A statistical dilemma

Someone once said there are "Lies, damned lies and statistics" and I have a dilemma regarding the Spurs Odyssey player of the month for January 2018. After every game, in any first team competition, readers are invited to assess our players, the team, the manager and the officials on their performances. As a rule, hundreds of votes are cast after each game, and I do consider that overall a good representation is reached with each match survey.

This month Christian Eriksen went down with a bug and missed three games. They were the FA Cup games against Wimbledon and Newport, and our away draw at Southampton. I suppose it is no co-incidence that these three games included two of our weakest performances and the lowest grades in all departments. Having missed those poor games, Eriksen has averaged an excellent 7.42 for his efforts this month. On the other hand, Jan Vertonghen has been our only ever-present this month, and remains our only ever-present in all 25 Premier League games this season. "Super Jan" was voted man of the match in the Wimbledon and Southampton games, and although one of our best players at Newport, he suffered the ire of voters for a poor team performance where we only just escaped a horrible Cup shock defeat until Son Heung-min and Harry Kane came to the rescue.

Jan has also hit a high average for January, and my heart tells me that he was our best player despite the picture painted by statistics. Eriksen benefited from probably his best performance in a Spurs shirt and his highest ever mark of 8.9.

Jan Vertonghen continues to be Harry Kane's closest rival for player of the season. Harry has hit six goals this month and thus took his season tally for Spurs to 30 (for the second successive season). Vertonghen scored against Wimbledon and this was his first club goal since 2013. Super Jan has now amassed 176 Premier League starts for Spurs since his debut in August 2012. Long may he reign at the heart of our defence!

That Spurs defence conceded three goals this month, but they all proved expensive. Two of them (one each at home to West Ham and away to Southampton) cost us four league points, and the other cost us a quick path to the FA Cup Fourth Round and an unwanted replay next Wednesday against League Two side Newport. Despite a four goal feast at home to Everton and a magnificent home win against Man Utd our score ratio is the one skill area which has seen major deterioration this month, and the team was even graded moderately in this department when beating United.

We have remained unbeaten in January and have regained fifth place in the League table, ending the month six points above Arsenal and only two points off the top four. We have another massive month coming with games at Anfield, at home to Arsenal, and away to Juventus amongst the five (hopefully six) games to come in February.

Key players are either back in action or confirmed as having returned to first team training. These include Victor Wanyama, who has made one start and five substitute appearances this month, and Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Serge Aurier and Harry Winks. The squad looks in good shape for the rest of the season and has been enhanced by the one signing this month - PSG's Lucas Moura. According to the latest quotes from Pochettino, Moura may need time to reach the fitness level required, but perhaps we will see him against Newport for a start!

We sold nobody this month, but Georges-Kevin Nkoudou went on loan to Burnley for whom he has made three substitute appearances to date. Other loanees include Cameron Carter-Vickers (now at Ipswich, and played three 90 minute games), and Marcus Edwards ( yet to appear for Norwich).

· Review the 2017-18 Premier League season here

Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date at the bottom of this page.

...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 the last 17 years!