Is Title Talk Too Soon for Tottenham?

Every mention of a potential Tottenham Premier League title push is laced with a strain of doubt.

There have been other teams – perhaps better teams – that have found themselves into contention for one of the most valuable trophies in world football but faltered by the end of the season. Liverpool in 2013/14, perhaps most notably. Any Arsenal team in the last ten years. Even Tottenham in 2011/12. Southampton played their hearts out to defy expectations last season but ultimately slid down to a more reasonable spot in the table by the season’s end.

There are twelve games yet to play in the Premier League. Thirty-six points. That’s a immense amount of chances to slip, to stumble, to falter.

Thankfully, the same could be said for Leicester, Arsenal and Manchester City. The latter two still have domestic and international cup obligations ahead – as do Tottenham – while Leicester have a run of matches against relegation fodder that could prove tricky.

Of those three teams, Tottenham have only yet to play Arsenal. Additional matches against Manchester United, Liverpool, Southampton and Chelsea could still complicate matters, and who knows what surprises lurk in the remaining seven fixtures.

Still, it’s fun to dream, no? This is the highest Tottenham have ever sat in the Premier League table at this point in the season. And it’s no fluke.

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Yes, it helps that this is an unusually chaotic Premier League season. But it says something that Tottenham have been able to be the most consistent team in a season full of bipolar performances. Pochettino has been able to resist the temptations of the transfer market and concentrate on building a team with a singular vision in mind.

He’s been helped along the way by a surprising amenable Daniel Levy, a chairman who used to be known as much for his lack of patience as for his penchant for wheeling and dealing. Pochettino has convinced Levy of his vision and together the two men – with no small amount of help from Head of Recruitment Paul Mitchell and Academy Director John McDermott – have slowly but surely built a team for a new age of English football.

Even if it might be tempting to say this team is already complete, in reality it is very much in the early stages of its development. They’ve recruited young, talented players with an eye toward two or three years from now, right before Tottenham are expected to move into their new stadium. It finds itself where it is now almost by accident. Title pushes were always anticipated, but no one inside or outside of the club likely expected to happen this soon.

In a way, the pleasant surprise of being in second and just two points off the top of the table might be Tottenham’s greatest advantage. This is a team that is uniquely unburdened compared to the other three teams in the running. Tottenham haven’t spent over a decade on the fringes of the title like Arsenal. They didn’t invest insane sums of money over the summer in a bid to become title favorites only to have their dreams slowly start to unravel like City. They aren’t faced with the prospect losing all their best players in the summer and having to write this season off as a fluke like Leicester.

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Here is what Tottenham are: a team who are uniquely positioned to be able to do this all again next year, and the next, and the next after that. This is a team built for marathons, not sprints. They can finish this season with the title or with just the Champions League and be confident that they can come back and do even better next term.

Other teams might be able to say the same, but no where is the line to sustained success more clear than within Pochettino’s Tottenham. That kind of confidence should moot any anxieties about the title this season. Maybe it comes this season, maybe it doesn’t, but there’s a good chance that this won’t be the last time Tottenham are in the hotseat come February.

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