I know we're all a little gutted to not have taken 3 points at Swansea and finish 2011 on a high, but I think we ought to be optimistic really.
Of course , 3 points would've been preferable but we were looking quite tired and Swansea have a great home record. How we ended up, during the most congested part of the season, playing Tuesday evening - Saturday 3pm at opposite sides of Britain, I don't know - the mysterious omniscient and omnipotent fixture computer obviously has something against Spurs fans!! We've actually had a much tougher Xmas period than it first looked.
Home to Chelsea was always going to be tough and, really, taking a point from a game against a top 4 rival is perfectly respectable. Then we had 2 games against newly promoted teams. Fine. However, neither are struggling in this League and both are very capable at home. The fact we had to play both Away, consecutively, within the space of barely 3 days, going from the most Easterly stadium in the Premier League all the way over to the most Westerly, made it that much more difficult.
You look at Woolwich's 2 home fixtures against similar opposition, Manchester United also at Home and, really, we could easily have drifted away from the top.
Chelsea had to play Fulham and Villa, also both at Home, and whilst more established Premier League teams, in terms of form these fixtures were far easier than what Spurs faced.
We took 4 points from our 2 Away games over Xmas. Chelsea, United and City took just 3 points combined! Woolwich also managed 4 points, but they were at Home for their 2 games against Wolves and QPR and so could easily have taken all 6 and probably should have.
So, all in all, Xmas 2011 was great for Tottenham's, I'm going to say it, push for the title.
Much more than a New Year's Eve game Away at Swansea, our results in January will really decide how serious we are about a title. Compared to most teams at the top, we don't really lose anyone of note (except Benny, so a LB in the window might be needed) to the ACN and we have 5 games at Home out of the 6 we play in January. They're, pretty much, all games we would hope to take points from, with the real cruncher being that game-in-hand against Everton.
A good January though, and talk of a 1st title in 50 years might start to become increasingly plausible.
Of course , 3 points would've been preferable but we were looking quite tired and Swansea have a great home record. How we ended up, during the most congested part of the season, playing Tuesday evening - Saturday 3pm at opposite sides of Britain, I don't know - the mysterious omniscient and omnipotent fixture computer obviously has something against Spurs fans!! We've actually had a much tougher Xmas period than it first looked.
Home to Chelsea was always going to be tough and, really, taking a point from a game against a top 4 rival is perfectly respectable. Then we had 2 games against newly promoted teams. Fine. However, neither are struggling in this League and both are very capable at home. The fact we had to play both Away, consecutively, within the space of barely 3 days, going from the most Easterly stadium in the Premier League all the way over to the most Westerly, made it that much more difficult.
You look at Woolwich's 2 home fixtures against similar opposition, Manchester United also at Home and, really, we could easily have drifted away from the top.
Chelsea had to play Fulham and Villa, also both at Home, and whilst more established Premier League teams, in terms of form these fixtures were far easier than what Spurs faced.
We took 4 points from our 2 Away games over Xmas. Chelsea, United and City took just 3 points combined! Woolwich also managed 4 points, but they were at Home for their 2 games against Wolves and QPR and so could easily have taken all 6 and probably should have.
So, all in all, Xmas 2011 was great for Tottenham's, I'm going to say it, push for the title.
Much more than a New Year's Eve game Away at Swansea, our results in January will really decide how serious we are about a title. Compared to most teams at the top, we don't really lose anyone of note (except Benny, so a LB in the window might be needed) to the ACN and we have 5 games at Home out of the 6 we play in January. They're, pretty much, all games we would hope to take points from, with the real cruncher being that game-in-hand against Everton.
A good January though, and talk of a 1st title in 50 years might start to become increasingly plausible.
Sorry for being a mong.