All the proof we need
When you dig out a result, take the win and find your team only two points behind Manchester City in the league, with a record tally accumulated, you wonder about those margins and just how close we are yet still too far away. The games we’ve lost are tinged with the evidence of why our edge isn’t razor sharp. We are stretched in terms of depth. We are experiencing that same seasonal flux that has us all asking ‘what if we had an extra player or two to help out?’. We all know that we are in the hands of fate half the time, what with our own destiny being one of such finely tuned precision that for all of the variables to work in our favour, we’d need a miracle. The three points will do for now.
It didn’t look like happening, especially with Fernando Llorente missing some golden opportunities to make up for Hugo Lloris indecision that saw Watford take the lead. With poetic irony, Nando delivered a crisp header from a superb Danny Rose cross to claim the winner in the 87th minute after the returning Son grabbed our equaliser. In a week where some have compared Mauricio Pochettino’s comments to Arsenal and their mocked ‘top four trophy’ rhetoric, Spurs dug deep and found a way to win with a late late goal. Which is something them lot down the road do with consistent jammy luck. On a bitterly cold night, there is nothing better than accepting a likely defeat only for your team to warm the cockles of your heart.
Liverpool stuttered. City lost. Chelsea got pumped. This doesn’t quite make up for the semi-final loss but it helps. It does prove a couple of things though. That for all the micro-criticisms of Poch, Tottenham are just that two points adrift from a billion pound football club with more dimensions than a multiverse episode of Star Trek. We are seven points off the top. Three games the difference. Whether Spurs are over-achieving based on comparable business models or under-performing based on the potential to improve further is something I discussed already here. It’s also a seasonal jolly we persistently trudge through.
We demand more because we’re ambitious as supporters. We want success. We want the celebrations and we want our team to be unquestionably validated. We shouldn’t settle with what we have but we equally need to be grounded with our expectancy for that end product. Another huge game this weekend and one much like Watford at home, we can not afford to lose. Hopefully the performance will be far more accomplished than our midweek escape to victory.