Top marks for Toby!
After a match in which no less than 5 Spurs players were awarded marks of 8 or more out of 10, and Spurs gained only their fourth ever Premier League home win over Manchester United, it was Toby Alderweireld who won your man of the match vote with a grade of 8.4.
Alderweireld remains an ever-present for Spurs in 33 Premier League games (and 10 Europa League matches), and only Eric Dier has played more matches (one more to be precise) in the 48 games we have played so far. Toby has played just 37 more minutes than Eric over the season, and has proved to be solid gold for Spurs. He also scored his fourth goal of the season (all in the Premier League) on Sunday. Toby's goals have all come at home in big games against Man City, West Ham, Arsenal, and now Manchester United. Alderweireld's lead over Hugo Lloris for the Spurs Odyssey player of the season vote has widened to the point that, with 5 games to go, he must be favourite to win the vote.
Spurs fans will have other favourites, and the other players who scored 8 or more this week will be among them. Those players were Danny Rose, Mousa Dembele, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen. Others truly chasing Alderweireld to be top of "Pochettino's Pups" are Lloris, Dele Alli and Eric Dier. Top goalscorer Harry Kane is not in the running for OUR player of the season vote.
There is a brilliant piece here (The Guardian's "The Fiver") about Louis van Gaal's exploits on the delayed United team bus, and about his tactical nous (or lack of it) at White Hart Lane.
Those previous Premier league home wins against Manchester United:-
1. 1st January, 1996 - 4-1. Chris Armstrong scored Spurs' third and fourth goals, after Teddy Sheringham and a centre back who shall not be named scored in the first half. Andy (Andrew) Cole had equalised Sheringham's goal. The United side included a loanee at centre-back - William Prunier - who only played one other game for United, at home in a 2-1 win against QPR.
2. 23rd October, 1999 - 3-1. A magnificent win which included Stephen Carr's wonder goal!
3. 19th May, 2001 - 3-1. United had already secured the title, and in fact lost their last three games. This was the last game of that season and featured two goals by Willem Korsten, who was doomed never to play competitive football again, due to injury.
N.B - That League Cup win mentioned in my match report was on 2nd December, 1998, against a somewhat weakened United side (destined to win the treble). Chris Armstrong scored twice and the win was capped by David Ginola's 86th minute effort. One-time (and future) Spur Teddy Sheringham scored the United goal.
As we all know, it is not yet time to give up the chase for the Premier League title. Next up for Leicester is a tough home game against Slaven Bilic's West Ham, who are still desperate for every point they can get. Spurs have to wait till Monday night for their next game at Stoke. If you think we can win that game, or even the title you should look at bookies.com. Add this as a key website for anyone with a gambling interest. They will highlight all the free bets available for punters as we close in on all the end of season excitement and tension.
My good friend Gary Parker has updated his regular "Like for Like" table which can be found on my index of this season's Premier League Reviews. Gary makes the following interesting points:-
· Sunday's win took us past last years home point tally of 33 with 3 points making it 35 out of 51 at home.
· Also took us one point beyond last years final tally of 64 points
· 14 Different players have now scored for us in the league this season
· On the games played so far we are 10 points better off than in the same relative fixtures last season.
· See the full spursometer
Results 09-13.04.16
West Ham 3-3 Arsenal
A. Villa 1-2 B'mouth
C. Palace 1-0 Norwich
S'hampton 3-1 Newcastle
Swansea 1-0 Chelsea
Watford 1-1 Everton
Man City 2-1 West Brom
S'derland 0-2 Leicester
Liverpool 4-1 Stoke
Spurs 3-0 Man Utd
C. Palace 0-0 Everton
Barclays Premier League Table
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Leicester 33 21 9 3 57-31 26 72
2. Spurs 33 18 11 4 60-25 35 65
3. Arsenal 32 17 8 7 55-33 22 59
4. Man City 32 17 6 9 58-33 25 57
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5. Man Utd 32 15 8 9 39-30 9 53
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6. West Ham 32 13 13 6 52-40 12 52
7. S'hampton 33 14 8 11 44-34 10 50
8. Liverpool 31 13 9 9 50-42 8 48
9. Stoke 33 13 8 12 37-43 -6 47
10. Chelsea 32 11 11 10 49-42 7 44
11. B'mouth 33 11 8 14 40-55 -15 41
12. Everton 31 9 13 9 52-42 10 40
13. Swansea 33 10 10 13 34-42 -8 40
14. West Brom 32 10 10 12 31-39 -8 40
15. Watford 32 10 8 14 31-37 -6 38
16. C. Palace 33 10 8 15 35-42 -7 38
17. Norwich 33 8 7 17 35-55 -20 31
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18. S'derland 32 6 9 17 36-57 -21 27
19. Newcastle 32 6 7 19 32-61 -29 25
20. A. Villa 33 3 7 23 23-64 -41 16
