S		57.87%
P		59.75%
U		54.62%
R		56.25%
S		51.87%
=		56.07%

 P  W  D  L  F-A  GD  Pts
 8  5  1  2 19-7  12   7

Position:- 
6th
3 Cup Matches

Team Selection	6.0
Tactics	5.64
Substitutions	5.54
Overall	5.72

· December 2020 figures
· Last Year's figures
January 2020

Blue January

Apparently, Monday 18th January was what they call “Blue Monday” occurred this year. This is the name given to a day in January (typically the third Monday of the month) claimed to be the most depressing day of the year. That date fell the day after a decent 3-1 away win for Spurs at Bramall Lane. After that win, we were in fourth place. However, ending the month with consecutive defeats against a somehow rejuvenated Liverpool and a determined Brighton side ensured that this was a blue January for Spurs. We have now fallen to sixth place and certainly can have no title pretensions which existed when we led the table as recently as mid-December, before we lost to Liverpool the first time this season. On current form we face another struggle to secure a top four place.

We had a home disappointment against Fulham when a win was expected. After cup successes which mean we do have a League Final to look forward to in April – against Manchester City, who are again flying at the top of the league – and an FA Cup fifth round tie at Goodison Park, we went into the Liverpool game with hopes of beating them and asserting ourselves in the top four. Harry Kane had to give in to injury at half-time, and there was also a half-time bust-up involving Serge Aurier after Firmino had given Liverpool a lead in first half added time. The team was in disarray for the second half and without Kane their abilities did not improve against Brighton, to whom we lost a second consecutive away game. Jose Mourinho’s back five "plus" defensive strategy was not working and depressed the fans. Blue January arrived late for Spurs but hit us with vengeance. Things are so bad even West Ham are above us!

Matt Doherty’s two yellows against Leeds saw us have a first red card of the season. The club and its fans achieved excellent public relations with their attitude towards eighth tier Marine who we beat 5-0 in the FA Cup. Marine thanked us from their hearts as over 30,000 virtual match tickets were purchased, and precious funds headed Marine’s way. Their season has been curtailed already, due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. The vaccine is being rolled out is great numbers here, but will have to go without fans in the stadium for a while yet.

There were first goals of the season for Toby Alderweireld (Leeds), Moussa Sissoko (Brentford), and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Liverpool). Joe Rodon has played in 5 games this month (1 as substitute) and received individual praise from the manager despite a bad error against Liverpool.

Harvey White made his first senior start against Marine – now on loan with Portsmouth and I must give a special mention for 16-year-old Alfie Devine, who became our youngest ever player and goalscorer when he came off the bench and scored against Marine! Devine also made it to the bench in our last game of the month at Brighton.

Goals have been drying up a little for Son (2) and Kane (3). Bergwijn hasn’t scored yet this season. You will recall he missed two excellent chances at Anfield in December. He has missed one or two good opportunities this month too. In addition to Harry Kane’s ankle injury, we are missing Sergio Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso. Gio hasn’t played since the League Cup quarter-final before Christmas.

Dele Alli is still getting rare outings and was strongly linked with a loan move to PSG where Mauricio Pochettino has taken charge. That move did not come off, apparently because a possible return (on loan) of Christian Eriksen would have been too pricey in terms of wages, rumoured to reach £300,000 per week. Ominously, Dele has started 6 games, come off the bench 6 times and remained on the bench 6 times so far this season. Hurry up and change those figures Dele!

The best goal of the month was scored by Tanguy Ndombele against Sheffield United. Tanguy is our equal top scorer this month with three goals, but two of those came against Wycombe. We had to wait till the closing stages of that game to make the scoreline convincing too. Carlos Vinicius scored all three of his goals against Marine. Ndombele is our player of the month, with Hojbjerg close behind him. Both will be challenging Harry Kane in the player of the season stakes! “Sonny”’s form has dipped this month.

The significant transfer action in a quiet January window relates to outgoings only with Paolo Gazzaniga going on loan to Elche till the end of the season. Elche are second from bottom of La Liga, so Paolo will have his work cut out there, assuming he is to be selected. The club also confirmed that Gedson Fernandes has been recalled by his parent club Benfica, although it appears he has now been loaned to Galatasaray. Gedson’s only Spurs appearances this season were in the League Cup game with Chelsea and last month’s FA Cup game at Marine. Troy Parrott’s loan with Millwall has ended and he is now with Ipswich. Jack Roles is now on loan at Stevenage.

We have another 8 games in February which include league games against Chelsea, Manchester City, and keen rivals West Ham. There’s the fifth round away FA Cup tie against Everton and our Europa league Round of 32 games to look forward to. Let’s hope we are able to look back on these and our other games with admiration.

· Review the 2020-21 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 performances over the last 20 years!