The festive period in the football calendar has boded well for Tottenham Hotspur fans this season, as Tim Sherwood’s influence begins to flood over the football club, resulting in four positive results, with three wins and one draw.
Our haul of ten points from a possible twelve was only bettered by Manchester City’s twelves points from the same amount of matches. Victories against Southampton, Stoke and Manchester United, whilst a draw against West Brom ensured that we remained in the mix for Champions League qualification.
Our first match of the festive period saw us face off against Southampton at Saint Mary’s in Tim Sherwood’s first league match. A highly anticipated affair, billed as one of the most entertaining games in the league, due to Southampton’s fast paced style of play, whilst our attacking play had improved since the new appointment. The neutral fans weren’t disappointed however, with Spurs edging the five goal thriller, 3-2, courtesy of a brace from recalled striker Emmanuel Adebayor, as well as an own goal from Jos Hooiveld cancelling out strikes from Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.
Only four days later, we played West Bromwich Albion at White Hart Lane, where we were expected to routinely defeat the manager less, West Midlands side who were on the back of a poor run of form. However, this match didn’t go as expected, finishing 1-1, in a poor match, after Christian Eriksen’s first goal in the Premier league, coming in the form of a free kick, was immediately cancelled out by centre half, Jonas Olsson.
A further three days later, we faced Mark Hughes Stoke City at White Hart Lane. A far more routine performance, as well as a continued run of goal scoring of which we’ve seen under Sherwood, saw us run out 3-0 winners, courtesy of goals from Robbie Soldado, Moussa Dembele and a first goal of the season for Aaron Lennon.
We concluded the festive period with an away day to Manchester United on New Year’s Day. Despite our positive form under Sherwood, few expected us to get anything out of this game, in terms of points, due to Manchester United’s run of six straight victories in all competitions. However, we defied the odds, winning 2-1, strikes from Emmanuel Adebayor and Christian Eriksen being enough to hold off Manchester United’s barrage of attacks late in the second half, despite Danny Welbeck getting one goal back for the hosts.
After this festive period, we currently sit in 6th in the Premier table, only two points off fourth placed Liverpool and three points above 7th placed Manchester United. The attacking philosophy installed under Sherwood, as well as the two striker system has seen us score nine goals in four games, goal scoring of which was unseen under Andre Villas Boas. Considering all of the negatives associated with the club as far this season, we’re not looking so bad respectively, with our new manager still needing more time to take full influence over the side, as well as some of our summer signings still needing time to bed into the side, with players such as Erik Lamela, yet to make a lasting mark on our side.
Source: DSG
