager in 50 years. Yeah I’d like the next Drogba, Liverpool Torres or someone to sign this window, but equally if we don’t, its still good at Spurs I’ve seen a lot of Spurs over the years - some good, occasionally bad but mostly average. This team is something special and we should enjoy it while it lasts – meeting those two great impostors just the same, and dreaming but making realistic expectations our master - and hope the architects of the resurgence are around a while longer and in similarly inspired form. |
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11th
January 2012 – Stopped Clock
Everton have sneaked the odd result against Spurs in recent seasons but more often than not in the EPL era it’s a good fixture for Spurs and for 12th time in 20 home EPL fixtures it was a win for Spurs. The win was notable for Livermore who has patiently waited his turn from the bench and cup games. A stat of “Total passes 77; Passing Accuracy 99%” tells its own story about his excellent contribution. Regular readers will know I’ve been pretty positive about the Harry revolution at Spurs from very early on when it was evident that Spurs were on a very steep upward curve. However, its not been plain sailing for Harry with many of the Spurs fans and there was a time not so long ago when Redknapp needed to remind everyone at Spurs had 2pts in 8 games, and got criticised for doing so! But surely there can be no one left who loves Spurs who does not see Redknapp for the genius/ miracle worker that his record entitles him. Lets do those numbers again Spurs home record (which includes a freak 1-5 defeat) P10, W8 D1 L1 F20 A8. Spurs away record (where we were lucky to see 3 or 4 wins in a season not so long ago) P10 W6 D2 L2 and overall we are P20 W14 D3 L3 with an astonishing 45 points already and virtually half a season to play. Great football for the most part, digging out wins when needs be and consistency not associated with Spurs for 50 years or more. My favourite hashtag on that twitter thing @topspurs is #WWWWDWWWWWWLWDWDWW And it was nt that long ago when three wins in a row got a special feature on here I was reminded on the topspurs facebook page of a piece I wrote in mid-November after another 2-0 humbling of mid table cannon fodder (and was called deluded/optimistic etc) “Onwards and upwards! With 6 of the next 10 at home against the likes of
WBA, Bolton, Stoke, Sunderland, Chelsea, Norwich, Swansea, WBA, Everton,
Wolves … is it unrealistic to expect something along the lines of 7 wins, 2
draws & a defeat? That would give Spurs a record of 15-3-3 & 48
points after 21 games, a ppg of 2.286 which extrapolated over the season
is 86 points … and 86 points will be pretty adjacent to the summit”
With 9 of those 10 games played … Spurs are just a win against Wolves away from getting it right with 48 points and a 15-3-3 profile. We all have our moments (like the stopped clock) but its great that Spurs are matching the highest expectations! I was asked about the next 10 after Wolves, and on the surface, they look a lot tougher Citeh, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea away with Wigan, Newcastle, Man U, Stoke and Swansea at home. That represents a pretty difficult run but in the words of the Shamen “in the best of all possible worlds, nothing is impossible” I’d hope Spurs could put together something like a 4-4-2 run or perhaps trading a couple of draws for a win and a defeat (and an extra point overall) for 5-2-3 which would give Spurs 16/17 points and 64/65 points after 31 games. To put this in context, Spurs have only exceeded 65 points once in a whole 38 game season (Manager that season: HJ Redknapp) This dip in points per game may do for Spurs title hopes but it would still be on target for 78/80 points for the season as a whole .. and here’s the good bit .. if Spurs are still in touch with 7 games to go, its Sunderland away (ONeill effect worn off, midtable, safe and beatable), Norwich at home, relegation cases Bolton and QPR away, followed by Blackburn home, Villa away and Fulham at home. If Carlsburg did run ins… five wins and a couple of draws? … that would give Spurs 81/82 points. If Citeh and/or United can beat that – good luck to them as they will have fully deserved the title and if not … its that moment we’ve all dreamed of Being Spurs fans there is a tendency to think its all going to go wrong – today I was reminded of the Bolton game in 1995. Spurs need a win against a team that were bottom and had lost all of their previous away matches to go 2nd at Christmas … Spurs went 2-0 up and still managed to cock it up and draw. That was then. Every time the bar is raised for Harry’s team, they find a way of going over it. Even if it fvcks up now, its still been a magnificent effort and hopefully fans can enjoy it for what it is rather than getting all bitter about it which all too often has replaced stoical dignity in the face of a reverse There is nothing to stop Spurs carrying this through although the fans do need patience – just because Spurs are near the top, not ever win is going to be a silky 4-0 and more often than not, the occasional draw is still a point gained. KBO as old Winnie used to say I am still hopeful Spurs can win the league, and if not give it a good go and get a record EPL points haul and entry into next seasons Champions League but we do need a dose of reality. The EPL standings have a strong relationship with wages paid. Spurs are not badly off in this area relative to most clubs, but the likes of Citeh, United, Chelsea, Liverpool and probably Arsenal are all ahead – which makes the run to 3rd all the more credible Spurs face three main challenges – two external and one internal. Having watched the EPL for its 20 year history and seen changes to the law (such as making offside more ambiguous to allow dodgy stuff for big teams), there may be an attempt to nobble Spurs. Its not quite like the days of ITV wrestling, but there tends to be a narrative if not a script to ensure those that spend most get a return. The Premier League love Spurs – big fan base, good players etc but they love United and now Citeh more as they bring even more money into the Franchise. Its not personal, its business. I don’t think we should get too paranoid about the Stoke game where a few things went against us to end a run of 10 wins in 11 (and we should not be paranoid about everything that does not go Spurs way over the coming games), but I wonder if Spurs start to really rumble whether there may be something to bring us down to earth. Injuries will play a role in the 2nd half of the season. Spurs have a few injuries at the moment, but funnily enough a lot less than when Spurs were midtable rubbish a few years back (funny that). Injuries (and suspensions) will disrupt the squad – we need those coming in like Livermore today to step up to the plate and we also need the returning players to drop back into a rhythm quickly. Bale would be the most obvious worry in this instance as we cant afford to lose him for long and he tends to be slower at getting back into the swing And assuming the officials don’t bring us down, injuries/suspensions don’t stop the points accumulation … then it comes down to nerve or ‘bottle’ in the football parlance. Spurs had nothing to fear from United on the opening day but still managed to lose 3-0 up there. Spurs players need to believe they are as good as they league table suggests they are – and remember, the League table never lies. We need the big characters to assert themselves and if Modric is worth the £40m, perhaps it will show itself in match winning/match dominating displays when the pressure is on Everything is right for Spurs to give this a bloody good go - a couple of decent buys in this transfer window would do no harm. The Citeh game coming up is just that – a game, 3 points to someone or 1 each if its drawn. With Everton in mind today, beating them up there 4-1 in August 1984 meant nothing when it came to the famous return game with both sides equal at the top of the league in March 85 for Everton to get revenge and go on and win the League. Maybe its Spurs time to turn the tables, but win lose or draw up there, its straight back on the points accumulation for the next game against Wigan, and then the next one, and next one Whatever happens, lets enjoy the ride – because as fans its all about the journey, travelling hopefully, enduring bad times and looking forward to the glory. This is real, its happening now – make sure you enjoy it, as it can go as quickly as it has arrived and respect everyone involved (even if they did play for UEFA level London rivals in their past), they are all part of Spurs modern glory. Up the Spurs 22nd
December 2011 – Christmas greetings
After a bright start and an early goal, it all regressed a
little for Spurs but its still another point gained in a fixture which used
to hold such terror against Chelsea and Spurs once again compete against the
CL sides on an even footing All good for Spurs thesedays – a top quality side producing consistently good results and long may it continue. Can’t decide whether a resurgent Chelsea were good or Spurs looked a little tired in the second half, probably a bit of both but hopefully the good run can continue over the Christmas period at winnable away games against promoted sides before the run of winnable home games could see Spurs in a very strong position. Here’s hoping and whatever happens its been a lot of fun and refreshing after all the ordinary years Not a lot else to add really – but a merry Christmas from topspurs to all the readers with Spurs top London club (with a game in hand) – happy days and here’s hoping for a special 2012!
21st
November 2011 – Sumptuous Spurs
Another game, another win for Spurs – 8 in the last 9 with the other an away draw against a team in the top 4, Redknapp 1.76 points per game is the best ever by miles …. stop me if you think you’ve heard this before Last time out Spurs toughed out an away win against Fulham but showed the otherside of their repertoire with a total domination and eventual suffocation of Aston Villa who went into todays game in 8th place but had no answer Good to see Adabeyor back amongst the goals, ably supported by VdV. Bale/BAE and Lennon/Walker ran the wings and Parker and Modric ensured that Villa chased shadows and looked on at a respectable distance. No dramas at the back – the complete performance. Not all games will be as good as this and its worth bearing in mind during the occasional reverse or against a team who put up a bit of resistance that Spurs are genuinely good and its not about to stop any time soon. Keep believing in the current Spurs! Onwards and upwards! With 6 of the next 10 at home against the likes of WBA, Bolton, Stoke, Sunderland, Chelsea, Norwich, Swansea, WBA, Everton, Wolves … is it unrealistic to expect something along the lines of 7 wins, 2 draws & a defeat? That would give Spurs a record of 15-3-3 & 48 points after 21 games, a ppg of 2.286 which extrapolated over the season is 86 points … and 86 points will be pretty adjacent to the summit And if you think losing by three goals on the opening day/having a heavy home defeat in August stops you winning the title – think back to 84/5 when Spurs went up to Everton and beat them 4-1, led the league on new years day (with a win at Scumbury) but ran out of steam in March and eventually lost the league to Everton, the team they beat 4-1 on the opening day … you never know! Nice to dream and a long way to go before we get to that stage. Things will start to get tougher with injuries, suspensions and teams working Spurs out along with an inevitable loss of form at some stage but there is quality all over this Spurs squad and a well chosen signing or two in January … you never know, and perhaps Chas n Dave will be writing a song along the lines of “its lucky for Spurs when the year starts and ends in the same number …” No matter what, enjoy the journey as quiet stadiums at the Sky4 suggest that its better to travel hopefully (and win it the first time) than arrive/expect to win 6th
November 2011 – Get well Soon Harry!
Another game, another win for Spurs – 7 in the last 8 with the other an away draw against a team in the top 4. Struggled a bit to up a gear in the second half after not having to do a lot to be 2-0 up at half time but its all part of modern Spurs winning mentality and long may it continue Less good was the news of the managers heart operation and his projected absence for up to six weeks but here’s wishing Harry Redknapp a speedy recovery to continue the great work he is doing at Spurs 30th
October 2011 – Golden Days
Another game, another Spurs win which makes it six wins from seven and Spurs level on points with 3rd place Chelsea with a game in hand. So easy to take it for granted thesedays but it’s a special time for Spurs Redknapps 115th game is significant as its also the number of league games Bill Nick had as Spurs manager to the end of the double season. Bill Nick, with Arthur Rowe are the managers who made (and ruined for future generations) Spurs. Sir Bill took over in the October of the 8th year of the decade. Spurs were struggling that season but had previously finished 2nd & 3rd under Jimmy Anderson. After a season of getting things together, Spurs finished 3rd in 1960 and then went on to win the double the year after On the final day of that season, Bill Nick’s league record was P115 W62 D22 L31 F269 A177 Harry Redknapp took over in the October of the 8th year of the decade. Spurs were struggling that season but had previously won the league cup and had consistently high league finishes of 5th for two seasons. After a season getting things together, Spurs finished 4th and then during a glorious campaign in the CL managed to finish a creditable 5th in the League, and then start the following season well so that after the same first 115 games, Redknapp’s record is : P115 W57 D29 L29 F180 A134 The difference is seven draws (which when you consider Spurs drew 9 at home with a weak forward line is easy to identify) which the double team won 5 and lost 2. Its difficult to compare generations, through the success of the Double team Spurs were a relatively bigger club in 1961 than in 2011 – if Jimmy Greaves equivalent came up for a world record fee this time round, Spurs would not be one of the teams able to afford him this time round, but then again Spurs are not too badly off relative to most clubs at the moment All good with Spurs at the moment and there looks to be plenty of points in the next few games to keep Spurs on the fringe of the title race in the new golden era of Spurs. Enjoy it now, history suggests it wont last forever 19th
October 2011 – Sign up to get a message in a new Spurs book written by
TOPSPURS
My apologies in advance for the shameless plug to follow ... I've been asked to write a book called "Tottenham Hotspur - Hall of Fame" which will, hopefully, be a witty look in the TOPSPURS style at the club and its great history due for publication in 2012. The book is being published by a small publisher and as part of the agreement there is an opportunity to get your name and a short personal message in the Acknowledgements section at the back of the book, and receive a first edition copy of the book on publication, all for the standard retail price of £9.99. Postage and packing will be free. If you would like to take up this opportunity, please let me have your name as you would like it published, email address and any personal message. Please note, numbers are limited so I’d be grateful if you could get back to me as soon as possible... and obviously no worries if you are not interested! emails to jim [AT] topspurs.com 3rd
October 2011 – Harry Redknapp, Goonbuster
as Spurs beat Arsenal, again
Spurs did n’t need to be at their fluent best, but still did enough to beat an Arsenal side who for all their bad league form are still a decent outfit and were in winning form in the Champions League last week. The usual moany never satisfied Spurs fans opined that the winning margin could have been greater with a better performance but miss the point that Spurs did enough in what will be one of the most difficult games of the season. In a way, not having to play ‘the game of the season’ to beat Arsenal (or to draw as used to be the case) shows the progress Spurs have made. Before the game if you had to pick a player for each position from the two sides, the majority would come from Spurs and even when the Goons equalized Spurs never looked that worried. This is new Spurs, a better Spurs and one to be proud of As for our vanquished foes, the result have shown this Arsenal side, while decent is nowhere near its recent predecessors which has to be a worry for them. Do they stick with the alchemist Wenger who’s turd polishing has kept Arsenal at the top table for so long despite all the financial odds or twist with some new blood. The old Arsenal board could probably be relied upon to do the right thing by Wenger (until he gets tired of trying to work with new players who are not as good and don’t work as hard as his previous players) and more realistic fans could realize that the previous teams over achieved more than this lot is underachieving, but reason rarely enters a football discussion. Arsenal should still be there or there abouts in the final reckoning for the 4th CL place, but this new reality will mark the end of an era of dominance for them over Spurs. I can’t pinpoint the time when we overtook them, but Spurs are ahead of Arsenal thesedays, not by much but definitely ahead, and the momentum is in Spurs favour. The last seven of Spurs eight wins in the EPL against Arsenal have been by a single goal and when Spurs start winning with greater margins it will signal Spurs have moved into clear water beyond Arsenal. On an unseasonally hot afternoon, Spurs lined up with an attacking lineup, a famous five Ossie would have been proud of “Defoe, Adebayor, VdV, Modric & Bale (vs JK, Ted, Shaggy, Barmby & Dumitrescu). However after starting brightly with a couple of decent chances, this attacking bias let Arsenal see a lot of the ball in the middle of the park. For all their ‘tappy tap’ poor mans Barcelona football Arsenal created very little & although it gave the impression of Arsenal doing ok, in reality Spurs were just waiting for the flakey defence to present the chances which invariably came. Given the way Spurs lined up, the most important role in the team fell to Parker who did a fine job in the middle of the park while the others attacked. Friedel adds a sense of calm at the back which Gomes rarely conveyed, esp toward the end. The forwards did not really make an impact with the ball but everyone mucked in for the team when required. Walker adds vital pace and attacking instincts to his rightback role and capped an impressive start to the season with a spectacular winner, which had certain similarities to another spectacular winning goal scored by another young Spurs right back 12 years ago this month. If Walker becomes as good as Carr (before he went funny), Spurs will be very fortunate Not only was that goal a special one for Walker as it was his first for the club, a special one for the fans as it was the winner over Arsenal, it may also be a very important landmark goal for Spurs as by some calculations it Spurs 10,000th goal in major league and cup football As usual the sermon takes time to praise the manager, and it really still is needed as there are still plenty of Spurs fans who don’t or won’t get Redknapp despite him breaking all sorts of performance records. Within a week of taking the job nearly three years ago now, Redknapp took a side with six defeats in eight under the previous manager to new Scumbury and got a late and remarkable 4-4. This was a fixture that Spurs had lost 8 of the previous 9 and it was a sign of the things to come as despite an off day away in the 09/10 season, Redknapp’s Spurs have been unbeaten against them otherwise. Harry Redknapp’s full record against Arsenal reads P7, W3, D3, L1 which is a very decent record. Especially compared with the previous record of Spurs against Arsenal since football was invented in summer 1992, P32 W5 D14 L13, where all of the five wins were before 1999. His transformation of THFC is sensational, esp when you consider the net spend and Spurs wages relative to the rest of the EPL (Please read Sean Morleys superb column for the numbers and analysis http://www.topspurs.com/thfccol-seanmorley.htm) … and yet after two games this season, there were enough dipsticks wanting him out. At that time, when Harry was 0-0-2 record, I ran a quick analysis showing Spurs manager performance after the first six games (the chairman’s nerve test period) which I’ve repeated below. With some tough games coming up and a record of 1-1-4 or worse leading to to three sackings out of four instances, I was worried
However, Spurs have responded in the best possible way to the bad start by winning the next four The great Glenn leads the way in 2002/3 however those six games contained no elite sides whereas Redknapp has now won 4 of the first six in two of his three seasons, and both times played at least three elite sides (four this time). I really cannot see any reason not to worship Redknapp for the work he has done at Spurs And to re-work the table from last time, Spurs four game winning sequences in the EPL, a measure of consistency and excellence in the league … and Redknapp top of this table as well
Couple of tough aways coming up but Spurs sit of the heals of the leaders with a game in hand. Its onwards and upwards with Redknapp’s Spurs
24th September 2011 – Woolyback’s walloped Every team loses matches but how they respond is usually a sign of the merit of the team and after the reverses against the Mancunians, Spurs have bounced back with three straight league wins and a +7 goal difference to wipe away the early season jitters. Wigan are not a great side and even without raised expectations, this is the sort of game you expect Spurs to win but there have been plenty of times in Spurs history where the expected has been replaced with the unexpected. Bale’s goal, a near post header from corner had a definite late 70s retro feel to it where the near post flick was very much in vogue. Last season Spurs went to Wolves and Wigan and came away with 2 draws, this season its two wins – wins to draws were the defining feature of the change between 4th to 5th last season (while carrying all before us in Europe) and hopefully wins to draws this season will see Spurs back in the top four. In the equivalent fixtures last season Spurs got six points and this season its nine. Up to 6th with a game in hand - onwards and upwards. That said it was probably harder work than it should have been after two early goals but all that matters is that Spurs got the job done and its on to the Goons next in the league. Spurs had a decent season against them last year but little should be read into their early season struggles as they are still a well above average outfit and Spurs need to be 100% to iron them out but something akin to the Liverpool performance should be good enough With the Wigan win representing a third straight league win and the regularly repeated claim that Spurs traditionally lack “consistency” in the league, it was worth a look at the other times Spurs have managed three or more wins on the trot in the EPL since modern football was invented in summer 1992. Spurs have achieved the feat 19 times in that time on average around once a season over Spurs 739 EPL games. (see table below) However the distribution is not even with Spurs better managers Redknapp six times in 111 games and Jol five times in 114 games showing the change in Spurs (for the better) since Levy got lucky when appointing Santini and getting Jol & then again when replacing Jol with Ramos and ending up with Redknapp snr. Spurs went six dark years between 95-01 with only three early season wins in 1999 showing any sort of league consistency. It’s a new better Spurs who are a highly competent league side, and unless you are predisposed to find something to moan at, all very enjoyable
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