Will the "managed minutes" work?

We played half as many games in February, as we did in January, but only managed just over half as many points. Like January, February began with a rousing win over a bitter London rival. This time Arsenal were the victims. Spurs had been the thoroughly deserved winners, and Mauricio Pochettino and his team were the best thing since sliced bread.

Those two league wins over Chelsea and Arsenal have undoubtedly been our best performances of the season, which has now lasted 44 games, more than any other Premier League team.

The desire, and let's face it, the need to rotate players, and in Pochettino's words to "manage minutes" to deal with the challenging quest for Europa League and Capital One Cup glory has led to a deterioration in the results after that Arsenal game.

In both the Europa League games against Fiorentina, the Spurs head coach fielded less than full strength sides, preserving top goalscorer Harry Kane for more important duties such as beating West Ham and Chelsea in the Capital One Cup Final.

We've had our moments without a doubt in the Premier League game at Anfield and against Fiorentina. The team performance against West Ham was well below par, and somehow we managed to snatch a draw at the very death of the game.

Any Cup Final, whether it is the FA Cup or League Cup, is a big occasion, and it is right that the team should be at its best for the Chelsea game. If Spurs succeed (Yes, I am writing this piece before the Final), then Mauricio and the team will quite rightly be heroes. Should we fail, some will question the decision to be quite so cautious with team selection in the three game run-up, which included the West Ham game.

Whatever happens, the programme will ease up after tomorrow, with just 12 Premier League games to play. Mind you, the players won't have much rest before facing Swansea on Wednesday night.

Club captain Younes Kaboul, highest wage earner Emmanuel Adebayor, and Etienne Capoue played no part in any of February's games, without even an appearance on the bench. Mousa Dembele hit some good form, especially at Anfield, where he scored his first goal since December 2013!

Hugo Lloris continues to lead the field in the ongoing player of the season vote, but it was Harry Kane who was your player of the month, primarily thanks to his performance and winning goals against Arsenal, but also for consistency and effort, scoring 4 goals in total this month, taking his tally to 14 league goals and 24 in all competitions. A winner tomorrow would be nice, Harry!

Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date below.

...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over 14 years!