The two faces of November

There is a different look to this month's spursometer because there is a different look to our team after the shock that we had delivered during week two of the last International break of the year.

Before the surprise news of Mauricio Pochettino's sacking was delivered on the evening of Tuesday 19th November I had published an article the previous weekend entitled Five Years - an essay about THFC 2014-2019. At the end of that piece I wrote that I did not intend it to obituarise Pochettino's reign at Spurs, but sadly it did turn out to be exactly that. We shall never forget the magic of Pochettino, and he will always be loved and revered by Spurs fans for his achievements. The behind the scenes story remains a mystery to most of us, but I expect we will hear more one day.

I was interviewed on the night of Pochettino's sacking by Sky Sports News and said I was Astounded but not astounded by the departure of our manager. Early the next morning Jose Mourinho was announced as our new head coach.

Perhaps the biggest example of the effect of our new leader was our second goal against Olympiacos when ball-boy Callum Hynes got an "assist" for his quick delivery of the ball to Serge Aurier who sent a similarly quick throw forward to Lucas Moura. Lucas crossed and Harry Kane scored our equalising goal. Too many times under Pochettino I had been frustrated by throws from such attacking positions being worked back to OUR goalkeeper for "recycling".

It is still early days, but there was refreshing change in Mourinho's first game away to West Ham when at times we had a front six. Jose has certainly not been "parking the bus" and needs to attend to the concession of two goals in each of our three games under him so far. Still, if we keep scoring more than those two, it won't matter, will it?

At the top of this page you will see the month's figures for both managers. We did not lose a game in November, but Poch could only manage two draws and we dropped to a depressing 14th place. I observed that we were the only team in the bottom half with a positive goal difference and my expectations of a return to a more usual position were fulfilled when Mourinho won his first three games, two of them in the league. If Jose manages to win tomorrow night at Old Trafford I think we will hear some positive Mourinho chanting by Spurs fans!

Three players started all 6 of our games this month. They were Paulo Gazzaniga, Davinson Sanchez and Dele Alli. Dele was already enjoying some resurgence before Jose's arrival, but he has scored four goals this month and won a couple of man of the match awards. Dele is the Spurs Odyssey player of the month. Both Dele and Son were among the Premier League's 7 nominations for Player of the Month.

Son Heung-min, who endured the agony of being the indirect cause of injury to Everton's Andre Gomes at the start of the month, had a red card rescinded and also scored four goals this month, two of which were in our away win against Crvena zvezda. Harry Kane had taken over the club captain role in the absence of Hugo Lloris, and scored three goals this month, the first of which (at The London Stadium) took him above Martin Chivers into third place in our all-time scorers' list. Harry is now on 177, and his next target is Bobby Smith's 208. Moussa Sissoko who scored for the first time in two years is just 174 behind Harry!

The busy December programme gives us 7 games, 6 of which are in the league. We have a "dead rubber" Champions League trip to Munich and will play in the Round of 16 in the New Year. Let's hope I am recording some positivity at the end of the forthcoming month!

· Review the 2019-20 Premier League season here

Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date at the bottom of this page.

...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over the last 19 years!