The Race to the Title

[bubble07]

Win our next 2 games and we will be 7 points clear of Man City going into March

 

[dontcallme]

OK so lets look at the positives.

Excellent goalkeeper and very good backup.

Our playing style relies on the full backs to give width and to run tirelessly. We don't have 2 full backs who fit this perfectly, we have 4.

We had an excellent centre back pairing in Alderweireld and Vertonghen. Verts getting injured could have hurt us big time but Wimmer has been excellent and if he starts to struggle we have Dier who can play there to a very high standard too.

In central midfield Dembele is performing as well as any in the league and Dier has shown his move to midfield was not in desperation.

In AM we have very capable goalscorers in Chadli, Alli, Son and Eriksen so not all the pressure is on Kane to score.

Upfront we have Kane showing he is far from a one season wonder.

Everyone is working hard and we are gelling better as a team than anytime in my lifetime.

I'm genuinely starting to believe.

 

[King of Otters]

What a day of football Sunday will be, so excited

Anyone else expecting a heroic performance to be rewarded by an undeserved and soul crushing defeat?

Sorry, but I'm just conditioned to expect disappointment.

 

[DanielCHillier]

Can't agree. Aston villa aren't in a title race at the start of the year. The title race being pressure and expectation. That's when it starts and that's he difference between leading in October and leading in March.

The same would've been said of Leicester, but look at them now.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

48 ÷ 25 = 1.92 PPG
1.92 x 38 = 73 points (rounded)

IMO over the next 13 games we're going to have to take a minimum of 30 points from 39 to win it.

Can we do that?

 

[CowInAComa]

Not every history is alike.
Did 3 large teams fail that season?
Do we have a manager who desires the English national team job this season?
De we make it to 2nd late that season?
Did we loose as few matches as now that season?
Did we defend as well that season?

He has an ironic choice of name

 

[TottenhamLegend]

It's currently 6 days until our next game. After our next game we have 12 more league games to play.

But for some reason, I feel as nervous at this very moment as if we've got the big title decider kicking off in 20 minutes! It's surreal.

I can't imagine the feeling if we're actually in with a shot going in to the last 2 or 3 games

 

[Shea]

If we beat man city and arsenal and leicester draw things will get very interesting very quickly

 

[nav007_2000]

I would prefer for us to lose to Fiorentina so that we can concentrate on the league. We will not have a better chance of winning the league.

 

[yankspurs]

Nope the title is not happening. If this was a normal year, we'd miss out on 4th. This year, I think we'll fall short of 3rd by 2 or 3 points. We'll end with 68-70 points. Unfortunate because my hope is to get 3rd place, which would really secure Champions League football as we'll get into the group stages automatically.

Why? When you look at prior years, the points tally really isnt different at all and maybe just a bit above average. Also, i dont think this season is any different wrt the standard Pochettino collapse heading into the final month and a half of the season.

 

[JollyHappy]

48 ÷ 25 = 1.92 PPG
1.92 x 38 = 73 points (rounded)

IMO over the next 13 games we're going to have to take a minimum of 30 points from 39 to win it.

Can we do that?

It looks like the title will be won this year with somewhere between 75 and 79 points. Interestingly I don't know if others remember, but once Leicester got to 40 points they asked Ranieri what his new target was and he said 79 points.

I do agree that we need 9 or more likely 10 wins out of our last 13 to have chance of the title

Our "difficult" games are Arse (h), Man U (h) City (a) Liverpool (a) West Ham (a) and Stoke (a) and Chelsea (a). We'd need to win 4 of those.

Plus win everything else (Swansea, Bournemouth, Southampton, WBA (h) and Villa and Newcastle (a).

Of course we can do it but it's going to need something very special even without the FA Cup and Europa league distractions.

But for now let's believe and COYS!

 

[fletch82]

Nope the title is not happening. If this was a normal year, we'd miss out on 4th. This year, I think we'll fall short of 3rd by 2 or 3 points. We'll end with 68-70 points. Unfortunate because my hope is to get 3rd place, which would really secure Champions League football as we'll get into the group stages automatically.

Why? When you look at prior years, the points tally really isnt different at all and maybe just a bit above average. Also, i dont think this season is any different wrt the standard Pochettino collapse heading into the final month and a half of the season.

That standard collapse is a myth.
It's the toughest part of the season only the most consistent sides do well
Guess who the most consistent sides are this year ?
I am not saying we will win it because feck knows what's going to happen this year nothing is standard.
What I am saying is this squad and this manager will not I believe accept any form of collapse and come what may will do us proud regardless I believe.

 

[Lou3000]

Nope the title is not happening. If this was a normal year, we'd miss out on 4th. This year, I think we'll fall short of 3rd by 2 or 3 points. We'll end with 68-70 points. Unfortunate because my hope is to get 3rd place, which would really secure Champions League football as we'll get into the group stages automatically.

Why? When you look at prior years, the points tally really isnt different at all and maybe just a bit above average. Also, i dont think this season is any different wrt the standard Pochettino collapse heading into the final month and a half of the season.

The negativity is expected, but I'd argue apart from Kane, Pochettino has never had the depth he has this season. Fullbacks in full rotation, a list of in form midfielders and even a few choices in attack. We had virtually no rotation last season and had a decent run in.

 

[Sweech]

Im quite happy we have City away then a break from the premierleague for couple of weeks instead of having Europa League games inbetween premierleague games.

In the worst case scenario, we lose at city, try and forget about the league a bit in the Europa and Fa cup and kick start again against Swansea at the Lane.

Yeah I was going to mention the fixtures sorted out that way aren't too bad, we'll just be rotating the squad around cup games and then facing Swansea. Not too bad of a matchup and schedule.

For now obviously. If we get through both the latter half of the season could be different.

 

[tommo84]

Just realised Leicester's last game of the season is Chelsea away.

I think both us and Arsenal can forget about getting any favours on the final day.

 

[jurgen]

Anyone else expecting a heroic performance to be rewarded by an undeserved and soul crushing defeat?

Sorry, but I'm just conditioned to expect disappointment.

I could see us playing really well but conceding to a wonderstrike from Aguero or somesuch, we are absolutely dismantling teams at the moment, but its fair to say we haven't played against any players capable of pulling a goal out of their arse from nothing since Huth in the loss at home . Really think we can get at their defence though!

 

[Riandor]

Just realised Leicester's last game of the season is Chelsea away.

I think both us and Arsenal can forget about getting any favours on the final day.

Agree....
Chelsea are safe but not going anywhere, could easily see them "accepting" their fate in that game.

That being said, unless Leicester are out of sight already, they might struggle against a lackluster team bent on not really attacking.

 

[thinktank]

Just realised Leicester's last game of the season is Chelsea away.

I think both us and Arsenal can forget about getting any favours on the final day.

Depends if they've got a sniff of EL after being knocked out of everything.

 

[Sweech]

Nope the title is not happening. If this was a normal year, we'd miss out on 4th. This year, I think we'll fall short of 3rd by 2 or 3 points. We'll end with 68-70 points. Unfortunate because my hope is to get 3rd place, which would really secure Champions League football as we'll get into the group stages automatically.

Why? When you look at prior years, the points tally really isnt different at all and maybe just a bit above average. Also, i dont think this season is any different wrt the standard Pochettino collapse heading into the final month and a half of the season.

Last year in the final month and a half of the season we went 3-1-2

That's a points per game of 1.66

Our whole season was a points per game average of 1.68

So try again mate, a difference of 0.02 does not show a significant drop off.

 

[dirtyh]

beat city and we become favourites for me. our momentum is building, win at the etihad and I think it'll become unstoppable.