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What is it about goalkeepers?
Unsurprisingly, Brad Friedel was your Spurs man of the match in our 3-1 over Fulham (See the full exclusive "Spursometer" results here). Brad registered a magnificent 8.7 out of 10. Not bad for a 40 year old, eh? Incidentally, this was Friedel's 276th consecutive Premier League game. It's a run of appearances that started at the very beginning of the 2004-05 season, when Brad was at Blackburn. He has been ever-present in 7 full league seasons, and in Spurs' first ten games this season.
It's not the first time that Friedel has been our man of the match this season either. Despite a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford, the goalkeeper headed our ratings with a very respectable 7.7, and over his ten appearances is averaging 7.06, which makes him one of our top players of the season so far.
Carlo Cudicini was "Top of the Pops" in our game against Rubin Kazan last Thursday, and also in our Europa League game away to P.A.O.K. Even Heurelho Gomes, who has only played three games, was man of the match in the home game against Rubin Kazan.
So, that's four goalkeeping man of the match performances in 17 games, but three of those performances were needed in front of weakened Spurs sides, whilst Friedel and the first choice defence were battling the onslaught of a desperate Fulham side. All the best sides need a good goalkeeper, and in our case it's fair to say we have three, who'd be first pick at a lot of clubs.
As I mentioned elsewhere, with this win, Spurs have now achieved their best ten-game start in the Premier League with 22 points. Ledley King continues his fantastic record of 13 consecutive starts in games where we have been unbeaten. 11 of these games have been in the Premier League, and 10 of those have been wins. The drawn game wwas at Newcastle, where Ledley had to go off in the first half. Let's continue wishoing Ledley good health and fitness to play as often as possible for the rest of this season, and beyond!
Unfortunately, Rafa van der Vaart did not score to become the seventh Spurs player to score in 6 consecutive league games, but he can always start again!
One of my statistician friends Paul Yarden (See Paul Yarden's excellent Spurs stats here) pointed out that Spurs now have a record of five wins and a draw in our last 7 away Premier League games, wondering when that last happened. Well we didn't do too badly last season between 20th November (Arsenal) and 12th February (Sunderland), when we won 4 drew 2 and lost 1 in 7 away games. We won seven away games in all last season. In terms of sequences, that record was actually better than the previous season when we qualified first time round for Champions League Football, although we won 7 away games again.
Another of my ace statistician friends (Declan Mulcahy) points out that Spurs have a long way to go to match the record of the current side. First of all Spurs had a record of 10 consecutive away wins between the end of the 1959-60 season (2 games) and the start of the 1960-61 Double season (8games). Also, in the 1984-85 season, Spurs were unbeaten in 15 away games between November 10th and the end of the season. That was a run of 15 away games, where we won 10 and drew 5.
Looking to the immediate future, the next round of fixtures includes Chelsea v Liverpool and Man City v Newcastle. Let's hope that Spurs start a climb into the top four after beating Aston Villa on 21st November!
Results 05-06.11.11
Arsenal 3-0 West Brom
A. Villa 3-2 Norwich
Blackburn 0-1 Chelsea
Liverpool 0-0 Swansea
Man Utd 1-0 S'derland
Newcastle 2-1 Everton
QPR 2-3 Man City
Wolves 3-1 Wigan
Bolton 5-0 Stoke
Fulham 1-3 Spurs
Next round of fixtures
Norwich v Arsenal
Everton v Wolves
Man City v Newcastle
Stoke v QPR
S'derland v Fulham
West Brom v Bolton
Wigan v Blackburn
Swansea v Man Utd
Chelsea v Liverpool
Spurs v Aston Villa
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man City 11 10 1 0 39 10 29 31
2 Man Utd 11 8 2 1 28 12 16 26
3 Newcastle 11 7 4 0 17 8 9 25
4 Chelsea 11 7 1 3 24 15 9 22
5 Spurs 10 7 1 2 21 15 6 22
6 Liverpool 11 5 4 2 14 10 4 19
7 Arsenal 11 6 1 4 23 21 2 19
8 A. Villa 11 3 6 2 16 15 1 15
9 Norwich 11 3 4 4 16 18 -2 13
10 Swansea 11 3 4 4 12 15 -3 13
11 QPR 11 3 3 5 10 20 -10 12
12 Stoke 11 3 3 5 8 19 -11 12
13 Wolves 11 3 2 6 12 18 -6 11
14 West Brom 11 3 2 6 9 16 -7 11
15 S'derland 11 2 4 5 14 13 1 10
16 Fulham 11 2 4 5 14 15 -1 10
17 Everton 10 3 1 6 11 15 -4 10
18 Bolton 11 3 0 8 18 27 -9 9
19 Blackburn 11 1 3 7 13 24 -11 6
20 Wigan 11 1 2 8 7 20 -13 5
