Hopes and Expectations

Right then fellas, here we are again; approaching the run-in for another Premiership campaign. There are 10 games to play and 30 points to be won and I thought that this might be a good time for another one of our analysis sessions.
I've posted the remaining schedule and the current standings below so that we can discuss the games and keep an eye on the difficulty of the approaching fixtures. I know that we can all get this information quite easily, but I thought it'd be easier for reference purposes if it was all in one place.
Are we satisfied with our current position? How is the team playing? Which games do we think we'll win/lose? Where do we think that we'll end up?

It's been a turbulent period since Christmas and things haven't quite gone to plan. Just a couple of weeks ago we were in a position where a few more losses could have seen us get sucked into the relegation battle, such was the close nature of the League at that stage. Well, we seem to have come through that period and have shown real character over the last few games to secure some unlikely results, including a couple of away wins.
Hopefully, we can now say that we're on an upward spiral, although we're all aware that this can change very quickly nowadays. At this moment, confidence is sky-high and I would say that we're playing our best and most fluent football of the season so far. We've even managed to get ourselves back in contention for one of the UEFA Cup spots, as we currently stand a mere 4 points behind Reading, who we face at the beginning of April - massive game!
Now then, looking at the fixtures, I would say that we've got quite a favourable run-in and that we 'could' win 8 out of our last 10 games. Yes, I know that's optimistic and I dare say we'll see a few draws in there but nevertheless, there's some serious pointage to be had. I'd be happy with anything over 20 points from the last 30, which would see us finish the season on 59 points. I know this isn't quite as good as last season (where we finished on 65 points) but we have to be realistic here; our away form has been atrocious so we can't expect too much. Also, the League is a lot closer this year and there are a lot more clubs challenging for those Euro places. The points appear to be spread more evenly over a larger number of teams.
I'm going stick my neck out and say that we can still achieve a UEFA Cup spot through the League, but I don't expect it and I'll see it as a huge achievement if we manage to pull it off. There are still 8 clubs in the running for those 2 places, after all.
Our next game up is West Ham away, which is obviously a must-win if we're going to keep ourselves on track and maintain our team-spirit and momentum. The Hammers are in such a state at the moment that it'll be a huge blow to us if we don't manage to get a result. What with Pompey playing Chelsea in their next game, I think we could see ourselves in 8th position very shortly.

Discuss.

March
WIN 3-4 04 Sun Away West Ham Premiership 16:00
WIN 3-1 17 Sat Home Watford Premiership 15:00

April
WIN 1-0 01 Sun Home Reading Premiership 16:00
LOSS 1-0 07 Sat Away Chelsea Premiership 12:45
DRAW 3-3 14 Sat Away Wigan Premiership 15:00
DRAW 2-2 21 Sat Home Arsenal Premiership 15:00
WIN 2-3 28 Sat Away Middlesbrough Premiership 15:00

May
05 Sat Away Charlton Premiership 15:00
09 Mon Home Blackburn Premiership 15:00
13 Sun Home Man City Premiership 15:00


1 Man Utd 35 56 85
2 Chelsea 35 40 80
3 Liverpool 36 31 67
4 Arsenal 35 26 63
5 Bolton 36 -3 55
6 Everton 36 13 54
7 Portsmouth 36 6 53
8 Tottenham 35 0 53
9 Reading 35 6 51
10 Blackburn 35 -4 47
11 Aston Villa 36 -1 46
12 Newcastle 35 -6 42
13 Man City 36 -13 42
14 Middlesbrough 36 -8 40
15 Sheffield Utd 36 -19 38
16 Fulham 35 -19 36
17 Wigan 36 -22 35
18 West Ham 36 -27 35
19 Charlton 36 -24 33
20 Watford 36 -32 24

Good post, will respond more later when im not playing poker but..... if we win all our remaining games and the leaders dont get any more points we could win the Premiership!!!

We should win about 7 out of them 10. (5 at least!)

The only ones I can't see us winning are Chel$ki and Ars*nal. Lose against Chel$ki and draw against Ars*nal. The rest I think, depending on injuries and suspensions, are ours to lose.

Yes very true mate but i'm still not sure about Boro at Riverside.

They aint anything special mate.

I know but they can be when they're at home sometimes.

The table and results have been updated now and things seem to be going pretty well. The game against The Hammers was one that I think we all expected to win but nevertheless, it was a fantastic result given the manner of it. As I was predicting earlier: we've now moved up to the dizzy heights of 8th place, with daylight between ourselves and Pompey in 9th. It's all going to plan.
Next up, we face Watford at home; another must-win game of course. Watford obviously know that with a string of good results and a huge amount of luck, they could survive the drop, and they be fighting all the way. Even so, we should have no problem in putting these guys away given our current form which is, in my opinion, the best form and the best football I've seen at Spurs for as long as I can remember.
As for our competitors for that UEFA Cup spot; they have slightly tougher fixtures on the horizon. Everton and Reading are both playing at home against Arsenal and Pompey respectively and it could be difficult for either team to secure a win. Seeing as we're only a single point behind both of these teams, could we find ourselves in a Euro spot in the near future? It would seem that it's distinctly possible!
I know that we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, but if things continue the way they are then we could find that the 5th spot is well within our grasp. There's a long way to go but finishing 5th in consecutive seasons would surely be huge for the club. It would not only prove that last season was no fluke but it would also establish us as the primary contenders to challenge the dominance of the top 4 over the coming years. This would be hugely exciting because I think that our squad is really starting to 'gel' and settle into a style of play. At the start of this season we were in a transitional period wherein we had quite a few new faces in the first XI. If we can finish the season in a good position, even after an inconsistent first half of the season, then hopefully we can hit the ground running next season and go on to achieve greater things. Of course, we don't know what changes Jol will decide/need to make over the summer, but it seems unlikely that there will be as many as last summer.

Anyway, let's see how it goes.

3 out of 3 so far lads!!

COYS!!!

Yep, it's all going pretty well so far, although the tougher tests are still to come. I've updated the results in the original post and I'll sort out the table following the Everton - Villa game this evening (fingers crossed that Everton get clobbered at Villa Park!).
I thought that the game against Reading was great to watch and really entertaining, despite the lack of goals. We really should have scored more but I suppose Defoe had a goal wrongly disallowed, which was unfortunate. I can honestly say that in terms of football quality and entertainment, Spurs are certainly one of the best in the League at the moment, if not the best. Malbranque had a particularly good game and wall full of energy, as was Lee who is starting to win me over again after a few mistakes earlier on in the year. I don't think that anyone really had a bad game, although I was disappointed to see Defore show so little composure with his chance near the end.
Anyway, a good result and a clean sheet in the Premiership! I think I read that it was our first clean sheet in the League since October time, which really is a shocking statistic. Ah well, I'm sure we won't leak quite so much when the King returns; any news on that Jono?
Next up: Chelsea. We're only a mere 7 points behind Arsenal now lads, although they do have a game in hand. Dare we dream of Champs League football next year? Not really, no. Stranger things have happened though...

Right then, another update to the initial post has been done and things are looking good.
During the last seven games (of the ten game run-in) we've managed to get four wins, two draws and a loss. Very respectable, although I think we should be slightly disappointed about the Wigan result.

When I created this post I made the following comment:

Our league form at the time really wasn't that hot. It would seem that way back then, our league position was secondary to our cup exploits and we were hoping to secure next seasons Euro football through victory in one of the cups. Of course, things have now changed and now that we're not playing quite such a ridiculous amount of games, we should be able to push on and comfortably get into the UEFA placings. In fact, looking at the table, we will find ourselves in a clear 5th place if we can win our game in hand away at Charlton.
Winning all of our remaining games (and they are all very winnable) will see us finish 5th for consecutive seasons - it's nice to see that matters are in our own hands. I would consider 5th spot combined with our exciting cup runs to represent a very successful season for the club, and - most importantly - we'd have progressed from last season. Do others agree or think differently? Last season we managed 5th spot with no cup exploits whereas this season, I think we've battled admirably on four fronts.
I'd be happy with 5th; be satisfied with 6th and be disappointed with anything less. Intertoto is not an option!
Next season I shall be hoping to consolidate 5th spot/slip into the top four and reach a final/win some silverware. I don't think this is unrealistic.

Woohoo I was right