The Cockerel has been stifled, but will crow again
It's not the first and it won't be the last time that Spurs have lost three Premier League games in a row. It happens to the very best of teams - even Manchester United, but just not this season. Our nemesis Arsenal lost three consecutive league games as recently as January, and then embarked upon a 6 match unbeaten run, which includes 5 consecutive victories. It's up to Spurs to do something similar starting in this Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final.
The last time we lost three league games in a row was under Juande Ramos, just before Harry Redknapp was appointed when we had "two points from 8 games". Then we lost to Harry's Portsmouth team. Phil Brown's Hull City, and Tony Pulis's Stoke City. Losing to two other top four sides, and an in-form Everton side is not so disastrous, although it has led to something like despair from many Spurs fans, who envisage third place and even fourth place slipping away from what was a very firm grasp.
Things are not as bad as that of course, although on form we are currently a bottom half side, and Arsenal are above Man Utd (on goal difference) over the last six games. We've been up there this season, and we can get back there and retain our hold on the top three. While we play Stoke next week at home, Arsenal face a trip to Goodison Park, where they will hopefully find Everton as deterined as we did, and not in the form they showed last night at Anfield. Arsenal also face tricky fixtures at home to Man City and to Chelsea, whilst arguably, once we have been to Stamford Bridge on March 24th, we have an excellent run-in.
The message then to all anxious Spurs fans is to keep calm. If you want to know what "really bad" is, try looking at this period ten years ago when we lost twice to Chelsea (once in the FA Cup quarter final) and once to Man Utd, all by the score of 4-0. Now, that was bad, and we even followed that by losing the next game at home to Charlton.
Once again, in a game where the outfield team was perceived as under-performing, the goalkeeper has been voted as the Spurs man of the match. Well, after all Brad Friedel almost got to Jelavic's shot, and he did save well from Fellaini too. Harry Redknapp was graded under par for his team selection, and tactics. Let's hope we see Bale on the left on Saturday!
· This week's "Spursometer"
Results 10-13.03.12
Bolton 2-1 QPR
A. Villa 1-0 Fulham
Chelsea 1-0 Stoke
S'derland 1-0 Liverpool
Wolves 0-2 Blackburn
Everton 1-0 Spurs
Man Utd 2-0 West Brom
Swansea 1-0 Man City
Norwich 1-1 Wigan
Arsenal 2-1 Newcastle
Liverpool 3-0 Everton
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man Utd 28 21 4 3 68 27 41 67
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2 Man City 28 21 3 4 69 20 49 66
3 Spurs 28 16 5 7 52 34 18 53
4 Arsenal 28 16 4 8 57 39 18 52
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5 Chelsea 28 14 7 7 48 32 16 49
6 Newcastle 28 12 8 8 40 41 -1 44
7 Liverpool 28 11 9 8 33 26 7 42
8 S'derland 28 10 7 11 36 31 5 37
9 Everton 28 10 7 11 28 31 -3 37
10 Fulham 28 9 9 10 37 37 0 36
11 Swansea 28 9 9 10 31 34 -3 36
12 Norwich 28 9 9 10 39 45 -6 36
13 Stoke 28 10 6 12 27 39 -12 36
14 West Brom 28 10 5 13 34 37 -3 35
15 A. Villa 28 7 12 9 31 35 -4 33
16 Blackburn 28 6 7 15 40 60 -20 25
17 Bolton 28 7 2 19 31 57 -26 23
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18 QPR 28 5 7 16 28 47 -19 22
19 Wolves 28 5 7 16 30 58 -28 22
20 Wigan 28 4 9 15 24 53 -29 21
