Reason for more optimism?
Spurs' five goal haul on Saturday was our first in the Premier League this season, and our first at home in the league since we beat Chelsea 5-3 on New Year's Day 2015. Harry Kane also scored two that day. We did win 5-0 at home in the League Cup against Gillingham, and we won 5-1 away at Bournemouth last season, but the last time we have a 5-0 home Premier League win was against Newcastle in February 2012. Kyle Walker is the only player to have appeared in both those games, although Danny Rose was an unused sub against Newcastle.
Despite a 10-game absence from the Spurs side in all games due to injury, and only 9 Premier league starts, Harry is climbing up the top scorers' list with 7 league goals to his name (plus one in The Champions League). Three of those 8 goals have been penalties, and the number of penalties awarded to Spurs certainly seem to be on the increase. After the Alli "dive", it will be interesting to see if that trend continues in future games.
With both Man City and Liverpool losing this week-end, Spurs have improved their position in relation to the top four as a whole, although Chelsea are drawing clear. Our game at Old Trafford on Sunday is our trickiest game before we face Chelsea again on January 4th, and in the weeks to come there are potentially difficult games for Man City (at Leicester on Saturday), Arsenal (at Man City on 18th December) and Liverpool (at Everton). Spurs just need to win their "winnable" games after Sunday to keep the pressure on those above.
With Toby Alderweireld and Erik Lamela hopefully back soon there must be reason for more optimism from the Spurs faithful, including yours truly!
Your man of the match on Saturday was two-goal Harry Kane, although good performances were recognised all round.
· See this week's spursometer here.
P.S - We are two points better off than this time last year, when we had won 6, drawn 7 and lost 1 game. So far we have one more win to our name!
Premier League results 03-05.12.16
Man City 1-3 Chelsea
C. Palace 3-0 S'hampton
Stoke 2-0 Burnley
S'derland 2-1 Leicester
Spurs 5-0 Swansea
West Brom 3-1 Watford
West Ham 1-5 Arsenal
B'mouth 4-3 Liverpool
Everton 1-1 Man Utd
M'brough 1-0 Hull
Premier League Table
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Chelsea 14 11 1 2 32-11 21 34
2. Arsenal 14 9 4 1 33-14 19 31
3. Liverpool 14 9 3 2 35-18 17 30
4. Man City 14 9 3 2 30-15 15 30
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5. Spurs 14 7 6 1 24-10 14 27
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6. Man Utd 14 5 6 3 19-16 3 21
7. West Brom 14 5 5 4 20-17 3 20
8. Everton 14 5 5 4 17-16 1 20
9. Stoke 14 5 4 5 16-19 -3 19
10. B'mouth 14 5 3 6 19-22 -3 18
11. Watford 14 5 3 6 18-24 -6 18
12. S'hampton 14 4 5 5 13-15 -2 17
13. M'brough 14 3 6 5 13-15 -2 15
14. C. Palace 14 4 2 8 24-26 -2 14
15. Burnley 14 4 2 8 12-23 -11 14
16. Leicester 14 3 4 7 17-24 -7 13
17. West Ham 14 3 3 8 15-29 -14 12
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18. S'derland 14 3 2 9 14-24 -10 11
19. Hull 14 3 2 9 11-29 -18 11
20. Swansea 14 2 3 9 16-31 -15 9
