Big week for Jan Vertonghen!
Last week Spurs legend Graham Roberts (@GrahamRoberts4) tweeted "I know early days but I am also laying down a marker that @JanVertonghen should win Spurs player of the year been nothing short of magnificent this season."
I was able to reply "Graham, he is very close to Harry Kane in the rolling Spurs Odyssey vote. Jan has been fantastic for this season and ages beyond that too!"
Now, after Saturday's game at Stoke where Jan gave two-goal Christian Eriksen a run for his money in the man of the match poll, I can confirm that "Super Jan" has gone above Harry Kane in the ongoing Player of the Season
vote on Spurs Odyssey. With seven, hopefully eight, games remaining Harry needs to get his goal-scoring boots back on to try and win back that top spot from Jan Vertonghen. The scores are incredibly close with Jan on 7.093 and Harry on 7.066 after Spurs' 48th game of the season. Vertonghen has started 41 of those games, whilst Harry has started 38 and come off the bench three times.
Of course, Harry (with the backing of the club) is appealing the Premier League's decision that Spurs' second goal on Saturday should be credited to the striker and not Christian Eriksen. For the moment, the goal remains Eriksen's but my records will be amended if necessary. After appeal by Kane with the club's support, this goal has finally been awarded to Kane, meaning he now has 25 Premier League goals for the season. It also means that Eriksen has now scored three goals in his last three games and 9 Premier League goals this season.
It was a great weekend for Spurs with Chelsea only managing a draw against West Ham, leaving them 10 points behind us, and with a considerably worse goal difference. We only need 9 points from our remaining 6 league games to secure a third consecutive season of Champions League football. How times have changed with both Chelsea and Arsenal faltering beneath us! For the record, we only need 6 points (probably only 5 with goal difference) to finish above Arsenal again. It certainly is a great time to be a Spurs fan!
As a result of this week's games, there are a couple of suspensions that will benefit us in our next two games. Manchester City's key midfielder Fernandinho must serve a two match suspension for 10 bookings, so will be absent from our meeting on Saturday night. Brighton midfielder Davy Propper was sent off against Huddersfield and misses three games, including our match next Tuesday night.
· See the spursometer in full.
Results 07-08.04.18
Everton 0-0 Liverpool
B'mouth 2-2 C. Palace
Brighton 1-1 Hds'field
Leicester 1-2 Newcastle
Stoke 1-2 Spurs
Watford 1-2 Burnley
West Brom 1-1 Swansea
Man City 2-3 Man Utd
Arsenal 3-2 S'hampton
Chelsea 1-1 West Ham
Premier League Table - 2017-18
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man City 32 27 3 2 90-24 66 84
2. Man Utd 32 22 5 5 63-25 38 71
3. Liverpool 33 19 10 4 75-35 40 67
4. Spurs 32 20 7 5 64-27 37 67
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5. Chelsea 32 17 6 9 54-31 23 57
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6. Arsenal 32 16 6 10 61-43 18 54
7. Burnley 32 13 10 9 31-28 3 49
8. Leicester 32 11 10 11 48-45 3 43
9. Everton 33 11 8 14 37-52 -15 41
10. Newcastle 32 10 8 14 33-41 -8 38
11. B'mouth 33 9 11 13 41-53 -12 38
12. Watford 33 10 7 16 42-59 -17 37
13. Brighton 32 8 11 13 29-43 -14 35
14. West Ham 32 8 10 14 40-58 -18 34
15. Swansea 32 8 8 16 26-45 -19 32
16. H'dsfield 33 8 8 17 26-54 -28 32
17. C. Palace 33 7 10 16 33-52 -19 31
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18. S'hampton 32 5 13 14 31-50 -19 28
19. Stoke 33 6 9 18 30-63 -33 27
20. West Brom 33 3 12 18 26-52 -26 21
