Jan's the man again!
Spurs centre-back Jan Vertonghen won his first man of the match vote on Spurs Odyssey since 3rd November, when, in truth, he was simply voted Spurs' least worst player in an embarrassing home defeat.
There is some significance though in the fact that Vertonghen won this latest vote after a return to surely his best position at centre-back. Our ace Belgian defender has spent much of the season deputising for the injured Benoit Assou-Ekotto, since the third game of the season, when "Benny" got injured. Kyle Naughton did the cover job effectively on Sunday, and Vertonghen won the vote not just for his crucial winning goal, but for an all-round outstanding performance.
Vertonghen has been voted man of the match twice in his last 13 games, whereas in his first 12 games, he won the vote 8 times. Vertonghen played at left back in some of those games, including the one at Old Trafford, where we thought he had scored his first Premier league goal. However, that was subsequently "credited" to Jonny Evans for an own goal, and Jan had to wait till the Swansea game for his first official Premier League goal. What a great goal it was too!
There has been additional pressure placed upon Vertonghen, who has played more minutes than any other member of the Spurs squad. Kyle Walker has made the same number of starts in all Spurs' games this season (23), but Vertonghen has played 2,056 minutes, 30 minutes more than Walker.
The impending return from injury of players such as Scott Parker, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, and (hopefully in the New Year) Younes Kaboul, will be a bonus for Spurs, but the sooner the better, with all those Christmas games coming up.
Jan Vertonghen has been a star for us all season really, but he came to the fore in style on Sunday, and is one of five leading contenders for Player of the Season at this stage. Not all of them came from Amsterdam to play for Tottenham though!
· See the Spursometer for the Swansea game in full
Results 15-17.12.12
Newcastle 1-3 Man City
Liverpool 1-3 A. Villa
Man Utd 3-1 S'derland
Norwich 2-1 Wigan
QPR 2-1 Fulham
Stoke 1-1 Everton
Spurs 1-0 Swansea
West Brom 0-0 West Ham
Reading 2-5 Arsenal
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man Utd 17 14 0 3 43-24 19 42
2. Man City 17 10 6 1 33-15 18 36
3. Chelsea 16 8 5 3 28-17 11 29
4. Spurs 17 9 2 6 30-25 5 29
5. Arsenal 17 7 6 4 31-18 13 27
6. Everton 17 6 9 2 28-21 7 27
7. West Brom 17 8 3 6 24-21 3 27
8. Norwich 17 6 7 4 19-25 -6 25
9. Stoke 17 5 9 3 15-13 2 24
10. Swansea 17 6 5 6 26-22 4 23
11. West Ham 17 6 5 6 21-20 1 23
12. Liverpool 17 5 7 5 23-23 0 22
13. Fulham 17 5 5 7 28-29 -1 20
14. A. Villa 17 4 6 7 15-24 -9 18
15. Newcastle 17 4 5 8 19-26 -7 17
16. S'derland 17 3 7 7 18-24 -6 16
17. S'hampton 16 4 3 9 22-32 -10 15
18. Wigan 17 4 3 10 18-32 -14 15
19. QPR 17 1 7 9 15-30 -15 10
20. Reading 17 1 6 10 21-36 -15 9
