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This is Tottenham’s joint-best ever start to a Premier League season, but it doesn’t feel that way. Mounting injury problems involving key players, continuous question marks over the physical and mental condition of Harry Kane, shock capitulations and heavy humblings in the Champions League; the north Londoners give the aura of a club a few poor results away from something of a crisis, instead of one just two points away from the top of the Premier League table.
It’s a reminder that performances often take precedent over results, especially at a club with such a history of style like the Lilywhites, and Tottenham’s Premier League displays this season haven’t quite matched up to their points tally.
Newcastle, Fulham and Brighton have all caused Spurs problems despite eventual Tottenham wins, while even the 3-0 victory at Old Trafford – which should have been a monumental moment for the club – owed much to Manchester United being in completely catastrophic form themselves. Consequently, criticism this season from inside and outside the club has been pretty regular.
But perhaps it’s a case of perceptions clouding judgement too, because Tottenham entered this season under a swell of negativity after becoming the first Premier League club not to sign a single player since the history of the summer transfer window, and the only team in Europe’s top five leagues that didn’t bring anybody through the door.
Coupled with the continuously delayed return to White Hart Lane, a saga which alludes to either incompetence or genuine deception on Daniel Levy’s part, and doubts over the long-term futures of key players like Toby Alderweireld and Christian Eriksen, a narrative has grown of a club at best standing still, and at worst starting to move backwards after so many years of unwavering rise under Pochettino.
When everything Tottenham are doing on the pitch is put into that context, it suddenly becomes very easy to overlook the positives and focus on the negatives, expand them and make them seem even more severe than they actually are.
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Because even if Tottenham have endured a disappointing start to the new season in terms of performances, something Pochettino seemed to confirm himself when he criticised the display at Old Trafford immediately before his side suffered a shock defeat to Watford, a few key factors give genuine cause for optimism about the season ahead.
First and foremost, the start of the season is usually Tottenham’s weakest point, the kryptonite that eventually sees them fall short of the Premier League crown. Indeed, while September-November has bizarrely become the period of the season in which the title has been decided in recent years – Chelsea and Manchester City pulling away early to give their competitors simply too much to do – Spurs have never entered December higher than fifth place under Pochettino. During that time, Tottenham’s win rate has been just 57% – in the opening eight games of the new season, it’s been a staggering 75%.
So even if Tottenham aren’t playing well, the important thing is that they’re still picking up points, even more so during a patch of the campaign that has often been their undoing, and there’s reason to believe the performances will follow too – chiefly that, at no point so far this term, has Pochettino really been privy to a full-strength side.
Firstly, there was the incredible raft of players that were involved in the World Cup, Tottenham registering a Premier League-highest 28 appearances in the knockout stages of the competition.
Players have returned with varying degrees of availability and fitness, Kane being the key example but the trend extending to Christian Eriksen, Kieran Trippier, Dele Alli, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld and more.
On top of that, Heung-min Son – one of Tottenham’s most effective players last season – left for the Asian Games just as the new Premier League season began.
Throw in a recent injury crisis that had Vertonghen, Alli and Eriksen all absent for key games, and it’s clear Tottenham have been grinding their way through an incredibly difficult period. During times like that, continuing to put points on the board is all that really counts.
And it also bodes well for what happens next, when top talents like Eriksen and Alli (Vertonghen’s return is still some way off) are soon back in the starting XI. Kane appears to have overcome his World Cup hangover too, at least to the extent that he can still regularly score goals, and Alderweireld and Danny Rose appear to have recovered their familiarity with the Tottenham defence after being brought back in from the cold, following a good few weeks of problems at the back.
No doubt, this Tottenham squad still has its flaws, still a little light compared to their big-six rivals and still dependent on a few key players, and this Tottenham team still has a long way to go for its performance levels to match the standards Spurs have set for themselves over the last few seasons.
But if there are two things Spurs have always lacked under Pochettino, it’s starting the season in winning terms and the ability to find a way of winning when they can’t quite hit top gear. That’s exactly what the north Londoners are doing right now, so why all the doom and gloom?