This time next week, the hangovers from Qatar will be fading. The football world will be turning its attention from the FIFA World Cup 2022 back towards club football and the Premier League.
With games set to resume on the 26th of December this year, we take a look at how the Tottenham Hotspurs are placed, and what they will need to do to have a successful second half of the 2022-23 season.
Tottenham’s Season in the Balance at the Break
Heading into the almost two month-long break for the FIFA World Cup 2022, Tottenham Hotspur’s season was in the balance.
After 15 games, the Spurs had won nine games, drawn two and lost four. This put them in fourth place on the Premier League table on 29 points—one point behind Newcastle, three points behind Manchester City and seven points adrift from the league leaders Arsenal.
Across their fixtures, Tottenham’s most impressive performances came in wins over Southampton 4-1 and Leicester City 6-2. All four of their losses have come against top sides, going down 3-1 to Arsenal, 2-0 to Manchester United, 2-1 to Newcastle and 2-1 to Liverpool.
So far, it has been a season that is very much on a knife’s edge. A couple of wins over top sides and Tottenham will look like title material; a couple of slip ups, and they’ll quite quickly begin to look like imposters in the top four.
Big Start to the Second Half of the Season
Tottenham will be relieved to see that they ease their way back into the Premier League season following the FIFA World Cup 2022 break with an opening game against 10th placed Brentford.
Two more winnable games are on the schedule, with clashes against 12th placed Aston Villa and 11th placed Crystal Palace coming next. However, this is about as easy as it gets from the Hotspurs, who will then come up against league-toppers Arsenal on the 15th of January.
This will be a real test of where Tottenham are at in their season, as there’s a good chance they’ll move through their first three games of the resumption without issue, only getting tested for the first time by Arsenal. UK bookies with the best live odds have Arsenal as the current favourites to win the Premier League, however should they lose to Tottenham in mid-January, those odds would shift.
Other Key Matches Ups for Tottenham
Immediately following their 15th of January clash against Arsenal, Tottenham will again be tested with an away clash against the current second-placed side, Manchester City.
For a side that has plenty of existing injury concerns, Tottenham will be hoping they are back to full strength for this gruelling back-to-back test. Just a fortnight later a return match against Manchester City will be played, before the UEFA Champions League last 16 commences in mid-February.
While this will no doubt consume much of Tottenham’s focus, they will also have an eye towards a tough week in April, which may determine their 2022-23 campaign.
Between April 22-29, the Hotspurs will play Newcastle, Manchester United and Liverpool in Premier League fixtures. Tune in this Boxing Day to see how Tottenham begin their second leg of the season against Brentford.
