Second-placed Tottenham Hotspur edge closer to ending 54-year wait

When Lukasz Fabianski saved brilliantly from Eric Dier’s close-range effort in Tottenham Hotspur’s match against Swansea City at White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon, it looked like Tottenham, who had endured a frustrating afternoon till then and had been trailing 1-0, were well and truly on their way to “Doing a Spurs”.

Over the years, “Doing a Spurs” has been associated with an unflattering, but not a totally unfair connotation – to play an exciting brand of football, only to fall away during the most inopportune of moments and matches - leaving the “Spurs” (as they are nicknamed) faithful with a sense of “what might have been”, had their team been consistent throughout the season and not stumble against the division’s lesser lights.

But manager Mauricio Pochettino and his men had other ideas and come full time, they were the ones celebrating a 2-1 comeback victory which stretched their winning streak to five wins in their last six matches and cementing their status as the division’s form team going in to the business end of the season.

For the record, Tottenham have won 17 points from losing positions, a testament to the spine and the belief injected by current manager Pochettino into the team during his tenure at the club. In previous seasons, the match might have finished 1-0 to Swansea with the home team ruing their inability to win a home game against a team lying 16th in the table.

‘Doing a Spurs’

For years, Spurs have been a team characterized by years of myopic and shoddy transfer dealings, courtesy of Mauricio Pochettino’s predecessors – Andre Villas-Boas, Tim Sherwood and to an extent, Harry Redknapp. The prime example of this was the 2013-14 summer window where the €100 million bounty from star player Gareth Bale’s sale was spent on acquiring seven players, only one of whom, Christian Eriksen is a regular starter for the club.

In footballing terms, Spurs absolutely played Swansea off the park on Sunday, taking 34 shots with 14 of them on target. Yet it threatened to be one of those oh-so-familiar afternoon for Spurs’ fans while the talking point would most certainly have been Spurs’ inability to close out matches had they lost.

One point that has not been discussed to a great extent is the club’s increased fitness, one of the primary reasons for their ability to come back and score late goals in matches. It is especially incredible considering that Pochettino has more often than not fielded his best team in all competitions, including the FA Cup and the Europa League, a competition largely ignored by his predecessors.

Squad depth and bench strength

Danny Rose, who hit the winner in Sunday’s game, was on the verge of leaving the club in the summer of 2014 after Pochettino had signed the gifted young left-back Ben Davies as a replacement from Swansea. Pochettino mentioned after the game that it was one of his main priorities to convince Rose to stay at the club.

Rose’s counterpart on the right flank, Kyle Walker too looked to be a peripheral figure after Pochettino signed Kieran Trippier last summer. Trippier had impressed while playing for relegated Burnley last season while Walker had an indifferent 2014-15 season. As it turned out, both Rose and Walker have retained their starting positions whereas Davies and Trippier have not looked out of place, when they have been called upon, in a testament to Spurs’ squad depth and bench strength.

It is also a miracle that none of the top teams with gaping holes at centre back (Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and maybe even Chelsea) did not try to sign Toby Alderweireld after his annus mirabilis at Southampton last season. Pochettino promptly poached the Belgian from the grasp of Southampton, and he has quickly settled in at White Hart Lane, while forming a formidable partnership with countryman Jan Vertonghen in the centre, letting in only 22 goals all season, four lesser than any other team.

This new found stability has also been seen in custodian Hugo Lloris’ play, as he must be relieved to be finally playing behind an adept defence. No longer having to play behind the bungling Younes Kaboul or the likes of Micheal Dawson or Vlad Chiriches, the French captain, who has always been brilliant at shot stopping, has had to make considerably fewer dashes off his line in order to cover for his defence which has resulted in better decision-making from Lloris.

The decision to move Eric Dier into the anchor man’s position has been a masterstroke with the youngster fully repaying the gaffer’s faith replacing last season’s poster boy Nadil Bentaleb, while allowing midfield partner Moussa Dembele, who for all purposes looked lost to the White Hart Lane faithful, to have an inspired and rejuvenated season while Dier goes around breaking up opposition attacks.

Another star for Tottenham has been the 19-year old Dele Alli, who has had seven goals and five assists to his name. While Son-Hueng Min’s signing has provided healthy competition to Nacer Chadli, Pochettino has made even that biggest-of-duds Erik Lamela, finally look like the €30 million that he was bought for, three seasons ago.

Harry Kane’s masterclass

But even Pochettino will agree that the biggest tweak to his team has been upfront. Not since Gary Lineker in 1991-92 has a Spurs’ forward managed to score 30 or more goals in a season till Harry Kane managed to bag 31 in his first full season last year.

While he endured a less than a desirable start to the season with suspicions of fatigue and enduring rumours of being a one-season wonder, those doubts have now been effectively dispelled with Kane sitting only behind Jamie Vardy in the current Premier League season’s goalscoring charts, having scored 21 goals in all club competitions so far.

But the Spurs face their sternest test now. They lost against a high-flying West Ham United on Wednesday and will face derby rivals Arsenal next, followed by a Europa League test against Borussia Dortmund to come, within the space of a week. Though they missed a chance to go on top of the league by defeating West Ham, beating Arsenal would put six points between themselves and their derby rivals, effectively ending Arsenal’s hopes of winning the title.

History is against Spurs as they have never finished above fourth in the Premier League era, but they are on course to get 74 points, their best ever haul in the Premier League. Currently in second place with an average age below 25 years, irrespective of whether they end a 54-year wait for the title or not, even its most pessimistic supporters will agree that signs of sustainable development are clearly visible. Come May, “Doing a Spurs” might just have to be redefined.