It's all beginning to look ominous
Two matches into the season, I ventured to suggest that The Premier League table was beginning to take shape. Things have changed a bit since then, and I would suggest the table is certainly taking on shape now.
In my match preview for this week's game against Leicester, I rashly suggested that one or more of the top four, all of whom played away, would slip up, and that a Spurs win would take us back into the top four. That was another prediction I got wrong. Not only did the top four win, but they all won well by at least two goal margins. The top three all scored 4 goals, and each of the top four has scored over 20 goals in their 10 games, whilst we have managed just 14. It is certainly not hard to see where our main problem lies!
Let's hope Harry Kane can return on Sunday in one of our biggest London Derbies of the season, and that he can find his scoring feet.
Man Utd had made a decent early start to the season, but on Saturday failed to beat Burnley, although goalkeeper Tom Heaton had a magnificent game. Even Watford are above United now, but only on goals scored. Everton are the closest team behind us this week.
With those November London Derby matches to come, I think it is going to be incredibly difficult for us to maintain a genuine title challenge.
The official site had Vincent Janssen voted as man of the match, no doubt influenced by the fact he put the ball in the net from the penalty spot. Vincent scored well in our survey, but not well enough to challenge defenders Jan Vertonghen and Spurs Odyssey man of the match Danny Rose.
Referee Bobby Madley drew more comments from those voting in our post-match survey than either the players or our manager. Mr. Madley became the first referee to be seen twice by Spurs fans this season, and has only managed scores of 4.1 and 4 in those games. Perhaps the best that can be said for him this week was that "His only credit was managing to annoy both sets of fans."
· See the spursometer in full.
Premier League results 29-31.10.16
S'derland 1-4 Arsenal
Man Utd 0-0 Burnley
M'brough 2-0 B'mouth
Spurs 1-1 Leicester
Watford 1-0 Hull
West Brom 0-4 Man City
C. Palace 2-4 Liverpool
Everton 2-0 West Ham
S'hampton 0-2 Chelsea
Stoke 3-1 Swansea
Premier League Table
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man City 10 7 2 1 24-9 15 23
2. Arsenal 10 7 2 1 23-10 13 23
3. Liverpool 10 7 2 1 24-13 11 23
4. Chelsea 10 7 1 2 21-9 12 22
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5. Spurs 10 5 5 0 14-5 9 20
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6. Everton 10 5 3 2 15-8 7 18
7. Watford 10 4 3 3 14-13 1 15
8. Man Utd 10 4 3 3 13-12 1 15
9. S'hampton 10 3 4 3 11-10 1 13
10. B'mouth 10 3 3 4 12-14 -2 12
11. Leicester 10 3 3 4 12-16 -4 12
12. Stoke 10 3 3 4 12-17 -5 12
13. C. Palace 10 3 2 5 14-16 -2 11
14. Burnley 10 3 2 5 8-13 -5 11
15. M'brough 10 2 4 4 9-11 -2 10
16. West Brom 10 2 4 4 10-14 -4 10
17. West Ham 10 3 1 6 10-19 -9 10
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18. Hull 10 2 1 7 8-23 -15 7
19. Swansea 10 1 2 7 9-18 -9 5
20. S'derland 10 0 2 8 7-20 -13 2
