Spurs can go third tomorrow night!
Whisper it softly, but after Chelsea's home defeat to Liverpool this evening, Spurs can go third if they beat Aston Villa in Sky's Monday Night Football. Currently we are one of four teams all sitting on 22 points - the others being Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. of course we have those two games in hand as I write, both of which are at home.
Although Newcastle currently hold third place and are three points above Spurs, any win will take us above the "Toon", because we have scored more goals. A two goal win would take us third on superior goal difference.
No Spurs fan will be counting their chickens though, and already I have seen some pessimistic posts from people who think it is inevitable that Spurs will fail to win, and thus fail to take this opportunity.
I also wondered how long it had been since Spurs last sat third in the Premier League at the 11 game stage, which we will reach tomorrow. The answer is not so long ago as you might think. It was at the end of October 2005 (Spurs Odyssey's Premier League Review - Week 11 - 2005-06 season), after a home draw against Arsenal, in which skipper Ledley King scored our goal.
Manchester United were behind us, and they had a game in hand. They would overtake us until the very end of the season, which was the occasion of "Lasagne-gate". It is interesting to note that at this stage 6 years ago, Wigan were in second place, and Charlton (now top of League One) were in sixth.
A point against Villa would make Spurs the top team in London after 11 games. The last time I can find that occurring at the same stage of the season is October 1982.
We were third and top London team on December 16th 1995. We could have gone into 2nd place the next week, but only drew at home to Bolton.
Anyway, here is the current league table, which will be updated when this week's Premier League review is published on Tuesday. I personally remain confident that Spurs will win 3-1!
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man City 12 11 1 0 42 11 31 34
2 Man Utd 12 9 2 1 29 12 17 29
3 Newcastle 12 7 4 1 18 11 7 25
4 Chelsea 12 7 1 4 25 17 8 22
5 Spurs 10 7 1 2 21 15 6 22
6 Liverpool 12 6 4 2 16 11 5 22
7 Arsenal 12 7 1 4 25 22 3 22
8 A. Villa 11 3 6 2 16 15 1 15
9 QPR 12 4 3 5 13 22 -9 15
10 West Brom 12 4 2 6 11 17 -6 14
11 Norwich 12 3 4 5 17 20 -3 13
12 Everton 11 4 1 6 13 16 -3 13
13 Swansea 12 3 4 5 12 16 -4 13
14 Stoke 12 3 3 6 10 22 -12 12
15 S'derland 12 2 5 5 14 13 1 11
16 Fulham 12 2 5 5 14 15 -1 11
17 Wolves 12 3 2 7 13 20 -7 11
18 Bolton 12 3 0 9 19 29 -10 9
19 Blackburn 12 1 4 7 16 27 -11 7
20 Wigan 12 1 3 8 10 23 -13 6
Results 19-20.11.11
Norwich 1-2 Arsenal
Everton 2-1 Wolves
Man City 3-1 Newcastle
Stoke 2-3 QPR
S'derland 0-0 Fulham
West Brom 2-1 Bolton
Wigan 3-3 Blackburn
Swansea 0-1 Man Utd
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool
To play:-
Spurs v Aston Villa
