Europa progress and Cup success masking failures

Our progress in the Europa League, and another Capital One Cup win mask the disappointment of losing our third home league game (out of just five such games) to Newcastle. Or do they?

Statistically, the five goals scored against Asteras Tripolis, and the 2-0 win over Championship side Brighton mean that Mauricio Pochettino, and his team have very marginally improved upon the disappointment of September, when we lost at home to West Brom, and squandered two points at Sunderland.

However, like last year under AVB, the home fans are rarely being entertained in league games. Many regulars don't bother coming to Europa League games, and I can tell you some weren't there to see our win against Brighton, which after all was not too impressive. Those I've spoken with have agreed the 5-1 against Asteras was a flattering scoreline.

The Premier League is our bread and butter, and dropping into the bottom half (AVB didn't do that last year), losing three home games, is not what those regular fans want to see. Daniel Levy cannot be happy, but we are assured that Mauricio Pochettino is also not happy.

In truth, we got three points fewer than we anticipated by losing to Newcastle, because we expected nothing from our trip to Manchester, and although we didn't convince against Southampton, a win is a win, together with the three precious points.

It could have been so different, if Soldado had put his penalty away at The Etihad to make it 2-2. Newcastle have won against a strong City team 2-0 to win a tie against us in the next round of the Capital One Cup, and West Ham could beat City at home, so why couldn't we manage more success? Lack of concentration at the start of the second half cost us against Newcastle, of course.

Pochettino tends to maintain the difference between his "A" team and "B" team. Many Spurs fans want to see the head coach allow a crossover or two, with Harry Kane, our top scorer, yet to start or score in a Premier League game. Don't hold your breath is all I can say.

We've got four league games in November, but any game that is winnable, is just as easily losable for our Spurs. The home games against Stoke and Everton will be tough. Villa away ought to be easier, but Villa's record of losses has to end sometime, doesn't it? Why not against us? Then there is Hull away, with their three former Spurs only too willing to try and prove a point.

It's always good to be a Spur, but rarely easy. The internet is not a good place to be after bad results such as Newcastle, but I'll be there through thick and thin (going to Greece next week too), and at the end of November, I hope to have a better idea of our hopes for the season in "the one that counts" - The Premier League. I did say at the start of the season that winning a trophy should be our priority, and that hope remains with me.

October was the month of Erik Lamela's sensational rabona goal against Asteras. It was a month in which Harry Kane scored 5 goals, including his first senior hat-trick in the Asteras game, to take his tally to 8 for the season. Lamela, and Harry Kane are behind Ryan Mason in the chase of Hugo Lloris, who was our player of the month, and who leads the ongoing Player of the Season poll by a mile.

Keep the faith, and come on you Spurs!

Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date below.

...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 14 years!