Tottenham: November, December schedule as tough as it gets

Tottenham Hotspur’s fixture list looks particularly challenging in November and December.

While an argument can be made that the order of Premier Leagues doesn’t matter — after all, you play all 19 other teams home and away — the fixture list does make a difference.

The time between games is important, but also the order of opponents matters. Form is key in the Premier League. If games against tougher teams are spread out, it’s arguably easier to maintain good form throughout the season. On the flip side, get good results in a tough stretch of the fixture list and it can set a team up for the rest of the year.

When breaking down Tottenham Hotspur’s fixtures for the 2020/21 season, the stretch of games between November and December immediately jumps out.

In the space of eight games, Tottenham will play Manchester City (second in the Premier League last season), Arsenal (eighth), and Leicester City (fifth) at home, as well as Chelsea (fourth), Liverpool (first), and Wolves (seventh) away.

That’s about as tough a run of games as you could ask for.

There are two ways to look at it. If Tottenham come out with some good results in this stretch, they’ll be able to take that form into the new year, while also getting many of their most difficult games out of the way.

However, if they struggle for form and drop a lot of points in this stretch, they could fall behind and need to play catchup in the second half of the season.

Of course, at this stage, it’s just a list of games on paper. We don’t yet know how good each team will be. If Tottenham have a similar season to the one that’s just finished, they’ll struggle for consistency no matter the schedule.

But if they take a step forward as they’re aiming to do, they will be able to compete with any team in the Premier League.