Patience is Needed for Tottenham Hotspur Top Four Climb

It only took two losses for Tottenham to go from first to sixth place earlier this season. To make it back into the top four, however, it is going to take more than two wins from Spurs. Both the club and the fans need to be prepared for a long road back into the top four even if the Spurs can find a way to keep winning. While Spurs can certainly win a way back into the four it is going to take time.

Tottenham was Top Early

Early in a season, there is a lot of seesawing that occurs between teams for positions. One week a team can seem destined for relegation, the next they are on top of the world. Tottenham Hotspur moved into first-place after the ninth match-week this season. Although the Spurs were officially the first-place team the separation between first and second was only goal difference all four weeks.

In Week 13 Spurs lost to Liverpool with the last second Firmino goal and dropped to second. A week later Tottenham lost to Leicester City and suddenly Spurs were in sixth-place completely outside the top four. Depending on how you look at the table – with or without the games in hand played – Tottenham has only been back in the top four once since that time.

A lot easier to drop than climb

Following that week 14 loss to Leicester City, Tottenham would go unbeaten for five straight matches, but with only two wins to go with three draws Spurs were treading water. So despite a five-match unbeaten run, Tottenham had only gone from sixth to fifth in the table and was not gaining ground.

It was at this point, with Tottenham on 33 points in fifth place that the wheels came off for Tottenham. Three straight losses saw the Lilywhites fall to eighth-place and a win over West Brom followed by a loss to Manchester City left Spurs in ninth-place. Tottenham remained in ninth-place the following week after losing to West Ham.

Even with wins Spurs have a long way to go

Hopefully, for Tottenham Hotspur, that loss to West Ham was rock bottom. Not because West Ham is terrible, rather because Spurs no longer have any margin for error. Even more daunting it is going to take an accumulation of wins to move up the table. On Wednesday three teams Spurs are competing with all dropped points as both Manchester United and Leicester City drew and Aston Villa lost.

However, despite all those dropped points, and even if Everton – the team immediately in front of Tottenham in the standings – losses and Spurs win, Tottenham will be no better than the eighth place they started the day in. The teams in the table will be closer but Tottenham cannot move up tomorrow.

Liverpool and Chelsea play each other so at least one more team in front of Spurs will drop points, if not both. This represents yet another opportunity for Spurs to close the gap but nothing more.

Sure there is an outside chance that is everything falls just right over the next five days Spurs could be in fourth place on goal difference Sunday evening. At that point, West Ham and would be just one of three teams playing Monday that could leapfrog the Spurs back out of the top four. That is just the nature of the table this season.

Likely, it will take at least three more matches and some real luck for Spurs to get back into the top four, and even then, much depends on the teams around Tottenham – even if Spurs are winning. In other words, this trip is going to take time and patience. However, if Tottenham Hotspur can start stringing together wins and they get a little fortune with the teams around them in the table, anything is still possible in this strange season.