Boxing Day treats
Boxing Day football has been good for Spurs fans for the last 12 years now. We have won 9 and drawn just 3 of those matches. Our best wins have been 5-1 at home to Fulham in 2007, and 4-0 away to Aston Villa in 2012. We have also beaten Norwich three times on Boxing Day, if we include the fixture played on December 27th 2011, when Gareth Bale scored both goals.
The other win against "The Canaries" came in 2004. Recent festive fixtures against Norwich were detailed in the match preview. That 5-1 win over Fulham preceded two more consecutive games against "The Cottagers", when we had to endure 0-0 draws. They weren't too festive!
It would be easy to say that one reason for this recent record is the fact that we don't generally play high profile matches on Boxing Day. This season, more than any, is proving that whoever the opposition, there is a job to be done, and Spurs did that yesterday emphatically. Don't forget that Norwich's previous game was a win at Old Trafford.
Spurs need to "do their job" once again later today when we travel to Vicarage Road, Watford against a team that is just three points behind us.
The man of the match vote for the Norwich win was very close, with Hugo Lloris, Dele Alli and Harry Kane all in the mix. Harry Kane edged it for his two-goal scoring prowess. After that start to the season when almost everybody except Mauricio Pochettino began to have doubts about Harry, he has risen to third place in the Premier League scorers' list with 11 league goals. Ighalo, who we meet at Watford is one of four players ahead of Kane. the others are Lukaku, Mahrez and Jamie Vardy. Lukaku has now scored in 7 consecutive Premier League games. Ighalo has scored in five. Jamie vardy's record set earlier this season could be at risk already!
· See the spursometer in full
Results 26.12.15
Stoke 2-0 Man Utd
A. Villa 1-1 West Ham
B'mouth 0-0 C. Palace
Chelsea 2-2 Watford
Liverpool 1-0 Leicester
Man City 4-1 S'derland
Swansea 1-0 West Brom
Spurs 3-0 Norwich
Newcastle 0-1 Everton
S'hampton 4-0 Arsenal
Barclays Premier League Table
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Leicester 18 11 5 2 37-25 12 38
2. Arsenal 18 11 3 4 31-18 13 36
3. Man City 18 11 2 5 37-20 17 35
4. Spurs 18 8 8 2 31-14 17 32
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5. C. Palace 18 9 3 6 23-16 7 30
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6. Man Utd 18 8 5 5 22-16 6 29
7. Watford 18 8 5 5 23-18 5 29
8. Liverpool 18 7 6 5 21-22 -1 27
9. Everton 18 6 8 4 32-24 8 26
10. West Ham 18 6 8 4 26-22 4 26
11. Stoke 18 7 5 6 16-16 0 26
12. S'hampton 18 6 6 6 25-21 4 24
13. West Brom 18 5 5 8 17-24 -7 20
14. B'mouth 18 5 5 8 22-32 -10 20
15. Chelsea 18 5 4 9 23-29 -6 19
16. Swansea 18 4 6 8 16-24 -8 18
17. Norwich 18 4 5 8 20-30 -10 17
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18. Newcastle 18 4 5 9 19-33 -14 17
19. S'derland 18 3 3 12 19-37 -18 12
20. A. Villa 18 1 5 12 15-32 -17 8
