Spurs have taken eight points from Liverpool and Manchester City this season, but none from Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. They have one last chance to solve that, and literally no margin for error…
Tottenham face a significant challenge tonight, one that goes beyond the usual North London Derby pomp or even the added drama around this specific game because of its vital importance to the top-four race and the rumblings of discontent about the way Arsenal gamed the system to get the game postponed on its original date back in January.
Back then of course it would still have been a huge and important game, but the specifics would have been less stark. Mad as it now sounds, back then it was even feasible that both these sides could miss out on the Champions League and that Manchester United might still qualify. I know, incredible. Now an Arsenal win will guarantee them top four and the return of St Totteringham’s Day festivities after a five-year absence and even a draw should almost certainly be enough.
And this is where Spurs have a specific problem. Based on the evidence of this season, they will very likely lose this game. Not because of fate, or Spursiness (although that may well be a factor) or sod’s law or anything else. But because recent history suggests it.
A pretty neat and tidy way of summing this Spurs side up is this: they have taken eight points from four games against Manchester City and Liverpool, the two best teams in the country by approximately eight or nine billion miles, but no points from five games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United.
On the surface, it’s easily dismissed as some Classic Spurs Banter but it does sort of make sense. They are a good but not great side blessed inexplicably with an elite manager (albeit one who frequently appears to find himself wondering how and why he is there). Against City and Liverpool the task is counter-intuitively straightforward. However much it might annoy Jurgen Klopp –…
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