| S |
|
69% |
| P |
|
73.4% |
| U |
|
64% |
| R |
|
68.4% |
| S |
|
65% |
| = |
|
68% |
Form Guide December 2010
P W D L F-A GD Pts
5 2 3 0 9-6 3 8
Pos:- 5th
1 Cup Match
· November 2010 figures
· Last year's figures
December 2009
Reasons to be jolly!
With a full programme of fixtures to come this New Year's week-end and beyond, we cannot truly say that this year's Christmas programme is over, but Spurs already have plenty of reasons to be jolly this December!
Spurs started the month on the back of a 5 match un-beaten run, and have repeated the trick in December with another five matches unbeaten in all competitions. In the Premier League that run consists of 8 games, which include 5 wins and 3 draws. Long may this run be extended into 2011!
This run in December was maintained with no appearances from key players such as Ledley King (last seen in action in mid-October), Tom Huddlestone (injured in early November), Jonathan Woodgate (now back in training and hopefully on the road to playing again for Spurs). We've also missed William Gallas, who had done so much to win over the Spurs fans who were naturally sceptical about his arrival from the other end of the Seven Sisters Road, and for part of this month, Younes Kaboul, Michael Dawson and Rafael van der Vaart, each of whom made welcome and impressive come-backs before the mon th ended.
We have strength in depth, and perhaps the strongest squad in the Premier League, which has enabled us to cope with losses of key players through injury or suspension. Unfortunately we will miss Defoe(2) and Kaboul(3) for the first games of 2011, but Sebastien Bassong is ready to step into the centre-back position, where he has covered admirably whenever called upon. Van der Vaart's return means we can cope with him playing behind one of our remaining strikers.
We can be truly proud of our team's fine achievment in qualifying as winners of Group A in their first season in the Champions League, and we look forward to another trip to Milan (this time for A.C and not Inter) not with fear but confidence about what we can do against the current leaders of Serie A.
We performed well against Chelsea, and for a day at least kept them out of the top four. We go into the New Year just one point behind the Champions and within reach of the leaders - Manchester United. We are established members of the top five, and genuine contenders for another tilt at the Champions League, and even have realistic hopes of getting involved in the title race
We have dealt with various forms of adversity and in particular in our last two games, did not just cope with ten men, but still managed to out-play our opponents, and score additional goals with one less man than the opposition.
We have goal-scorers in every department of our team, and have seen great individual and team performances. 5 different players have won our man of the match awards (Gallas, Defoe, Ekotto, Van der Vaart and Modric), and these have not included Gareth Bale, or Aaron Lennon, both of whom have dazzled this month, and scored quality goals in our last game against Newcastle.
Luka Modric though has been consistently outstanding throughout the month. he missed the FC Twente game with 'flu', but scored 7 out of 10 or more in his 4 games, winning man of the match against Newcastle with 8.8, matching Van der Vaart's rating against Aston Villa. Luka wins our December 2010 Player of the Month award.
The month started moderately with our draw at Birmingham, but ended with superb displays, leading to the best performance mark since November 2010, when we were also unbeaten, but in a month when we played just three games. Under Harry Redknapp's leadership, in just over two years, Spurs have been unbeaten in 5 individual months.
Just look again at the different words and phrases above that I have highlighted in bold, and remember that these are just a few examples of reasons to be jolly! Bring on 2011! Happy New Year everybody!
Don't forget to check out the cumulative appearances and grades for the players as the season progresses - below. The grades are based upon a mark out of ten. Note that this month, Rafa van der Vaart has just overtaken Gareth Bale in the race to be Spurs Player of the season, but it is very close. Unsurprisingly, Luka Modric is in third place, and these are the only players averaging over 7 out of 10 so far.
...if you want to remind yourself of the matches played during this month, then See the Fixtures page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over the last 10 years!
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