| The View from the
Lane By Nick Griffith
I’m beginning to understand why supporters of even
the top-placed teams still manage to moan. It’s fun! Here
Spurs are, clinging grimly to that fourth place (at the time of
writing, it should be hastily noted) – thanks purely to the
inconsistency of the teams below us – and the bravado is fading.
I managed to be in France when we drew with Sunderland. France
– you know! It’s the big bit below us. Where Arsenal’s
Mummies and Daddies live. (Your Boy in the Clock End’s England
dig cut to the quick, last issue.) And I had the misfortune to witness
the Wigan 2-2. Not one of our players had a decent game. That we
scraped the draw was undeserved, if happily accepted. Wigan’s
players offer all the glamour of a wet-weekend fish supper with
Jade Goody and partner, yet they were all over us for 90 minutes,
while we hoofed long balls over to Mido on the left because he’s
quite tall. At last we have a skilful, ever-expanding midfield.
So let’s use it.
I don’t buy that Euro-nerves excuse. There are still eleven
games to go, almost a third of a season. It looked to me like an
over-indulgence in self-belief and the devaluing of a tenacious
opposition. We have to show no mercy to weaker sides, yet Spurs
sides had so often sat casually back, scraping the draw or, not
irregularly, losing. This season started hearteningly enough. It
looked like Martin Jol had talked the players around their commitment
issues. Then we lost away to West Brom, gave away a two-goal lead
to Leicester in the FA Cup, only drew with a crap Villa side…
We’ve got Chelsea away coming up, from which we’re
unlikely to see a host of points, and Man U then Arsenal in quick
succession towards the end of the season. But it’s the five
games in between, against Birmingham, West Brom, Newcastle, Man
City and Everton, that will determine our success. We could –
and have to – win them all.
I know it’s defeatist, but I’d happily see us win a
Uefa place rather than Champions League, where I suspect we’d
be rabbits caught in headlights, give us a chance to gain in experience
and build. Provided that we finish above Arsenal.
I’d happily watch us win a place in Crufts, Small Dogs Answering
to the Name of Cyrus division, if we finish above Arsenal. We’re
currently five points ahead, but it could have been far fewer, had
the Gunners not started pleading for woolly mittens every time a
coach took them north of Watford.
That Highbury clash looks tantalising, but I’m making no
predictions.
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