Tottenham Can Finish The Season in Third But Will Need Help!
By Logan Holmes
Tottenham’s defeat of Manchester City has improved their chances of finishing the season in fourth but they could turn Andre Villas-Boas’ first season in charge into a momentous one. A third place end to the season finish is still possible and would be their highest ever place in the Premier League.
For Tottenham the remaining games are all about Glory [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]Three points on Sunday from Manchester City ensured that Tottenham wrested the outcome to the 2012-13 season out of the hands of others and back into their own control. Now, by winning their remaining five games Spurs will ensure a top three finish. As had been expected March and April have proved tricky months for Tottenham with difficult fixtures, a hectic schedule of matches including Europa League games and an unexpected run of injuries to top players. As a consequence results suffered and it looked as if Spurs were having a re-run of the spring slump experienced in the past two years.
Tottenham can, however, finish third if they win all five games but some assistance from Champions, Manchester United would be useful. Every match is a ‘must-win’ game to the end of the season with the focus being on the early May match at Stamford Bridge with whoever comes out on top having the upper hand for the run-in. With Everton slipping back, three clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs, are aiming for the final two places in next season’s Champions League. One team is going to be miss out and Tottenham have suffered that disappointment on more than one occasion in recent years – they will be quite happy to allow either of their London rivals to experience the heartbreak this time around.
All three clubs have difficult matches in the next few weeks but two matches which could have the greatest significance on Spurs’ fortune don’t even involve them. On Sunday, the newly crowned Premier League Champions, Manchester United, visit the Emirates while a week later Chelsea visit Old Trafford. It is vital, from a Tottenham perspective, that the Manchester United players are fully focused for those two games. Their manager certainly will be. Sir Alex Ferguson with the club’s twentieth title secured is looking for a record points total for the season. He needs to win the remaining four games to surpass Chelsea’s record of 95 points. Speaking ahead of last Monday evening’s win over Aston Villa which clinched the title, Sir Alex was reported in the Guardian,
"“It’s not beyond the team at all. If you are asking if Manchester United can win five games in a row, well how many times have we done that? So it’s not beyond us.”"
One down, four to go for United and hopefully Sir Alex can ensure that his players are performing with the intensity and endeavour that they have shown through the rest of the season especially when they face Arsenal and Chelsea. Any indication of the players slipping into a summer holiday frame of mind or of the use of squad players to rest those who have carried the team through the past nine months could be seriously detrimental to Tottenham’s season.
First of all Tottenham must ensure that they carry on from where they left off against City and that it wasn’t a fifteen minute dream sequence to exhilarate us before dumping us back down to reality. It starts on Saturday against Wigan who have shown remarkable powers of recovery in their past seasons’ battles against relegation. Spurs’ need must be greater than Wigan’s as it was ultimately against City last weekend. The win against City must have been a boost to the team’s confidence and with players returning from injury, they will be able to put out their strongest team so there are no excuses for failure.
It will be an exciting finale to the season and where Tottenham finish is in their own hands but a little assistance from others wouldn’t go amiss at this crucial time of year.