Hugo Lloris - the fans' favourite
Spurs' undoubted number 1 Hugo Lloris was once again the fans' favourite with a deserved sixth man of the match vote of the season. Lloris was bang back in form, following his recent absences through concussion, and aberration of form at Manchester City, with an outstanding grade of 8.2, beaten only once this season by an 8.4 when we lost 1-0 at The Emirates back in September.
Hugo is also leading the pack after 23 matches of what could become something like a 60 game season for the Spurs Odyssey player of the season vote. On current form, Hugo's main contenders for that particular accolade are Sandro and vlad Chiriches, who has now made 10 starts for us in all competitions.
With no official news yet on Jan Vertonghen's ankle injury sustained at the end of the Fulham game, it looks as if Chiriches will be required for most of Spurs remaining 7 games in December. Whatever the case, I suspect that workload and necessary rotation will see Kyle Naughton get a start at Sunderland tomorrow. Vertonghen has played more minutes than any other Spurs player, making 20 starts and two appearances as substitute, only being completely rested for one of our games so far.
Spurs have got back to winning ways in the league, after a break of 4 such games since a win, and with Chiriches and Holtby scoring fine first Premier League goals in the same game, I couldn't help thinking of another occasion when that happened, in August 2009 against Liverpool, when Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Sebastien Bassong scored their first Premier League goals for Spurs in the 2-1 win.
"Benny" was pictured amongst the Spurs fans at Craven Cottage, and it was great to see his smile there. Most Spurs fans are still mystified as to why there is such a clear rift between AVB and Assou-Ekotto, whose presence in our squad would be such a blessing right now.
Bassong was part of the Norwich defence at Anfield on Wednesday night which let in five goals on the night, and which has conceded as many goals as Sunderland in their 14 league games to date (28). Norwich's problem the other night was the astounding form and four goals of Luis Suarez, who now tops the Premier League scoring chart with 13, ahead of Aguero's 13. Spurs' highest scoring league player is Roberto Soldado, with four goals, three of which have been penalties.
P.S - Spurs are one point better off than last year after 14 games, which was the season in which we piled up a record number of Premier League points!
· See the spursometer in full
Results 04-05.12.13
C. Palace 1-0 West Ham
Arsenal 2-0 Hull
Liverpool 5-1 Norwich
Man Utd 0-1 Everton
S'hampton 2-3 A. Villa
Stoke 0-0 Cardiff
S'derland 3-4 Chelsea
Swansea 3-0 Newcastle
Fulham 1-2 Spurs
West Brom 2-3 Man City
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Arsenal 14 11 1 2 29-10 19 34
2. Chelsea 14 9 3 2 28-14 14 30
3. Man City 14 9 1 4 40-14 26 28
4. Liverpool 14 8 3 3 30-17 13 27
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5. Everton 14 7 6 1 22-13 9 27
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6. Spurs 14 7 3 4 13-15 -2 24
7. Newcastle 14 7 2 5 19-21 -2 23
8. S'hampton 14 6 4 4 18-13 5 22
9. Man Utd 14 6 4 4 22-18 4 22
10. A. Villa 14 5 4 5 16-16 0 19
11. Swansea 14 5 3 6 20-19 1 18
12. Hull 14 5 2 7 12-18 -6 17
13. West Brom 14 3 6 5 17-19 -2 15
14. Stoke 14 3 5 6 12-18 -6 14
15. Cardiff 14 3 5 6 11-20 -9 14
16. Norwich 14 4 2 8 12-28 -16 14
17. West Ham 14 3 4 7 12-15 -3 13
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18. Fulham 14 3 1 10 12-26 -14 10
19. C. Palace 14 3 1 10 8-22 -14 10
20. S'derland 14 2 2 10 11-28 -17 8
