After a shock defeat following a near perfect start for Spurs in this year’s installment of the English Premier League, shadows of doubt are beginning to creep into the Spurs faithful, after an unsettling preseason, with talks of their favourite son potentially heading for a new challenge.
As far as football clubs go, Spurs have been an absolute raging success. They have built themselves up from being a mid table club, to now being home to some of world football’s biggest names, and further challenging for the Premier League year in and year out. Spurs have come to be defined to be the one team that has the ability to trip up the biggest names in World Football. Whether it be Real Madrid in the Champions League, or Man City in the Premier League, Spurs have consistently been able to turn in incredible results.
One area that has been difficult for Spurs however has been that of silverware. You don’t need to be a footballing genius to know that while Spurs have enjoyed a meteoric rise over recent times, there is one department wherein they have really struggled to pull the trigger. It was part of the reason they parted ways with Pochettino, who did so much for the club.
This too was part of the reason Spurs sacked Mourinho. Silverware for clubs with high ambitions is important, and is why Spurs have taken such drastic measures with the last few managers that have suffered the axe. Winning trophies is very difficult, The EPL is arguably the most competitive league on the planet, and it certainly gets no easier when you venture into the Champions League and Europa League.
That aside however, Spurs were on their way to enjoying a near perfect start to the 21/22 Premier League campaign. They beat defending champions City on matchday 1, and went on to beat Wolves and then Watford in their next two games in the Premier League. This was however to come to an unfortunate end, as they struggled to rally after Japhet Tanganga’s sending off against Crystal Palace.
The end result shocked many, but arguably most of all were bookmakers in South Africa, who gave the men who used to hail from White Hart Lane especially short odds for their encounter with their North London rivals.
The Eagles capitalized on the ten men Spurs, and ended the game having scored three unanswered goals within the space of less than 20 minutes. What made this rather surprising is that Palace have not had an ideal start to life in the league this season, having succumbed to a strong Chelsea on Matchday 1, and going on to draw against West Ham and Brentford.
Is this however, a sign of things to come? Or is it too early to be making such bold claims? The camp seems to be divided, and with the Harry Kane situation to have seemed to have reached boiling point, and the feeling of a bit of a panic appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo after talks with Antonio Conte had collapsed, more than a few are beginning to sweat.
Conte has enjoyed huge success in Europe, with Chelsea, Juventus, and most recently Inter Milan, but it was Spurs’ unwillingness to spend in the transfer window that turned the Italian away from a move to North London.
Be that as it may, if their start to the Premier League is anything to go by, Spurs fans can rest easy. They have shown some top notch performances, and they’re main men are here to stay, which should give fans a renewed hope despite the slip up against Palace over the weekend.
