Since the New Year, Tottenham Has Been One of the Premier League’s Best Teams

This season, Tottenham Hotspur has been one of the pleasant surprises in 2015 but Spurs’ run of form has started before their 2-2 draw against Stoke City on August 15. It started on January 1st after a 5-3 win over Chelsea on New Year’s Day.

Including last season’s performances shouldn’t count, because it’s obvious — they’re from a year ago — except this is based on Tottenham’s current form during the year of 2015 only. Which is the entire basis of this article.

Therefore, since January 1 until now November 16, this is where Hotspur HQ will examine how well Spurs have done when compared to seven other Premier League clubs with the help of Opta Stats’ table which is useful for analytical stories.

Before going to the table let’s start off with some requirements that were needed first:

• This table only looks at the top seven Premier League clubs who have done well since January 1, 2015 based on points first and foremost
• Only Premier League fixtures are taken into consideration from Matchdays 20–38 (1/1/15 — 5/24/15) from last season plus this season from Matchdays 1–12 (8/8/15 — 11/8/15)
• All other competitions have been excluded (FA Cup, League Cup, Champions/Europa League and pre/post-season friendlies)
• This table is only an indication of how good these seven Premier League clubs have done in the year of 2015 only and nothing else

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With these bullet points already established let’s take a look at the table below.

[table id=44 /]

As we can see from the table above, it shows that Tottenham are the fourth best team in the Premier League during the year of 2015. The transformation of Spurs from an “oh-so-close-club”, when it comes to reaching a top four finish in previous seasons, could realistically happen this season because of their good run as of late.

A run of good form that included three big wins over Chelsea (5-3), Arsenal (2-1) and Manchester City (4-1). If you add the 1-1 draw with Arsenal on November 8, that’s four points taken from the Gunners this year alone. Spurs are showing that they can match up well against the elite Premier League clubs and it won’t be an easy win for teams who are facing Tottenham moving forward.

Now while Tottenham are close to reaching the top four as early as the end of November. It should also be pointed out that Spurs’ top four finish will be aided with the help of Chelsea struggling to find their form and Liverpool undergoing a transitional phase with Jürgen Klopp as the new Reds manager.

At the same time, Tottenham have managed an 11-game unbeaten streak which is nothing to scoff at. But the reality is that it will end. What Mauricio Pochettino’s squad does following a loss, will be something to focus on. How will Tottenham respond during their next game? A win, draw or loss?

If Tottenham can get more wins than draws, even before their 11-game unbeaten run is snapped, they’ll be in good shape heading into January and potential be sitting in third place with Manchester City and Arsenal battling it out for the league title.

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But getting back on topic to the main point. What this table has shown is that Tottenham have come a long way in a short amount of time. From January 1st to May 24th, that’s a span of five months and 23 days. When you add in this season’s Premier League — August 8th to November 8th — that’s four months.

So in total Mauricio Pochettino, since the start of the New Year, has turned Tottenham around in only nine months and 23 days to accumulate the fourth best Premier League record in 2015: 15W-9D-7L and 54 points earned in 31 matches. Spurs are also tied for the third most goals scored in a nine month span of games played. Unfortunately, Spurs have the third worst goals against record by conceding 39 goals in nine months.

But overall though, the amount of work that Mauricio Pochettino has done with Tottenham: retooling the squad into his vision, bringing in youth academy graduates and giving them some playing time, playing a very young starting eleven on a game-by-game basis this season in all competitions and having Spurs become the fittest and most hard working team has helped get the Lilywhites to where they are today. Yes, with the help of a wide open top four due to Chelsea and Liverpool’s current seasons.

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This is a golden opportunity to reach the Champions League for the second time in Club history and with nine games in 37 days, following the end of the international break, the season will only get tougher when the FA Cup begins in January.

Something to be concerned about when the Premier League returns, is how Spurs players have suffered from some tiredness which showed near the end of an eventual 1-1 draw with Arsenal. If that continues, along with minimal rotation in the starting lineup due to Pochettino favoring chemistry among the starters, it could be a major factor in undoing Tottenham’s season once May comes around.

(Opta Stats’ table, provided by HITC)