Glass half full or glass half empty?
It’s pretty easy to go for the former. The only unbeaten side in the league, just four goals conceded in eight games and a recent demolition of Pep’s highly-rated Man City despite missing a few key members of the team’s spine, including golden boot winner Harry Kane. A rampant Heung-Min Son, the emergence of Winks, Edwards and Carter-Vickers as genuine first-team squad members, oh and a win and clean sheet away at CSKA in the Champions League.
But this is Spurs, so a hefty dose of glass half-empty is essential (I'm sure there's a Yom Kippur gag in there somewhere!) and if you're going for gloom and doom then what better place to start than West Brom.
It always seems to be West Brom. Actually (with a notable exception for Chris Brunt who in 2010 and 2014 scored screamers against us) it seems one way or another to always be West Brom keepers. If it’s not Márton Fülöp throwing the ball in to gift Arsenal a win and third place in 2012 then it's Boaz Myhill or Ben Foster having 'worldies' against us! Every team at any level of football has that one opponent who you just know has some sort of hex over you. Right now that’s what West Brom are to Spurs. Three draws in a row against the Baggies is not the return of a team that has genuine designs on the title.
Yes, the T-word. I know we’re not supposed to talk about it in public but after the nature of the win over Man City, just half a goal a game conceded in the league season to date and despite the two points dropped (having had enough chances in the first half to win several games) against the Baggies, Spurs remain the only unbeaten side in the Premier League and so the secret is out. Whether we like it or not, and whether we actually are or not, the press have decided we are title contenders.
That’s new. New for these players. New for this manager. New for many of the fans. In fact it was probably 1986/87 the last time we harboured genuine ambitions of the biggest domestic prize. That was the vintage of David Pleat’s 4-5-1: Richard Gough, Gary Mabbutt, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle and the Allen’s. What a team that was! Ultimately that group couldn’t sustain a league challenge, finished third, made the semi-finals of the League Cup and lost in the FA Cup final.
Thirty years is a hell of a long time to wait for another shot at the league. Thirty years. A whole generation. Of players, of staff, of fans. So when Pochettino talked recently about April’s draw at home to West Brom (yep, them again) he talked about the end of last season as a mentality issue not a physical one. No Bielsa burn-out for these players, however a real job to do to instil a winning mentality. The kind of mentality that gets you over the line against teams like West Brom, somehow, any which way that's needed.
Perhaps when all is said and done, a more fundamental impact on our season may well come from the serious looking injury at the Hawthorns to our rock, Toby Alderweireld. He is the latter day Gough to Jan Vertonghen’s Mabbutt. A league ever-present since his arrival, a fan favourite for his leadership and passion as much as his defending. There’s a collective nibbling of nails waiting for news of how long he’ll be out.
Nope, despite all that, I’m glass half full. How can I not be when there's just too much to be excited about at Spurs right now both on and off the pitch? How can I not be when there’s a ‘never know you're beaten’ mentality which is an essential pre-cursor to the elusive winning mentality? How can I not be when the players seem to learn from and respond to any set-back? How can I not be when the players and manager are no longer happy to accept away draws at West Brom? And most of all, how can I not be when I’m wandering around the Spurs Shop to buy matching blue and pink cockerel adorned booties for my cousin’s brand new twins. The first of the next generation of Spurs fans in the family. The glass is a lot more than half full.
Jonathan Adelman is a season-ticket holder at Spurs, and also co-manages North London Raiders B in the MGBSFL
