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Tottenham Hotspur Links: Kieran Trippier Happy to Earn First Premier League Start

By Alexander Balano

Jul 29, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Tottenham Hotspur defender Kieran Trippier (16) plays the ball during the second half of the 2015 MLS All Star Game against the MLS All Stars at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 29, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Tottenham Hotspur defender Kieran Trippier (16) plays the ball during the second half of the 2015 MLS All Star Game against the MLS All Stars at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s a short but detailed edition of Tottenham Hotspur Links.

Today’s Tottenham Hotspur Links will be light in terms of newsworthy articles, but heavy on the details. So let’s right into it. First up is a story involving Kieran Trippier. Now while Trippier’s name was horribly left off in yesterday’s post-game notes on accident. Today he’ll get a bigger feature than just a single line or a couple of sentences.

And finally, Spurs have a shot at winning the Premier League title. For some people — or all — they tend to have similar or differing reasons as to why it can happen. One thought revolves around Chelsea and Manchester United’s underperforming seasons right now. While true, that’s just a part of the reason why Spurs got to where they — third place. So with that all said, let’s get to the links.

RELATED: Tottenham Links: Premier League Title is Possible

After coming over from Burnley, the signing of Kieran Trippier, had some thoughts that a change at right-back might happen with Kyle Walker struggling to stay healthy for the past two seasons. Mauricio Pochettino wanted to give Walker some stiff competition to see if he could fight for his job and regain his old form that saw him as one of England’s better right-backs a few years ago.

Trippier could have leapfrogged over Walker during the summer after getting some much needed pre-season minutes, but in the end Kyle Walker regained full fitness and hasn’t looked back. Even preforming better than he has in quite some time, whereas Kieran Trippier has been biding his time until earning his first Premier League start for Tottenham in yesterday’s game against Watford at Vicarage Road.

“I’m delighted to get my first start,” Trippier said. “It was important, we came here to get the three points, which we did. Playing against 10 men isn’t easy but we got the three points.”

Despite being a mainstay during Tottenham’s Europa League run, for Trippier, the task of adjusting to a different role when you used to be a regular starter takes a while to overcome. But from day one, the 25-year-old English right-back has felt welcomed since the very beginning. And all he’s trying to do now is just give his best for the club whenever called upon.

“It was a bit difficult at the start, moving down here, but all the lads, the staff, the people around made me feel so welcome and I’m adapting quickly to the style of play of the players here and what the manager needs of me. All I can do is give my best when I’m called upon.”

Many people have their own reasons for why Tottenham can the Premier League title. Some are similar while others are different. But there are a couple of interesting tidbits that a few people might have forgotten about or just haven’t paid much attention to at all throughout this season.

Here are two reasons why Tottenham can win the league title, or at the very least, challenge for it and cause problems for top-of-the-table clubs.

A good blend of youth and experience at key positions:

While it’s true that Tottenham have plenty of youth players on their team, they all happen to play at positions where it shouldn’t necessarily hurt them. In fact, having a young striker in Harry Kane (22) and Dele Alli (19) in a central attacking midfield role, they’re both able to make runs throughout a full 90 minute match.

Their so-called unlimited energy to play on lighter legs — legs that haven’t had the constrains of 200 through 300-plus matches in their careers — will make it easy for them to stay healthy and even recover faster than some veterans who have been through so much over the years.

But, when it comes to Spurs’ veteran players they’re not all that much older. The oldest player on Mauricio Pochettino’s first-choice backline is Jan Vertonghen at 28-years-old. Hugo Lloris is just a year older while Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker are 26, 25 and 25, respectively.

Youth and experience are being blended in a smart way and it has paid dividends this season.

Injuries are a part of the game, but Spurs’ key players haven’t missed much time:

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Tottenham have suffered their fair share of injuries — but none as badly as Arsenal or even Manchester City. Also Spurs haven’t lost any of their more significant players this season.

That’s not to say that some players who have suffered injuries are considered bit-part players.

But rather, when looking at how many games a few of Tottenham’s major contributors this term have missed individually, it’s quite shocking. As a whole, combined, it’s almost unfathomable to believe.

Number of league games missed this season (19 games played so far):

  • Toby Alderweireld — 0
  • Dele Alli — 2
  • Eric Dier — 1
  • Harry Kane — 0
  • Érik Lamela — 2
  • Hugo Lloris — 1
  • Jan Vertonghen — 0
  • Kyle Walker — 1

As we can see, the most games that these aforementioned players who missed stands at two games. In Dele Alli and Érik Lamela’s case, they only missed two games because they were an unused substitute in one and suspended for yellow card accumulation in the other.

Eric Dier also had to miss out due to suspension. Hugo Lloris suffered a fractured wrist before the season started but yet only missed the season opener. Kyle Walker was on the bench yesterday against Watford to rest him ahead of another big fixture in January against Everton.

In total, with just these seven players listed — all of which are needed in their respective positions — they happened to miss a combined total of seven games only.

Next: Tottenham Need to Wait Out Eriksen's Slump

It could be argued that Tottenham are just being lucky with their injury bug. But at the same time that’s not actually true. Because Nabil Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli, Mousa Dembélé, Christian Eriksen, Ryan Mason, Clinton N’Jie, Alex Pritchard, Danny Rose and Son Heung-min have all been sidelined this season.

If anything, Tottenham’s players are just bettered conditioned than a majority of the Premier League teams this term. And it could be heavily attributed to the fact that they’ve had double, sometimes triple, training sessions leading up to this year and during the season. Also having one of the youngest squads in general in the league has it’s benefits too. Not much wear and tear on the body and a faster recovery rate.