A lot of the praise has been thoroughly deserved.
After years of being also-rans they have now truly joined the party at the top end of the table. The club are moving into what looks to be a very impressive new stadium and have good young players to grace it. Yet Manchester City are still 11 points ahead of them, Manchester United are three points above them and Chelsea have just leapfrogged them into third. Meanwhile Arsenal, seemingly in turmoil, have won two FA Cups in the time Mauricio Pochettino’s revolution at White Hart Lane — and now Wembley — has been taking place. They might be on the road to great things but they are certainly not there yet. Far from it. Indeed in the North London derby on Saturday there was further proof that talk of a power shift across town is extremely premature. Spurs fans celebrated finishing ahead of Arsenal in the league last season like they had won the European Cup. Yet the side that ended up holding a trophy was Arsenal — a third FA Cup in four seasons.
Spurs have not won a trophy since the League Cup in 2008. Pochettino was saying this week how he would not swap the progression the club has made for trophies. Yet how is progression judged? When you look around stadiums, the pictures and murals that remind fans of past triumphs tend not to say ‘second’, ‘third’ or ‘Champions League qualification’. They have images of trophies. Big occasions that the fans truly remember. Sacrificing cup runs for league places might impress the bean counters who increasingly seem to run football clubs nowadays. It does not, however, do it for the supporters. To be fair, Arsenal themselves have been criticised for being satisfied for top-four security down the years.
It was something they lost last season but still they had a trophy to show for their efforts. Saturday showed what a team and performance Arsene Wenger can still get out of his players. In many ways it must be frustrating for Arsenal fans to see. Their team can put on a fantastic performance like that but nobody will be surprised if they go to Turf Moor next week and lose. Having said that, on the big day of a major derby they turned up and Spurs did not.
Arsenal were better all over the park. Tottenham’s big players were not at the races — Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen all went missing. Yes Kane had his leg strapped up but, I’m sorry, if you are chosen and go over that white line you are expected to produce. There has been much hype about England star Dele. Talk of a move to Real Madrid, of changing agents and the like, but the football is not backing up the hype. He needs to get back to doing what he did well for Spurs last season and ignore the praise. We saw the way Eriksen destroyed the Republic of Ireland with a stunning hat-trick for Denmark in the midweek. Was he drained from that experience? He should have been empowered by it. Top players do it week in, week out for club and country. It’s not a chore, it’s a joy. So while everyone is banging on about Poch being the next great thing and Jose Mourinho being a manager in the past, let us just step back and analyse what is really going on. Manchester United picked up two trophies last season with the EFL Cup and Europa League.
They currently have the best defensive record in the league and only City have scored more goals.
They may well defend their League Cup triumph as well — a competition that Pochettino sacrificed for the greater good of league points.
When it comes to managers at football clubs there are still masters out there and Pochettino is still the apprentice.
Start putting silverware on the table and that might change.
Until then, as Sir Alex Ferguson once said to his players: “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”
From The Sun
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