Now officially our best start since The Double!
Records might not yet be tumbling because of Tottenham Hotspur's current marvellous run of 10 league games unbeaten, including 9 wins, but the statistics are still flying!
Without seeking to over-burden you, I've plucked a few that I hope are of interest, with some thanks to Declan Mulcay. This is our best 12 game start to a season since the Double season of 1960-61, when (adapting their results to the three points for a win system) Bill Nicholson's mighty team had 34 points. We'll need to win a few more consecutive league games until Chelsea and beyond to try and emulate that marvellous side, or even contemplate overtaking them.
We are now on a roll of 5 consecutive league wins, and last achieved that between February and April 2007, under the management of Martin Jol, when our victims included Saturday's visitors, Bolton.
You have to back to the days of Gerry Francis for our previous ten match unbeaten run of league games, who actually led us to two such runs. Between October and December 1995, we won 5 and drew 6 games. One of those matches was against Bolton on 23rd December when a win would have taken us to 2nd place with Man Utd playing later that week-end. We play Bolton on Saturday before United play in the evening, and could go second again, if only for an hour or two.
Between November 1994 and January 1995, Spurs won 6 and drew 4 games with Francis at the helm.
Once again your man of the match vote was very close, but there was no tie this week. Seven of our team scored over 7 out of 10 this week. That's a high ratio, and double goal-scorer Emmanuel Adebayor has edged out Jermain Defoe, with honourable mentions going to Parker, Ekotto, Lennon, Friedel and Kaboul. Not so long ago it would be unusual for more than one member of the team to score so highly.
Referee Lee Probert scored a record high 7.2 on Spurs Odyssey for this game. (Other referees have scored higher) It was only the second time we have won a game with Mr. Probert in charge. The other was at Hull in February 2009.
On a like for like basis comparing our results with those of last season against the same (or replacement) teams, we are now 7 points better off than last season. Don't forget to check the like for like table on the Spurs Odyssey 2011-12 Premier League Review index
In summary then, we have achieved so much already, but there is so much yet to do. In their next 7 games, Man City have to play Chelsea away, and Arsenal and Liverpool at home. On the face of it, our toughest game is Chelsea at home. Man Utd arguably have the easiest programme over the same period of the top three. Anyway, let's take things one game at a time and beat Bolton on Saturday!
P.S - When Spurs won the league in the 1950-51 season, they lost their first game at home to Blackpool 4-1, proving that a bad start does not necessarily lead to a bad season!
Results 26-27.11.11
Arsenal 1-1 Fulham
Bolton 0-2 Everton
Chelsea 3-0 Wolves
Man Utd 1-1 Newcastle
Norwich 2-1 QPR
Stoke 3-1 Blackburn
S'derland 1-2 Wigan
West Brom 1-3 Spurs
Swansea 0-0 Aston Villa
Liverpool 1-1 Man City
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man City 13 11 2 0 43 12 31 35
2 Man Utd 13 9 3 1 30 13 17 30
3 Spurs 12 9 1 2 26 16 10 28
4 Newcastle 13 7 5 1 19 12 7 26
5 Chelsea 13 8 1 4 28 17 11 25
6 Liverpool 13 6 5 2 17 12 5 23
7 Arsenal 13 7 2 4 26 23 3 23
8 A. Villa 13 3 7 3 16 17 -1 16
9 Everton 12 5 1 6 15 16 -1 16
10 Norwich 13 4 4 5 19 21 -2 16
11 QPR 13 4 3 6 14 24 -10 15
12 Stoke 13 4 3 6 13 23 -10 15
13 Swansea 13 3 5 5 12 16 -4 14
14 West Brom 13 4 2 7 12 20 -8 14
15 Fulham 13 2 6 5 15 16 -1 12
16 S'derland 13 2 5 6 15 15 0 11
17 Wolves 13 3 2 8 13 23 -10 11
18 Bolton 13 3 0 10 19 31 -12 9
19 Wigan 13 2 3 8 12 24 -12 9
20 Blackburn 13 1 4 8 17 30 -13 7
Next week-end's fixtures:-
Newcastle v Chelsea
Blackburn v Swansea
Man City v Norwich
QPR v West Brom
Spurs v Bolton
Wigan v Arsenal
A. Villa v Man Utd
Everton v Stoke
Wolves v S'derland
Fulham v Liverpool
