Spurs beat Manchester City with shedloads of talent, a bit of luck and overflowing with heart and soul. They faced the challenge with clear heads and not a trace of fear in their eyes. Bring them on, bring them all on.

Nobody predicted us to be second with 12 games left, 2 points off the top and 10 ahead of 5^th. It has made a substantial impression not only on the table but also on the media with Sky positively creaming themselves during and after the match. Yet the biggest impact has been on Spurs fans. Always loyal but surely this has exceeded all our expectations. Tottenham On My Mind is about support and supporters as much as the team. Last season and the beginning of this, people would whisper lest the secret would get out, look, it doesn’t feel the same any more. Old school fans, in their forties, fifties and beyond, a lifetime of support, weren’t getting the buzz as much.

The change in mood is the most remarkable feature of an extraordinary season. The enthusiasm and commitment as much as some outstanding football has swept us up in a tide of love and affection, and let’s call it by its true name because love is what it is. Fans talk with tenderness about players and a manager who care almost as much as we do. They know what the Hotspur, the one and only Hotspur, means. They play attacking football the Spurs Way, the way we have always played when we have been successful. They most certainly do not sit back and wait for the other team to die of boredom. Let’s hope some glory follows. Now, those conversations say, whatever happens, this is the best season in donkeys’ years, happy however it turns out. Me? I’m just a little overcome.

The significance of the win can’t be exaggerated and goes way beyond the three points over one of our main rivals. Our results against teams below us have kept us hovering around the top four in the past rather than taking points from those up above and joining in the party. That’s why the home defeat to Leicester rankles still, especially as it was to a set-piece goal and an error by the player who has been this season’s true game-changer, Toby Alderweireld.

Memories of going to City with Harry Redknapp. An outside chance of a win on the back of a little spurt of results first faded as we went two down then suddenly everything became possible when Bale put the ball into the top corner. At 2–2, Bale slid the ball across the box and Defoe’s outstretched foot failed to connect by a fraction of a fraction. Balotelli came on, stamped on Parker, stayed on to score a late winner. Ironically this was also a mistake by our best defender, Ledley King.

It’s a long season but ours turned on that match and that moment. Momentum and confidence were lost along with the points. Above all perhaps, that imponderable, nebulous but real, the feeling that despite everything, things weren’t going our way. Contrast that with a win built on the oh-so-tangible foundations of hard work, skill and motivation, but ultimately secured by a dodgy penalty and a late breakaway. Times are changing.

This is a side rooted in preparation and planning. Pochettino is an outstanding manager, meticulous in all aspects and a master of the four elements of management, the physical side in keeping the squad super-fit, tactics, choosing/buying the right players and motivation. I’d seldom argue that final whistle celebrations are a match highlight but if you have not already done so, catch the video of Poch congratulating his men in front of our jubilant away fans. One of those excerpts that we should all keep on our computers and play it when we feel down. Truly heartwarming, totally genuine. No choreographed celebrations or gurning down the steady-cam.

Moreover, MP makes preparation fun. He uses it to inject elan and flair into our play rather than stifle it. Comparatively little of that on show in a second half where we were on the back foot after City equalised. 1–1, half an hour left, strap yourself in for a bumpy ride. Yet this time Spurs produced the passage of play that turned the game. Despite our possession and ability to attack, Spurs remain thrilling on the counter, when teams come out and leave space behind. For all his newly found endeavour and ability on the ball, Lamela’s memorable defining skill is not the rabona but an angled pass delivered from a central position between 20 and 30 yards from goal. Once more he delivered, the perfection of the pass exceeded only by the mastery of Eriksen’s finish. He had a fine game all round and capped it by being the man furthest forward as well as the calmest man on the pitch. Cue bedlam in the away in the away end and bedlam in a Kent living room.

Pochettino has set the defining characteristics of this team too. My memories of the first half are a moment of pressing where a City player was trapped by the touchline 40 yards from his goal, 5 Spurs men as one descended on their prey. Or Walker sprinting back 40 yards to intercept a pass. Alderweireld, two tackles in less than 10 seconds as the fearsome Ageuro attacked deep in our box. This is Pochettino’s Tottenham. Our Tottenham.

We played so well but made few chances, in contrast to the Watford game where we made a hatful. We took the big one that came our way and I guess this is the way it will be until the end of the season, few chances so take them when they come along.

For all the planning, a moment beyond our control shifted the balance of power in our favour. Mark Clattenburg no doubt has suffered a decade of sleepless nights and self-doubt since he did not give the Mendes ‘goal’. On Sunday, he chose to exorcise the guilt. The only explanation, surely.

I like City’s fans. Like Spurs they are loyal from way back and their rivals have had the better of things for too long. Unlike us they have suffered the indignities of a double relegation. I’m less sure about their underachieving team despite the presence of two of my favourite non-Spurs men, Silva and Ageuro. Highly significant therefore that they needed the anger of a wrongly-given penalty to motivate them. Spurs on the other hand are powered from within, a determination to do well right from the off regardless of anything else that occurs. That motivation is hard to create but endures because it comes from within. Spurs are self-motivated. It is a huge, crucial difference that could be decisive in the run-in.

Another thing – in the past Pochettino has lacked a Plan B, how to change things if Plan A doesn’t work out. On Sunday, we saw how this has changed. No side can press intensely for 90 minutes. None of the pressing teams would think of even attempting this. On the hour, under pressure, we fell back into two other formations to suit the state of the game, firstly defending from within our half then near the end refusing to shift from our patterns 35 yards out. Defensive lines remained steadfast – we would not be pulled out to leave a gap.

And Hugo, under-employed, at the death a fingertip was enough to tip the ball away on the goal-line. I am convinced he got to that first because he wanted it more. The motivation runs from back to front.

How’s this for a story? Wimmer in his fourth start, fearless and mighty. No one in the media picked it up. They’ve begun to take our excellence for granted.

Tonight the Europa League resumes its role in draining the joy from football. As I have said repeatedly, it does not have to be that way and in an ideal world I’d like to see Spurs aim to get as far as possible in what should be a respected competition. But by now you would have seen the stats that Spurs could play another 27 games before the season ends whereas Leicester have 12. Shades of 1982 when hopes of not only the title but an unlikely treble sank in the White Hart Lane mud. Over Easter we played 8 matches in 12 days if memory serves.

Every time I get to this point in a blog I tell myself to simply type, ’and in the Europa League’, every time I can’t stop myself from adding a paragraph about the injustice, not so much to Spurs but to football, because it is wrong, it is avoidable and it infuriates me. Earlier this week the FA were talking about ending cup replays. So their solution is to devalue still further the uniqueness of a special competition. Never mind a single leg semi-final, I would get rid of the League Cup altogether. It long since outgrew its original purpose of generating more income for clubs and raising the profile of the Football League. Compensate all 92 teams with television money and give more publicity to a completion for sides outside the PL with a Wembley final. The extra EL place for a league finish would keep interest going longer too.

Back to the point. Sticking to my EL strategy outlined at the start of the season, I would send a decent team to Florence but hold back the spine. Mason and Bentaleb could yet be key to our chances of success this season. That is a strong central midfield line-up, last season’s first choice in fact. Son up front, Lamela, Chadli and Carroll behind him, we have excellent full-back options and Vorm in goal. Vertonghen’s injury exposes the comparative lack of cover at centre half so Wimmer plus Alderweireld, enabling our spine to take well-earned R and R, i.e. Kane, Dier, Eriksen, Dembele, Lloris and Alli. As if we needed another reminder of Pochettino’s expert player management skills but that is a strong side where only two players, Ononmah and Vorm, are short of first-team game time and all of them bar Dier/Alderweireld will benefit from the match.

 

 

As someone once said, of all the things in the world that aren’t important, football is the most important of all. Since I was a kid, Tottenham Hotspur have been a significant part of my life. Unlike my relationships, I’ve had the chance to leave but never wanted to. For me, a Spurs win lifts my mood and makes me a better person, until the next game comes around and the butterflies in my stomach return as kick-off is near. Shouldn’t be that way, but there it is.

My goodness me how I have missed it. I like to make up my own mind about things but having consumed Spurs through the media this past month, it’s interesting to see what they think of us. I don’t want an obsequious media, drooling over Pochettino’s views in the same way they fawn over Mourinho’s contemptuous invective, but while we get a good press, we don’t get the credit we deserve. Because Spurs are “a big club” (whatever that means exactly) there is an expectation that we will do well not shared by supporters to anywhere near the same extent. This is the youngest team in the PL punching way above their weight, full of young British players several of whom are home-grown. You’d think that would be more of a story. Leicester’s heroics have overshadowed that to a large extent, and good luck to them by the way.

However, the radio has conveyed a sense that Spurs will keep going. Listening to both the Palace and Everton games on 5 Live, we went a goal down but just kept on playing, undeterred. It’s a good feeling to have.

In the words of soul legend Solomon Burke, she’s mean to me, she’s so bad for me, but when she touches me, nothing else matters. As others tire of the game, exhausted by the shabby, dismissive way supporters are treated, by the money, the greed, the hypocrisy, the incompetence of those who run it in England and across the world, so I grow to love my club more. Being there is what matters to me and I was glad to be at the Lane yesterday. Joy and relief in the stands when the goal went in. I joined in the singing, then stopped to listen, look around and take it all in. The whole ground full of song, the noise echoing in the roof and in my ears, rhythmic clapping rippling around the stands.

The goal when it came was worth waiting for, not only a thing of considerable beauty but also an illustration of how far this team has come. Spurs clean out an untidy ball in the corner not by whacking it upfield, perfectly acceptable though that option is, but by a spot of head tennis to keep possession at all costs. Kane comes deep to help out. Still in our half, a cushioned lay-off, his trademark touch, to a stampeding Dembele who surges 20 yards onwards. Not so long ago, he would have waited and taken it sideways.

Dembele pauses, here’s Alli just on as sub, to take it further. Outside of the foot cross, confident, precise, bisects keeper and defenders. This effort takes several Spurs attackers deep and should leave us short, but here’s a full-back, Trippier, at the far post to gleefully tuck it in. He’s run 80 yards from the edge of his own box to get there. The whole thing took, what, 15 seconds.

Trippier was marked by Capoue, one of the old guard who by all accounts did not buy into Pochettino’s regime, aka wouldn’t put the hard work in. The Frenchman half-heartedly goes with his man but could not be arsed to run the extra yard or so that would have prevented this goal. That’s why he no longer plays for us.

Even allowing for their self-imposed lack of ambition, Watford were pressed back into their half for extended periods. Never mind the shot and corner stats, the number crunchers could have added ‘times in the opposition half’, such was our dominance. They kept it very narrow and tight, denying space with 10 or 11 men behind the ball. It’s something we’ll have to get accustomed to.

Spurs combated this by attacking at a high tempo from the start and sustaining this until we went ahead. Despite the blanket defence, we made more chances in this match than in any I can remember for ages, 5 or 6 good opportunities in the first half. Pochettino’s system asks a lot of the full-backs, probably why he’s sought quality cover on both flanks as a priority. Trippier and Davies, nominally the second choice pairing, did not disappoint. Three times in the first half, Davies closed in on the goal with menace and intent. Three times Gomes saved low down to his left. He kept Watford in the game and was their star man by a street. Kane and Chadli missed good chances too.

Tottenham came out after half-time and upped the pace, if that were possible. Now it was Trippier’s turn to feature. Time and again he burst down the right and his crosses posed a danger every time. Spurs launched a determined assault on the Watford goal, 15 minutes of relentless brilliance that produced several chances and a definite penalty when Gomes, reverting to behaviour so familiar to Spurs fans, clumsily fell into the back of Kane’s legs. Eriksen and Trippier excelled, Lamela, who had a reasonable game, missed a great chance and helped create others. Then the goal, significantly one of the few times Spurs shifted the defence right out of shape. It was more like an away goal, hitting on the break, which is why we have such a good away record – it’s a style that suits.

Not so long ago you would have had more chance of convincing me that the earth is flat, people can walk up the side of buildings and next year we’ll all get around by using jetpacks than persuading me that Spurs have the best defensive record in the Premier League. Yesterday, for all the sustained attacking, Alderweireld showed once again that he is the main reason why. Alert and strong, he snuffed out most of Watford’s efforts before they got anywhere near Lloris, who did not have to make a save all afternoon. He’s in charge, of the opposition and his own defence, organising and pointing. Wimmer looks promising, in the same mould. He accomplished the best single piece of defence, stretching to intercept a curling cross and heading it back to Hugo.

Dembele was outstanding in the first half. In terms of the extent to which he lifts the team’s performance, he remains the most influential midfielder in the league. Trippier wins man of the match. Eriksen as I said was excellent too. Dier was not only strong as usual but kept the attacks moving with a series of firm, straight first-time passes from the back. I prefer Son to Chadli and Lamela because of his greater impact in the box, and I would have started him/brought him on sooner.

Talented though these individuals are, the team’s the thing. I’ve not seen a Spurs manager have such an impact on the team since Billy Nick. Burkinshaw deserves great credit for his achievements, more so than he receives. His is a lasting legacy, Pochettino’s short-term (so far) but more transformative. His ability to organise and motivate has transformed Tottenham Hotspur from a bunch of underachievers plus youngsters into a dynamic, purposeful aggregation where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

As I write we are second in the league. Think I will type that again. Tottenham Hotspur are second in the league. We deserve it, but whatever happens from now on in, it is a heart-warming experience that lifts the spirits and restores the faith of jaded supporters in the beauty and glory of the game. The soul-sapping spectre of the Europa League looms in the background. Tiredness could be our worst enemy. For now, enjoy every moment. I wonder if this is how it felt in 1959, when supporters starved of success watched a largely untested manager assemble the pieces of the greatest side of modern times. This lot won’t be as good as the Double team, of course not, but we are watching something special come together nonetheless.

Fortunes on the field are subject to the vagaries of the game – loss of form, tiredness, poor decisions, bad luck. However the season turns out, Pochettino’s side have achieved something that seemed impossible in the contemporary history of Tottenham Hotspur, bringing the club and supporters closer together. The problems and potential problems have not disappeared. Lest we forget, prices deter many and exclude many more. The club is more responsive to fans than they were 18 months ago and the Supporters Trust have had a lot to do with that but let’s not kid ourselves. In many respects at senior level they do not understand what fans want and even less about how to give it to us.

But this team have transcended that. They give everything they have. They care – about each other, about winning, about the supporters. They understand what the club means to supporters, what it stands for. After the Norwich game, instead of dashing off after a perfunctory wave to the Park Lane, spontaneously they stayed on the pitch as if they did not want to leave it after playing so well. They shuffled round in a semi-circle of honour, all of them, applauding the crowd who sang ‘happy birthday’ to Hugo. Instead of rushing home to the warmth of families who wanted us to be with them on Boxing Day, many stayed and clapped back. It was the same yesterday. It’s different, it’s wonderful.

 

I am deeply touched that so many people have missed the blog over the past month and have said that reading it is part of their Spurs routine. Sincere thanks to everyone who has wished me and my wife well. She doesn’t understand why so many total strangers have hoped she gets better but she is grateful. She also doesn’t understand why I sat at her hospital bedside and watched a vine of Alli’s goal at Palace for 10 solid minutes, but you do.

I don’t always get my priorities right when it comes to football. Easy to say Tottenham comes first, it trips off the tongue, you can all laugh along, but in my case the obsession has led to a few questionable decisions. I went to the game when people close to me would have preferred I was somewhere else.

As somebody once said, of all the things that don’t really matter in life, football is the one that matters most. I missed the Southampton game and since then Mrs TOMM has been in hospital so time to write is short. This was our bedside view for the Leicester cup-tie on Sunday. Think of the last few weeks as Tottenham On My Mind’s winter break.

This is the longest break on the blog during the season since I began seven years ago. I’ve missed writing about Spurs and apparently some of you have missed me. Sincere thanks for the messages and comments, deeply appreciated. The number of subscribers has gone right up even though there’s no content – readers don’t want to miss out.

I missed writing about the Norwich win. We played so well, so wholeheartedly, supporters and players felt closer than has been the case for so long now. A major theme of mine over the past two seasons is the yawning distance between supporter and club. This lot have bridged the gap. We and many others lingered in the warm glow instead of rushing away to Boxing Day families impatient for our return. The players felt it too, staying on the pitch, a semi-circle of honour if not quite a lap.

So I’ll see if I can make a late entrance on Wednesday night, Saturday if not. Keeps me steady, on track. Being there is more important than win or lose, helps me be the person I want to be. Winning’s nice, mind.

Tottenham On My Mind doesn’t get a mountain of page views but I’ve discovered the readers are phenomenally loyal, and that’s all right with me. Spurs are part of of our lives and I’m amazed and touched that some of you live it with me. Thanks for staying with me, a belated Happy New Year and stick around because this is going to be an interesting year for the blog. You might well be able to help. After the intermission, stay tuned.

Kyle Walker takes a throw-in towards the end of the match in front of the Shelf. Whatever his faults, he always finds some energy if Spurs are chasing the game late on. Eric Dier is in front of me, in space, about 10 yards away from the thrower, but the midfielder is looking at the ground. His eyes are weary, his expression pained. He doesn’t want the ball. Despite his relative youth and inexperience, all season his broad shoulders have carried the weight of expectation and the burden of performing in the clatter and clutter of a Premier League midfield. Such is the fierce strength of Dier’s intensity, when he came near the Shelf you could almost warm your hands by it. Here it had become a guttering candle. Eric Dier had reached his limit.

I’m not blaming Dier for the defeat against Newcastle. He did not have a good game but that can be said for half the team and after all, his near post header from a first-half corner put Spurs ahead. Anyway, after what he’s put in lately, I’d forgive him anything. But this apparently insignificant scratch to the veneer of Spurs’ polished season summed up the team’s performance in a nutshell.

Newcastle forced their way back into the match, repeatedly slicing through our midfield with a series of fast, direct counters. In a five-minute period, four last-ditch tackles denied clear goal opportunities, two by Alderweireld, one by Rose and one by Vertonghen. The game was turned on its head after Tottenham’s first half superiority.

This was the moment when Spurs ran out of steam. Tired legs and tired minds, exhausted by the strain of relentless decision-taking and the pressure of being really quite good. When the legs give out, it’s usually because the mind has gone first. The pressing game requires countless by-the-second decision-taking – where should I be, where is everyone else, do I go or sit tight? That’s before you get the ball and switch instantly into attack and create mode, let alone think about moving into the top four with a win. You could almost hear the rush of the wind as the season caught up with us.

You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. Since August wave after wave of opposition attacks have foundered on the rock that is Eric Dier. The magnificence of his contribution showed up in stark relief by its absence. A couple of weeks ago I described Dembele as the most influential midfielder in the league right now. My goodness me how we missed him, not just his strength or touch but also the way what he does makes the team so much better. He holds to give others a precious second or two to get into place, his barrel chest a counterpoint to Alli’s lithe skills, Kane’s touch and intelligence, Eriksen’s movement. He makes us better.

This season I’ve frequently used the word ‘drive’ to describe the big difference in midfield when we have possession. Dembele, Mason and Alli look to get the ball forward, to make something happen, to impart impetus into our tempo. Yesterday, we had too many players who did not make their mark on the game. I like Tom Carroll, the way he scurries around, always makes himself available and looks to pass early and forward. His ball inside the full-back for Rose in the first half was typical, that exaggerated body position, the care and precision of the pass. Yet as the game went on he made no difference and was substituted into anonymity.

They all faded. Alli full of flicks – ‘I won’t bother breaking my stride, I’ll just volley this pass 20 yards to Kyle over there’ – but little influence. Eriksen too, Kane not in the game enough although he had a couple of decent shots. Lamela’s EL hat-trick against Monaco was fun, the third was particularly sweet. Yesterday he drifted infield where on Thursday with more room he was so effective, here he became clogged up with the others as Newcastle cut down the space. Time and again our one-twos were easily blocked and we passed through gaps that didn’t exist. Width would have helped but we never did anywhere near enough to shift the Newcastle defence out of position.

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Fans were muttering darkly about this return to the Spurs we know and love, always doomed to fail just as we think we might have turned a corner. In reality this failure points up how consistently well we’ve played up until now. It also proved what many of us have felt so far. We have a fine, highly promising side capable of taking on the top four if everyone is right on their game. There’s little margin for error, although the defence have been resilient of late. Dier off the pace, Mason and Dembele absent and that left a big hole. Kane was isolated. Son came on as a sub to show why Poch did not pick him as a starter. He looks stiff-legged and anxious, trying too hard and so failing to do anything much. Kane remained isolated therefore.

And much as I love him Hugo was off yesterday too. The first goal found him back on his heels so he could only watch a long cross then push out a tame close-range shot straight to Mitrovic. Late on Perez shot from wide, from that angle I was certain the ball would go wide as Lloris parried his low near-post shot, only to see it roll in. It was a fine effort from a tight angle, low and hard in the spot close to their bodies that keepers dread, but Hugo has saved so many of those in the past….

Hugo’s distribution was poor when we need our captain to exude confidence from the back. I get that he is trying to pass the ball out rather than just kick it away. That succession of efforts to the left were probably a pre-planned tactic. It’s just that if he’s going to pass the ball, then he has to be judged as you would his team-mates. Part of that is all about making good decisions, and he didn’t.

Newcastle played well in the second half, discovering a pressing style and purposeful movement that has been missing under McLaren. They should move up the table if this and their excellent reserve keeper are anything to go by. However, Spurs should have put this one to bed in the first half with Kane, Rose and Lamela failing to capitalise on our superiority.

Plenty to be optimistic about. 14 games unbeaten is a start. So far this sequence of winnable matches between now and the New Year has not gone well but it’s very close at the top of the table and the quality remains. We’re learning, let’s not forget that.

For Pochettino, this is a step into the unknown. How will this relatively inexperienced squad cope with the physical pressure of the Christmas and New Year period (including 3 games in 7 days in the second week of January) and the mental pressure of the expectation of success? Dier, Kane and Eriksen need a breather but of course we are short of cover, especially up front. This harks back to my concerns about our business in the last window. Inflexible at the best of times, his squad gives him limited opportunities to freshen it up.