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Leicester's last six:-
Leicester 2 1 Blackburn
S'derland 2 1 Leicester
Leicester 0 1 Man Utd
Everton 2 2 Leicester
Leicester 2 2 Aston Villa
Fulham 0 0 Leicester
W D L F-A GD Pts
1 3 2 7-8 -1 6
Spurs' last six:-
M'brough 1 1 Spurs
Spurs 2 1 Leeds
Arsenal 2 1 Spurs
Spurs 1 1 West Ham
Bolton 1 1 Spurs
Spurs 1 0 Liverpool
W D L F-A GD Pts
2 3 1 7-6 1 9
Pos P W D L F-A GD Pts
7 Spurs 37 14 8 15 48 51 -3 50
20 L'cester 37 4 13 20 28 63 -35 25 R
After a break for a certain football match, the Premiership season draws to a close this Saturday. What does this game mean to Spurs? Well, apart from the "battle" for seventh place with West Ham (who are at home to Bolton this week), there is a great potential significance for me.
Over the last three years since the day at Wembley when Robbie Savage exacerbated the offence by Justin Edinburgh to famously join the list of hated footballers of Spurs fans, Leicester have been one of the sides we love to hate, along with Southampton since the various ramblings of Rupert Lowe over alleged shady transfer approaches regarding his ex-manager and ex-central defender. These two sides are not the opponents we want to even think about. Here is a quote from my report on last year's game at Filbert Street:-
"As I left Filbert Street amongst the Leicester faithful, I was nudged in the back by a local who said "In forty years of watching football, I've never seen such a pathetic display of football". He was referring to Tottenham, and after telling him where to go, I thought that was rich coming from a supporter of a team with a second rate ground, Nationwide chants (as in "You're sh*t, aaah!" when the opposing goalkeeper takes a kick), and a team that has lost 9 consecutive games, starting with an ignominious defeat in the quarter finals of the FA Cup against a second division side (Wycombe). To cap it all, the Leicester programme (which is an excellent publication) resorts to quoting "Zenith Data Systems Northern Area Finalists 1991-2" as one of its limited honours."
Without a doubt, Robbie Savage will come in for the usual stick from the away support, but we may see him again next season, as, although he has pledged his support to his relegated team, he is the type of competitive player who will be snapped up by another Premiership side. Incidentally, Spurs lost that game last year 4-2 in a meaningless end of season game. We only managed to edge Leicester out of 12th place by one point.
My main point is that Spurs have made progress this year, finishing with more points and considerably higher in the league. With the signings of quality midfield players Milenko Asimovic and Jamie Redknapp, and hopefully with a reliable goalscorer to follow, surely Spurs can look forward to more progress next year, especially when you bear in mind that Stephen Carr will be fit (hopefully playing for us!), and Goran Bunjevcevic ought to get the chance to show his skills.
So - let us see an end to mediocrity, as we say farewell to Leicester, and let us leave the likes of Southampton to battle it out in the bottom half of the table, whilst we compete more realistically with the current top six sides. We did it against Chelsea in the Worthington Cup, in the first half against Man Utd, and we even gave Arsenal a run for their money at home and away. We can do better next term!
P.S Leicester are actually in quite good form under Micky Adams, and I anticipate a fast, entertaining game this week with a few goals. Knowing them, they might even win:(
· Brian Judson writes
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