Have Tottenham got what it takes to win the Premier League Title?
Spurs have got a tough time ahead, and the results in the upcoming fixtures leading up to Christmas will tell us all we need to know about whether or not they are serious Premier League champion candidates. Their 2-0 win against Manchester City last weekend leaves Tottenham at the top of the Premier league table. It's the first time that they have been in that vaulted position in six years.
The disturbing thing is that when you look at the match statistics from their game against Pep Guardiola's men last Sunday, they are quite worrying. City had 22 shots on goal whereas Spurs could only muster four. The citizens notched up ten corners while Tottenham didn't get a single one. The pass rate was 597 versus 313 in City's favour, 30 of them being crosses as opposed to Tottenham's two.
The only area where Spurs outdid the Sky Blues was in long balls where Spurs notched up 62 against Manchester city's 36.
The statistics clearly indicate José Mourinho's tactics, and how the game unfolded, with Spurs playing a rearguard action for the majority of the game and relying on breakaways to score. And score they did on two occasions, the first coming after just 5 minutes from Son Heung-min, the 28-year-old South Korean, while the second came in the 5th minute, Giovani from Le Celso.
Those statistics are pretty representative of where Spurs and Liverpool stand at the moment, first and second in the table respectively. Both sides have 21 goals to their credit, but the North Londoners have only conceded 9, as opposed to Liverpool's 21. Only Chelsea, currently in the third position, have scored more than Spurs, with 22 goals, while no one has conceded so few.
The worrying thing for Spurs' supporters is how long they can keep this up. Renowned for their attacking and open style of play, when they get it right, they have never been considered a very good defensive unit - at least not in recent years. If it wasn't for the prowess of Son Heung-min and Harry Kane, it could all be of a very different story.
Son is enjoying his best season ever. He is currently second in the list of Premier League top scorers with nine goals, just one goal behind Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewis. If you look at the list from an assists point of view, it is Harry Kane who is at the top with nine assists, well ahead of Jack Grealish in second place with only five.
It's also important to note that while Grealish is a midfielder, Kane is prominently a striker.
This week, of course, we all heard the tragic news about Diego Maradona passing away at just 60 years of age. He will always be remembered in England for that sickening "Hand of God" goal. However, in that same game, when Argentina beat England in the 1986 World Cup, Maradona scored the second goal too, with many lauding it as the goal of the century.
Kane can reminisce about meeting the great man when he told the Spurs and England ace not to always go for the near post and to go across goal sometimes - advice Kane has taken on board and from which he has benefitted immensely.
Kane has turned into an even better player as the number of assists he has chalked up go to show. The understanding he has with Son is superb, and it is why Spurs are where they are at the top of the table, with Kane dropping deeper on occasion and feeding a marauding Son. However, the fear is that without this partnership, the way Tottenham are shaping up under Mourinho, it could all go wrong.
Having said that, the Portuguese is rated the 6th best Premier League team manager of all time, and if you take into account the fact that those above him no longer manage, he is number one.
So, who knows? If the return of the prodigal Gareth Bales blossoms completely, that will give Spurs another option - especially if Dele Ali comes back to life. We shall have to wait and see.
