Tottenham Hotspur: The Season so far...

Gentlemen, first things first, apologies, I realize I have been off the blogging scene almost as long as if I'd "broken a bone in my leg". Not that you are at all concerned with my personal life but I have had quite a manic time of late. Up until now my Internet connection has been about as effective as Arry's botox injections. Fortunately, after a series of Joe Jordan-esque phonecalls, Mr Murdock was kind enough to quickly button up his trousers, bid Arsene, Alex, Rafa and Carlo farewell and gift me with all the wonders of a Sky Internet and TV package. 'Oh Brilliant' I thought 'just in time for the Everton game'...as if we needed another reason to hate Murdoch.

There is far too much ground to possibly cover in one post. There was the systematic dismantling of my self respect as I sat, the only spurs fan, in a Croatian bar, watching Chelsea dissect us like an inquisitive and playful child with an insect. Then there was the gut wrenching sight of Fabregas waltzing through our backline with Palacios and King, our two great, tough tackling, defensive rocks made to look like Titus Bramble. And then...well...thats it really. Lets be honest, when looking at the season so far its been a great success. This was always going to be a tough year with Man City spending heavily in the summer and Villa dealing well in the transfer market but, nearly half way through and we're up in fourth place punching with the big boys.

This appears to be a very different spurs side to the one I have watched utterly exasperated for the last few years. The Tottenham of old upped their game against the Big Four, usually still losing but putting in plucky performances that, for once, won acclaim in the media. The same Tottenham would then grind out sloppy draws against West Brom and Derby, throwing points away against teams we should easily have put to the sword. This season we have been outplayed by United, Arsenal and Chelsea (although never by as much as the scoreline has suggested), making schoolboy errors that have cost us dear. Yet, far more encouragingly, against the so called 'lesser' teams of the Premiership we have taken leads, defended them and put the game to bed, tucking them up like Wenger doing his nightly rounds at the Arsenal U-14s Lodge. Christmas has never been kind to our dear club so lets hope the apparent crisis of confidence we showed in front of goal at Everton was only a temporary blip.

Are we a top four team? Maybe. We certainly aren't a top 3 team yet but Liverpool are looking like a genuine casualty this season. My only worry is that a couple of nasty injuries and we are in a very sticky situation. Despite my initial reservations Krancjar has been a fantastic replacement for little Luka but I still feel we lack quality cover in key positions. With the continuing rehabilitation problems affecting Ledley and Woody all we need is an injury to Dawson or Bassong and we are back to the dark days of Huddlestone anchoring our backline. I also can't help but feel Defoe is our only prolific striker. With Pav nearing the exit door, I just don't believe that Keane and Crouch are capable of spearheading a top four goal rush. And then there's Lennon. One broken leg and we'll have a whole season with Bentley on the flank. Lets hope for some clever and cost effective re-enforcements in January.

In 'Arry We Trust