It’s been a weird old season for Tottenham Hotspur. It started with immense optimism after winning the Europa League and breaking a 17-year trophy drought. Leading to a trophy parade which saw an estimated 225,000 attendees watch their team celebrate the trophy win. It was a moment of great catharsis for all Spurs fans, however, it hasn’t been smooth running this season.
Preseason Signs of Encouragement
With Thomas Frank joining after Ange Postecoglou was sacked, there was hope that he would breathe new life into this Spurs team, which had been in need of change after an abysmal domestic season left them finishing 17th. The preseason had some promising signs; there were victories against Reading, Arsenal & and a draw against Newcastle in which captain Heung-Min Son played his final game for the team. The defeat in the EUFA Super Cup was seen as a greatly promising result as Spurs had gone into the final 12 minutes of the game two goals up before the Champions League winners got back into the game and went on to win the subsequent penalty shootout.
Summer Transfer Dealings
In the transfer market, Spurs went out and brought Mohammed Kudus for £55m, a tricky winger who brought greater depth to a team screaming out for a 1v1 dribbler. After a well-reported and dramatic failure to bring in Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze, who chose to join rivals Arsenal, there were concerns that, after James Maddison’s injury, Spurs were lacking creativity. In search of creative spark, Spurs beat Chelsea to sign Xavi Simmons for around £60m, the young creative playmaker from RB Leipzig. Spurs also purchased CB Kota Takai from Japan for around £5m, making him the most expensive J-League player of all time. They also completed the signing of Mathijs Tel from Bayern Munich after his loan last season. And went on to bring in two loan players, João Palhinha & Randal Kolo Muani. All in all, Spurs fans were excited heading into the new season.
A Strong Start
Spurs enjoyed a strong start, a 3-0 home win over Burnley and a 2-1 win away at Manchester City before losing in very poor fashion to Bournemouth 1-0. A game which manager Thomas Frank has since described as one of their worst performances. This was followed by a run of strong away form, which saw them beat West Ham 3-0, draw against Brighton 2-2, and then victories against Leeds & Everton.
In Europe, Spurs managed to pick up a victory against Villareal, before drawing with Bodo Glimt & Monaco, both games that they should have lose. They followed this with a 4-0 hammering of Copenhagen, so you could argue things were going well.
Worrying Signs
An early concern was the home form. After the victory against Burnley on 16th August, Spurs didn’t win a game at home in the premier league until the 6th December. And whilst they picked up results in Europe, it was still rubbing fans poorly as performances were poor.
Fans were growing unhappy with the poor results and more concerning the performances. In the league Spurs were getting okay results but performances were leaving fans worried that it wasn’t sustainable. Which proved to be the case as Spurs played two London derbies against Arsenal and Chelsea in which they were abjectly awful, netting an XG 0f 0.08 in both games combined. After another defeat against Fulham at home, there was increasing pressure on Spurs manager Thomas Frank to turn this around quickly or face the sack.
Resurgence?
After the defeat against Fulham, Spurs managed to finally net their second home win in the premier league with a 2-0 victory over Brentford. A result which places Spurs 11th in the table. With only 4 points separating them and 4th placed Crystal Palace after 15 games. Spurs followed this by beating Slavia Prague in the Champions league 3-0 at home to bring further relief and put Spurs funnily enough 11th in the Champions League table as well only 1 point away from 8th place automatic qualification for the knockouts. With 3 games remaining and games against Dortmund, Frankfurt and Qarabag, Spurs can have some hope over being able to qualify.
Predictions
It’s hard to predict Spurs at the moment, I think partly still because of last season. Spurs are traditionally a top 6 team, but finished 17th last season. At this point, I would expect Spurs to be finishing in the top 8. I think they can put enough of a run together to do that fairly comfortably. I know some fans would expect to be closer to be 4th or 5th, but I think we’d need to see a large improvement for that to happen, and considering last season’s awful league season, we should be treating this season as consolidation, especially as they’re balancing Champions League as well as Premier League.
In the Champions League I’d hope to see Spurs making it to the round of 16 as a minimum. Whether we could go further than that is largely down to luck, however, we know this Spurs team can beat anyone on their day, and have proved they have what it takes to go deep in competitions. Maybe we could see them go deeper this year into this campaign as well.
Hi, I’m Jacob. I write and edit for GameDayRoundup with a focus on football news, gaming culture and the growing world of esports. I enjoy breaking down big stories into something that feels approachable and fun to read. I’m always looking for new topics, new angles and new ways to keep our readers informed without overcomplicating anything. Writing for this site lets me share the things I follow every day and I love being part of the team.
