Tottenham: Spurs hoping to shrink the table after Saturday results

Results were not necessarily favorable so much for Tottenham on Saturday as they were for the league as the leaders fell, giving Spurs and everyone the chance to shrink the table.

Overall the results on Saturday only put pressure on Tottenham heading into Sunday. The team Spurs most needed to lose, West Ham won and moved to five points ahead of Tottenham in fourth place. Besides the Hammers win, Liverpool and Manchester City continued their early dominance collecting three more points each against Wolves and Watford respectively.

Those three wins put real pressure on Tottenham to keep pace to have any realistic shot at fourth-place or even something better. When the teams above Spurs all lose it creates the pressure to make a statement and pick up ground. However, when the teams above Spurs all win, that puts a different pressure on the team because losing more ground in an already uphill battle is a recipe for failure.

If there was good news Saturday it was that West Ham beat Chelsea, which means there is a new leader in the clubhouse, and everyone benefits.

Tottenham and table benefit from top team losing

Had Chelsea beaten West Ham, as it looked like they were going to do an hour into the match, the Blues would have gone to 36 points. Even with three points against Norwich on Sunday, Tottenham can only get to 25. An 11 point lead is huge.

Sure Manchester City will have a 10 point lead on Tottenham if beat the Canaries but now third place would be eight points back instead of nine. As the Lilywhites have already learned this season, teams can move up and down the table in rapid fashion but not always.

Yes, West Ham is still in fourth and sure Arsenal may still be ahead of Tottenham in the table by the end of matchday 15 but Spurs and every other team, need to gain ground whenever they can. Even if that ground is just 1 point.

Of course, that 1 point comes, only if Tottenham takes all three from Norwich.