Maybe we should play away every week!
Norman Giller's article today entitled "Much Ado about Nothing Nothing" was not only a great anecdotal piece of writing, but probably a lesson to most Spurs fans (including me) who were deeply frustrated by the team's failure to beat the determined Swansea defence, and Mauricio Pochettino's team selection on Saturday. If you haven't yet read Norman's weekly blog for Spurs Odyssey I wholeheartedly recommend you do - after finishing reading this page, of course!
We have a 100% away record, albeit in just two games, whilst we have lost seven points in our three "home" games played so far, which is more than the home points we lost last season at "Fortress Tottenham". Mauricio Pochettino is getting tired of the weekly press questions about the so-called Wembley hoodoo, and it seems we have just got to get used to it this season. Switch our home and away records and we'd probably be saying it was a better start than we feel. In truth, it has not been a bad start, and we are still fifth in the table, above the other six teams on 8 points on goal difference. Maybe we should play all our games away, but in a sense that is what we are doing. The only difference is that teams like Burnley and Swansea, both of whom we failed to beat, will be determined to try and get at least a point off us at our temorary home. What the manager and the team have to do is work a way around that problem.
I said in my match report I was not impressed with the selection of Son as left wing-back. The last time we did that was also at Wembley against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final, and we all know what happened then. We now know that Ben Davies was not 100% fit and that he was only on the bench to "make up the numbers" according to our manager. That answers the question as to why he did not play, but it was still so disappoimting that apart from substitute Serge Aurier, no-one looked likely to get round that Swansea defence.
We will just have to continue our winning away form against West Ham on Saturday. Oh hang on, the last time we played there in May, we lost. Hmmmmm.
As I predicted at the start of the season, both the high-spending Manchester clubs and Chelsea are setting the early pace. Chelsea had a bit of a set-back yesterday with the home draw against Arsenal, and they keep having players sent off. This time it was David Luiz, who will miss their next three games.
Crystal Palace with "Mr Roy" now in charge achieved a record they did not want, being the only top flight club in English history to lose all five games at the start of a season, without even scoring a goal. Their next three League games are away to both Manchester clubs and at home to Chelsea.
This was our first 0-0 since January (at Sunderland) and our first such score in a home Premier League game since November 2015 against Chelsea.
In what was a poor week for those who voted on the spursometer, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld were deemed our best players. Alderweireld has already been booked three times in five games, which is as many times as in any season he has played in the Premier League so far.
Mike Dean first refereed Tottenham nearly 17 years ago late in 2000. Since Spurs Odyssey has allowed an assessment of referees (in 2010), he has been in charge of us for 31 games, and this game saw his worst assessment in all those matches. I give you one of the many comments offered on the survey:- "Most refs would have seen at least one penalty. Many would have seen two. Some might have given three." If we had got one penalty, and scored, we might have been a lot happier.
· See the spursometer in full.
Results 15-17.09.17
B'mouth 2-1 Brighton
C.Palace 0-1 S'hampton
Hds'field 1-1 Leicester
Liverpool 1-1 Burnley
Newcastle 2-1 Stoke
Watford 0-6 Man City
West Brom 0-0 West Ham
Spurs 0-0 Swansea
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal
Man Utd 4-0 Everton
Premier League Table - 2017-18
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man City 5 4 1 0 16-2 14 13
2. Man Utd 5 4 1 0 16-2 14 13
3. Chelsea 5 3 1 1 8-5 3 10
4. Newcastle 5 3 0 2 6-4 2 9
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5. Spurs 5 2 2 1 7-3 4 8
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6. H'dsfield 5 2 2 1 5-3 2 8
7. Burnley 5 2 2 1 6-5 1 8
8. Liverpool 5 2 2 1 9-9 0 8
9. S'hampton 5 2 2 1 4-4 0 8
10. West Brom 5 2 2 1 4-4 0 8
11. Watford 5 2 2 1 7-9 -2 8
12. Arsenal 5 2 1 2 7-8 -1 7
13. Stoke 5 1 2 2 5-6 -1 5
14. Swansea 5 1 2 2 2-5 -3 5
15. Leicester 5 1 1 3 7-9 -2 4
16. Brighton 5 1 1 3 4-7 -3 4
17. West Ham 5 1 1 3 4-10 -6 4
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18. Everton 5 1 1 3 2-10 -8 4
19. B'mouth 5 1 0 4 3-9 -6 3
20. C. Palace 5 0 0 5 0-8 -8 0
