Despite the loss of star man Harry Kane, the future for Tottenham looks rosy. New manager Ange Postecoglou has breathed new life into the club and Tottenham fans all over the world now have a team they enjoy and look forward to watching.
Heading into this season, not many pundits believed that Tottenham would be up towards the top end of the table. A host of untested signings such as Guglielmo Vicario and Micky Van de Ven arrived without much fanfare, and many believed that Postecoglou wouldn’t be able to transfer his dominant front foot style of play down from Scotland to the Premier League.
How they have proved the doubters wrong!
Instead, Tottenham enjoyed their best start to a Premier League season and despite a slew of injuries they sit comfortably in fifth place and are just six points off the top of the table.
With Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Aston Villa widely regarded as the main title challengers, Tottenham seem to be creeping under the radar, but could they do the unthinkable and win the title?
Here are some of the things that would need to happen in order for Tottenham to shock the world.
Get the injured players back
Rewind to the 6th November. Tottenham had a chance to extend their lead at the top of the table with a victory over bitter rivals Chelsea. 1-0 up and with the Tottenham faithful in full voice, disaster struck with injuries to both James Maddison and Micky Van de Ven. Tottenham would go onto lose that game and would lose further key players in the shape of Ivan Perisic, Yves Bissouma, Richarlison, Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero to suspension and injuries.
With so many first teamers out, Tottenham started to slip back down the table, and many believed Tottenham’s title charge was well and truly over.
However, over the Christmas period Tottenham were able to grind out several crucial results and over the last few weeks have been able to welcome back several key players. With Tottenham set to return to full strength by the end of January they will be hopeful of putting in another winning run that will see them push Liverpool and Manchester City all the way to the end of the season.
New players could lead Spurs to glory
With a large chunk of the Harry Kane money still burning a hole in Daniel Levy’s wallet, Ange Postecoglou wanted the Tottenham hierarchy to act quickly when the January window opened and they duly responded.
Timo Werner and Radu Dragusin have both signed for the club and they will provide Tottenham with some much-needed depth and quality. Both will be trusted to make an immediate impact.
The signings of Werner and Dragusin could be a major boost for the club and should ensure that Tottenham can adequately replace any injuries to either their front or back lines with some real quality.
Take advantage of a reasonably kind fixture list
If Tottenham are to be regarded as title challengers, they will need to make the most of a relatively kind run of fixtures.
Tottenham’s next six games will see them take on Manchester United, Brentford, Everton, Brighton, Wolves and Chelsea. Betting sites will favour Spurs in most of these matches and if they are to shock the football world, they will need to ensure they come out on the right side of these matches before they face some of the Premier League’s best.
Avoid the ‘Spursy’ tag
To those new to the definition of ‘Spursy’, it’s a concept that was born through Tottenham losing games from seemingly insurmountable positions. It’s a term that has been used so widely, that it’s even been included in the English dictionary!
Since Postecoglou’s arrival, Spurs have shown a clinical edge and have shown they can be steely, however, until Spurs can get over the line and win a big trophy, the ‘Spursy’ tag will always remain.
If Spurs can remain in the title reckoning, they will need to ensure they continue to keep the ‘Spursy’ tag well away from the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
Hope teams keep dropping points
Although Spurs have a talented squad, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Arsenal all have better and deeper squads. One of the main reasons why Tottenham still find themselves near the top of the table is that all their main title rivals have dropped points frequently throughout the season.
If Spurs are to have any title hopes, they will need the big sides to continue faltering. It seems unlikely that Spurs could win enough games to reach 90 points but if the winning title margin is around 80, Spurs could have a chance of hanging around until the business end of the season begins.
