The ups and downs of January

January 2015 was as busy a month as I can remember, with 9 games being played. Mauricio Pochettino used 23 members of his squad in those games. Significantly, Kyle Naughton and Aaron Lennon did make it to the bench in addition to those 23 players, but the sale of Naughton to Swansea for a reported £5 million (good business), and the loan of Aaron Lennon on deadline day to Everton only served to confirm the signals being sent out by the head coach regarding those who were important to his planned future for Tottenham Hotspur. (Brad Friedel was also unused 4 times, allowing Hugo Lloris to sit out 4 games completely)

It looks as if we have to say goodbye to Lennon. I will always remember the fact that we never lost when he scored, and highlights of bisecting John Terry and Ashley Cole in that historic 2-1 win over Chelsea in November 2006; scoring in the 4-4 at The Emirates in 2008, and providing the cross for Crouch's winner in the San Siro against AC Milan.

The youth of Tottenham are clearly important to Pochettino's plans, and no less than five former Academy players (Rose, Mason, Bentaleb, Townsend and Kane) started in our New Years' Day extravaganza, when we beat Chelsea 5-3. Three of those players scored, with Rose getting his first of the season (he scored again against Burnley), Townsend cool from the spot, and Harry Kane scoring two.

Kane, of course has been catching the eye all season, and this month scored five more goals to take his total to 20 in all competitions, with at least 18 games to go before the season is over. Harry has now reached double figures for Premier League goals, with all of his goals this month coming in the league.

Nabil Bentaleb played against Chelsea, but then had to leave for Africa to play for Algeria in the African Cup of Nations. They got knocked out in the quarter-finals, so we can look forward to Bentaleb's return very soon.

Pochettino had to cope without the injured Mason and Lamela for several games, but less fashionable players such as Paulinho and Dembele were given more opportunities, and they took advantage. Both have been utlised in either the defensive midfield two, or the attacking midfield three. Dembele's performance at Bramall Lane caught the eye, and he followed that up with a good performance in the 3-0 win at The Hawthorns. He still hasn't scored a goal thhis season though!

Vlad Chiriches and Etienne Capoue scored their first goals of the season (both against Burnley), but sadly their efforts were ultimately to no avail, as we lost 2-1 at home to lowly Leicester. The fourth round departure from the premier domestic cup competition was disappointing, expecially in a year when threee of the top four have also been knocked out.

Christian Eriksen has been to the fore, carrying us through the Capital One Cup semi-final with two fine goals at Bramall Lane. One of those was an un-stoppable free kick, and he repeated his free kick expertise with another cracker to start off our 3-0 win against West Brom on the last day of the month. Eriksen scored four of our 20 goals this month, and is our second highest scorer, both overall, and in the league.

Despite sitting out five of our nine games this month, Hugo Lloris is once again our player of the month, making game-saving and world class saves, especially against Sunderland and West Brom. Michel Vorm gave us kittens for the first time, with an error against Leicester, but Pochettino maintained his faith in the number two, and used him in all five of our cup games this month.

Other January business included the termination of the contract of Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who had not featured at all this season. In his prime, there was a time when I regarded "Benny" as one of the top three left backs in the country, but football has apparently never meant that much to him, and he lost favour over his mis-guided support for Anelka's quenelle gesture in 2013.

Our only signing has been that of 18 year old "wonder kid" Dele Alli from MK Dons, who has been immediately loaned back to the Milton Keynes club. Alli is a box to box midfielder, who has scored 12 goals in 27 league games so far this season, and caught the eye of several big clubs.

The month started with that sensational win over Chelsea, and we now know that we face them again at Wembley on March 1st. We also know there is no reason why we can't beat them again!

February will be a less demanding month in terms of numbers (5 games), but every one of them is demanding, and crucial to our progress. First up will be Arsenal on Saturday, followed by a trip to resurgent Liverpool. There is also the little matter of another London Derby against West Ham, which is sandwiched by the challenging Europa League tie against Fiorentina.

Let's hope we are smiling all the way!

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!