Spurs on course for Champions League
Despite dropping two points at St. James' Park on Sunday, Spurs remain one of the top four Premier League sides on current form (last 6 matches), and they remain on course to win a place in the Champions League next season. Unsurprisingly, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea are those other projected top four sides, and Liverpool and Newcastle are predicted to win 5th and 6th places respectively.
It is of course still very early in the season, but Spurs still have that game in hand (no news yet of when we will play Everton at home), and have some eminently winnable games in their next 8 fixtures, before they meet Chelsea just before Christmas. Remember too that we have only played three home league games so far. Maybe we should view Sunday's result as a point won, rather than two lost, especially in view of the relatively moderate performance figures as provided by 175 voters in this week's survey.
Your Spurs man of the match for the Newcastle game was Younes Kaboul, who has consistently impressed voters this season, particularly in his last five games, scoring 7 or more in each of those recent games. Kaboul deserves to keep one of the two central defensive places, whichever of his potential partners is fit.
Just behind Kaboul was substitute Jermain Defoe, who scored a cracking goal that looked as if it could be the winner, until that Ameobi equaliser. Jermain is now level with Van der Vaart and Adebayor with three Premier League goals, but he tops our early score-chart with 5 in all competitions.
The overall team performance was perceived as our worst in the Premier League since that defeat against Man City at the end of August. The same comment applies with regard to Harry Redknapp's grades for team selection, tactics and substitutions, although an overall mark of 6.1 out of 10 is not too bad, is it? Harry's selection options were limited, but voters were not impressed with Bale starting on the right, and the defensive errors which came from our right flank.
Referee Lee Probert has now officiated in three of our games already this season, and despite some disappointments amongst Spurs fans regarding the match, Mr. Probert came out of it with a respectable 6.8, bucking the tendency for referees to get lower marks when the team gets a bad result.
Results 15-16.10.11
Chelsea 3-1 Everton
Liverpool 1-1 Man Utd
Man City 4-1 A. Villa
Norwich 3-1 Swansea
QPR 1-1 Blackburn
Stoke 2-0 Fulham
Wigan 1-3 Bolton
West Brom 2-0 Wolves
Arsenal 2-1 S'derland
Newcastle 2-2 Spurs
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man City 8 7 1 0 27 6 21 22
2 Man Utd 8 6 2 0 25 6 19 20
3 Chelsea 8 6 1 1 20 9 11 19
4 Newcastle 8 4 4 0 11 6 5 16
5 Liverpool 8 4 2 2 11 9 2 14
6 Spurs 7 4 1 2 13 12 1 13
7 Stoke 8 3 3 2 6 8 -2 12
8 A. Villa 8 2 5 1 10 9 1 11
9 Norwich 8 3 2 3 10 11 -1 11
10 Arsenal 8 3 1 4 12 17 -5 10
11 QPR 8 2 3 3 6 14 -8 9
12 West Brom 8 2 2 4 7 10 -3 8
13 Swansea 8 2 2 4 7 12 -5 8
14 Fulham 8 1 4 3 10 9 1 7
15 Everton 7 2 1 4 7 11 -4 7
16 Wolves 8 2 1 5 6 12 -6 7
17 S'derland 8 1 3 4 10 10 0 6
18 Bolton 8 2 0 6 12 22 -10 6
19 Wigan 8 1 2 5 6 14 -8 5
20 Blackburn 8 1 2 5 9 18 -9 5
