Lucky week for Spurs

Thursday, 05/01/2012

by James Willis, Shoot's Tottenham blogger

In any other week, drawing with Swansea and then scraping past Wigan 1-0 might look like a bad few performances, but this week it was a different story.

With both leading Manchester clubs slipping up over the weekend, Tottenham's 1-1 draw with Swansea gave them a point which had more value than they would have expected. It was a very resilient Swansea side, who Tottenham had found tough to break down, and despite eventually opening the scoring, Swansea deservedly equalised and earned themselves a point from the game.

It seemed like a tough blow to Tottenham's attempt to keep pressure on the top two Manchester clubs, or at least it would have had their not of been a few other surprising results over the weekend. Manchester United fell 3-2 to Blackburn Rovers, while Manchester City were unlucky to fall 1-0 to very solid Sunderland team.

It meant that Spurs gained a point on their nearest rivals ahead of them, and with some small luck also had a few teams behind them drop some points too.

The squad then headed into their next game against West Brom, looking to put further pressure on the teams ahead of them by earning another three points. Manchester City had only earned a draw with West Brom a few weeks before, adding to the importance of this fixture for Tottenham.

Roy Hodgson, as he always does, ensured that his team was incredibly well organised and played to stifle Tottenham's game plan. For so long the tactic worked, but Tottenham eventually found a way through with a typical Jermain Defoe finish.

This time around there wasn't going to be a Swansea-like equaliser. Tottenham managed to keep their defence solid and record another clean sheet in order to pick up a valuable three points.

Although Manchester City managed to pick up three points on the same evening, with a 3-0 win over Liverpool, their local rivals Manchester United once again faltered.

In the evening after the Spurs game, United took on Newcastle and didn't even seem to bother making a fight of the game. Demba Ba moved to secure further recognition as Robin van Persie's nearest goalscoring competitor, by scoring the first in a 3-0 win for Newcastle.

The result means that if Tottenham win their upcoming game in hand against Everton, they could move level on points with Manchester United. Spurs would remain in third place on goal difference though, barring a miracle (a 13-0 win).

I've said it almost every week this season, but I'll unashamedly say it again: These are very exciting times for Spurs fans.

Perhaps title challenge talk is getting a bit too carried away at the moment, given how the title always comes down to grinding out results in the second half of the season, but as a Spurs fan myself, I'm more than happy to be proved wrong on this one.

With the January transfer window now upon us as well, it'll almost certainly be interesting to see if Redknapp can finally make that 'marquee' signing he's talked about for so long.

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