NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 532
Submitted by Norman Giller

Next it's bloody Les Miserables in Paris after seeing red at the Emirates yesterday. If humiliation is good for the soul, then we Tottenham supporters must currently be spiritual giants. A 4-1 thumping in the North London Derby was not the sort of Sunday sermon any of us wanted to sit through. But Spurs being Spurs, we didn't so much sleepwalk into the match as gift-wrap ourselves as an early Christmas present. Spurs were the turkeys, trussed and delivered.

The minute I saw the line-up I knew in my heart and Spurs soul that the vital game could not end happily for Tottenham. It was like being on the quayside waving goodbye to the good ship Arsenal on its voyage to the Premier League championship. Let's be honest, they have a cracking team - with arguably their best defender, Gabriel, looking on from the sidelines. Truly, Masters of the House.

And to add an extra twist of the knife? Eberechi Eze, the explosive striker who once seemed destined for N17 before deciding at the eleventh hour to rejoin his boyhood club, marked the occasion with a magnificent hat-trick. Football has a wonderfully cruel way of reminding you of what might have been - and this was one of its more tragic, theatrical performances.

Thomas Frank has spent the season preaching that progress is never a straight line, but yesterday his team drew something closer to a flatline. Arsenal sliced through Tottenham's midfield as if they'd booked the stadium for a private training session, and the defending was the sort that prompts you to look away and pretend you're checking your shoelaces.

And yet - because Tottenham never leave us completely empty-handed - there was one shimmering jewel amid the muck. Richarlison's goal, a glorious, instinctive, Brazilian brushstroke, lit up the gloom like a rogue flare in a blackout. It was the kind of long-range finish that deserved a far better setting than a derby disaster, but at least it reminded us that the team still has a heartbeat, even in games best forgotten and consigned to the dustbin of history.

As our Spurs Odyssey guru Paul H. Smith reports HERE, Arsenal march on with the swagger of a side on course for the Premier League title. That's a sentence that tastes like vinegar, but the league table doesn't lie ... even if we wish it would.

But football, as ever, has a twisted sense of humour. Our reward for emotional and defensive collapse? A "much easier" fixture: Paris Saint-Germain away in the Champions League. If irony were silverware, Tottenham would be top of the tree. Still, Spurs have an infuriating habit of responding when written off. Paris may be a lion's den, a tightrope without a net, and a bad punchline waiting to happen ... but it's also a chance, a chance to show that this derby debacle was a bruise, not a fracture. What's that Les Miserables hit song: 'I Dreamed a Dream ...'

So we dust ourselves down, breathe deeply, and cling to that eternal, inexplicable Tottenham hope. Logic offers no comfort. But supporting Spurs has never been about logic.

Paris awaits. Sacre Bleu.

COYS.

Spurs select - A book to read and play

Just 31 shopping days to Christmas and another gentle reminder that my 122nd book has gone off to the Printer: Spurs Select, in which you are challenged to pick a Tottenham Team to Play for Your Life.

A donation for every book sold will be made to the Tottenham Tribute Trust, who help our old heroes that missed the gravy train.

Spurs Odyssey readers can save a fiver by ordering the book NOW. If you are interested please contact me at normangiller@gmail.com and if you want more encouragement have a peep at www.normangiller.co.uk.

If you prefer, you can mention you'd like purchasing details when entering the Spurs Odyssey Quiz below. It's a book that you play as well as read and is guaranteed to revive memories of your most memorable matches. Please join me in playing the Selecting Game.

Here we go with the 13th week of our quiz that tests your knowledge of Tottenham players and the club's history ...

Who won 22 caps for his country, wore the No 6 Tottenham shirt and against which team did he captain Spurs to victory in an FA Cup final at Wembley?

Please email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 13. Deadline: midnight this Saturday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part.

The rules are the same as in the previous 11 seasons. I ask a two-pronged question with three points at stake - two for identifying the player and one for the supplementary question. In the closing weeks of the competition I break the logjam of all-knowing Spurs-history experts with a real stinker of a tie-breaking poser that is based on opinion rather than fact. This is when I lose what few friends I have.

This season's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2026, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.

Last week I asked: Who has won 16 caps for his country, wears the No 37 Spurs shirt and against which team did he score his first goal in Europe for Tottenham?

Answer: Micky van de Ven/Bodo-Glimt

See you back here on Monday.

COYS

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