An unexpected blessing
On Monday night all Spurs fans became Swansea supporters, and our prayers were answered with Liverpool going down 1-0, despite the presence of their £75 million central defender Virgil van Dijk. In fact Van Dijk was even held blameworthy for his part in Swansea's goal.
That defeat for Liverpool made it all the more frustrating though for Spurs fans, with the knowledge that had they won at St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Spurs would have been in the top four this week. Nevertheless, the draw has improved our form over the last six games, as the Man City defeat slips off the list, and we have won four and drawn two of our last six games.
After our FA Cup trip to Newport on Saturday, we face three consecutive games against top six sides, after which we will surely have a clear idea about our fate in the Premier League this season. First we face Manchester United, who will surely include Alexis Sanchez, who left Arsenal not for the phenomenal money he will receive, but because he has always loved United. Oh yeah!
Then it's a trip to Anfield, where Liverpool recently finally scraped home against Manchester City in a pulsating 4-3 game. Mondaay's defeat at The Liberty Stadium was their first in any competition since losing at Wembley 4-1 in October - to Spurs of course! The trip to Liverpool will be followed by the visit of Arsenal, who will have Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who travelled in the opposite direction to Sanchez, and who may yet have Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund. We will see.
One thing that does seem certain is that Spurs will not be adding to their squad in this transfer window, although they are most strongly linked with Bordeaux's Brazilian winger Malcom. Bordeaux manager Gus Poyet has apparently been assured that Malcom is going nowhere before the summer.
The disappointing result and performance of our team at Southampton brought out all the negative traits in our support, and that is human nature. We are approaching the business end of the season where those at the bottom of the table will fight tooth and nail for a point or points, and none of the bottom four lost this weekend. Perhaps we should relish rather than have trepidation about our next three games, which will surely feature both sides going all out for a win by playing attacking football. Maybe we will get rid of that bug running around the club too!
Jan Vertonghen was the Spurs Odyssey man of the match against Southampton, and he is drawing ever-closer to Harry Kane in the player of the season stakes. You can see the spursometer in full here.
Results 20-22.01.18
Brighton 0-4 Chelsea
Arsenal 4-1 C. Palace
Burnley 0-1 Man Utd
Everton 1-1 West Brom
Leicester 2-0 Watford
Stoke 2-0 Hds'field
West Ham 1-1 B'mouth
Man City 3-1 Newcastle
S'hampton 1-1 Spurs
Swansea 1-0 Liverpool
Premier League Table - 2017-18
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man City 24 21 2 1 70-18 52 65
2. Man Utd 24 16 5 3 49-16 33 53
3. Chelsea 24 15 5 4 45-16 29 50
4. Liverpool 24 13 8 3 54-29 25 47
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5. Spurs 24 13 6 5 47-22 25 45
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6. Arsenal 24 12 6 6 45-31 14 42
7. Leicester 24 9 7 8 36-32 4 34
8. Burnley 24 9 7 8 19-21 -2 34
9. Everton 24 7 7 10 26-39 -13 28
10. Watford 24 7 5 12 33-44 -11 26
11. West Ham 24 6 8 10 30-42 -12 26
12. B'mouth 24 6 7 11 25-36 -11 25
13. C. Palace 24 6 7 11 22-37 -15 25
14. H'dsfield 24 6 6 12 19-41 -22 24
15. Newcastle 24 6 5 13 22-34 -12 23
16. Brighton 24 5 8 11 17-33 -16 23
17. Stoke 24 6 5 13 25-50 -25 23
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18. S'hampton 24 4 10 10 24-35 -11 22
19. West Brom 24 3 11 10 19-31 -12 20
20. Swansea 24 5 5 14 15-35 -20 20
