Not quite such a black November

How can it have been a totally black November for Spurs when they started the month with a magnificent 3-1 win over Real Madrid at Wembley, and won their next Champions League game in Germany against another former winner of the Champions League - Borussia Dortmund?

Well, of course, the fact that we held third position in the Premier League at the start of the month, but fell to seventh by the last day has led to severe depression amongst Tottenham fans. Mauricio Pochettino has indicated earlier in the season that his focus will be on the Premier League and the Champions League. Now that the Premier League leaders Man City are 16 points ahead of us, that aim is beyond us. Why shouldn't we aim for the Champions League, having beaten the reigning European Champions?

Well, it is right that we should fear nobody, having beaten Real, but of course one of our potential opponents ultimately could be Man City, who are streets ahead of us domestically. Other worthy obstacles lie in wait too! Maybe we should keep our feet on the ground and just hope for a decent draw on December 11th for the Round of 16.

That win over Real was achieved with two goals from Dele Alli, making his Champions League debut and one from Christian Eriksen, who scored a hat-trick for Denmark later in the month to ensure their qualification for the World Cup in Russia next summer. Sadly, since that game, Eriksen's club form has taken a dive (by the biggest margin of any of our players this month) and he has fallen out of contention for our player of the season poll.

Both Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm were unavailable for our home game against Crystal Palace, and Paulo Gazzaniga made his club debut, making at least three great saves, thus preserving our 1-0 win. That was our one league win of the month, which was followed by defeat at The Emirates, a disappointing draw at home to West Brom and another defeat at Leicester on Tuesday night. League-wise, the only way has to be up in December and over the course of the season! One problem is the away game against Man City on December 16th!

Bright spots have been the return (briefly and significantly at the end of the Leicester game) of Erik Lamela, and the continuing classic form of Davinson Sanchez. Sanchez has been one of the ever-present players this month and was our man of the match against Arsenal and Dortmund. He, and all the team scored highly against Real. Davinson (who has yet to be booked in a Spurs shirt) was unlucky to be penalised for the free kick which led to Arsenal's first goal, and managed top marks in Dortmund where his opponents included the ever-dangerous Aubameyang. Sanchez was the Spurs Odyssey player of the month. Harry Kane continues to lead the accumulating ratings, scoring three more goals this month - one in each of our last three games.

We lost Toby Alderweireld to a hamstring injury during that Real Madrid, and won't see him before the New Year. His influence is being sorely missed, along with that of Victor Wanyama, who we haven't seen since the second game of the season.

· Review the 2017-18 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 17 years!