Much has been said about the improved form of individuals such as Lennon, Woodgate and Modric.

But for the first time in a long time the stats show that it is not necessarily the individuals who have dragged us out the mess we found ourselves in earlier this season. It is the team as a whole and most significantly our defence, who deserve the plaudits the most.

Excluding the period under Ramos, there are some very interesting statistics concerning certain players and our back 4 in particular.

1st Choice Defensive Team:

GK: Gomes; concedes less then 1 goal a game and keeps a clean sheet every other game on average.

RB: Corluka; concedes less then 1 goal a game and keeps a clean sheet every third game.

LB: Ekotto; started every game Spurs have won and kept a clean sheet and has a win ratio over 50%.

CB: King; Won more then twice as many games as lost with the best win ratio.

CB: Woodgate; Started all but 1 match Spurs have won.

Our 'best' back 4 have played together 9 times this season and of those 9 games we have won 7 and lost 2 (one of which was against Blackburn recently). They have only conceded 6 times and have kept a clean sheet on 4 occasions.

DM: Palacios; Has a win ration over half and his introduction to the team coincides with the team’s best run of results all season.

According to the statistics Ekotto and King are the most critical players to the Tottenham defence both having a similar win percentage. Tottenham have lost only 3 times when they have played together.

Corluka seems the least important to the performance of the defence, having been involved in far more defeats then any of the other 1st choice players. But the extra statistics are accounted for due to him playing almost every game with Dawson and Woodgate as the centre-back pairing, who have the worst defensive record.

It seems that the centre-back pairing makes the most difference to the result as every defensive pairing (played more than once) other than King & Woodgate have lost more games then won. Changes to either 1st choice centre-back accounts for over 50% of the defeats suffered under Redknapp. Especially King, where Tottenham have only won 2 matches in the 8 games he has missed.

Overall there is room for improvement at RB but not essential. However, the combination of all 4 defenders leads to the best win ration of any combination of players. This suggests that a stable back 4 is most critical to the result.

As for Palacios, it is still early days and while his introduction to the team has correlated with an upturn in results, the upturn has also come about due to King regularly starting and a regular back 4.

While you may feel that watching a player is the best way to judge him, perhaps these statistics may make you think again about your opinions. A lot of Spurs fans have never taken to Assou-Ekotto but to me he has been excellent defensively under Redknapp. I feel he has been one of our most consistent players this season and I think we should ensure he stays with us because it is clear that we have found a dependable back 4.

The only requirement to improve our defence next season is to replace our back up left-back as it astounds me that we have never won when Assou-Ekotto has not played.

Assou-Ekotto and the defence are the unsung heroes this season. Maybe our votes for player of the season should be directed to our defenders rather than the flair players who came good in the last few months. It was our defence after all that has kept our goal difference positive despite us scoring fewer goals this season then we have done in a long time.

Scored 38 Conceded 36 (12 of which were in the 1st 8 games)

.............Played Won Lost Drawn Goals conceded Clean sheets
Manager
Redknapp ...24 ...11 ... 7 ..... 6 ............ 24 ..................... 9

Goalkeeper
Gomes ....... 20 ... 9 .... 6 ......5 .............19 ......................8

Defenders
Corluka ...... 21 ... 8 .....8 ..... 6 ............ 20 ..................... 7
Ekotto ........ 20 .. 11 ... 5 ..... 4 ............ 19 ..................... 9
King ........... 16 .... 9 ... 4 ..... 3 ............ 13 ..................... 6
Woodgate . 21 .. 10 .... 6 .... 5 ..............22 .................... 7
All 4 Start .... 9 ..... 7 ... 2 ..... 0 .............. 6 ..................... 4

Defensive Midfielder
Zokora .......12 ... 4 .... 5 ..... 3 ............ 14 ...................... 3
Palacios ...... 7 ... 4 .... 1 ..... 2 .............. 5 ...................... 3

Defensive Pairing
Woodgate
& King ....... 13 ... 8 .... 3 ..... 2 ............ 12 ..................... 4
Woodgate
& Dawson ... 7 ... 2 .... 3 ..... 2 .............. 7 ..................... 3

The only matches counted for each player are the ones they started. Substitutions are excluded entirely.

Only Premier League matches are counted.

The defensive midfield position is given to the most defensive midfielder named in the starting line-up in the order of Palacios, Zokora, Huddlestone, O’Hara, Jenas.