Can Spurs finally win the big one?

The last few years for Tottenham have had its fair share of watershed moments, Spurs have not only broken into the Champions League places but they've also managed some consistency with successive appearances in Europe's elite football competition. More importantly they've also managed to break the hold that the league's bigger sides once held over them in recent seasons. Spurs finally ended their winless runs against Arsenal, Manchester United (even winning at Old Trafford) and finally winning matches against their biggest rivals Chelsea going as far as demolishing the would be champions 5-3 at White Hart Lane just last season. All this goes a long way to tell how drastically things have changed in England's footballing circles.

However, one thing that hasn't changed is Chelsea's stellar record against Spurs at Stamford Bridge. The Blues haven't lost a league match at the Bridge to Spurs in almost 30 years.. Not to mention how wins for Mauricio Pochettino's men have been hard to come by against Chelsea  overall as Spurs have only won 7 of their last 64 matches against this weekend's opponents.

And if Spurs need any more incentive to finally snap their winless run at Chelsea they only need to look back on the last few seasons as Chelsea have so often spoiled the party for Spurs. Chelsea became the first team  to beat Spurs at their temporary home of Wembley this season. Last season they beat Spurs to the league title, denied them a place in the FA Cup final, and most memorably the season before ended Spurs' league chase coming back from two goals down to draw the match handing Leicester City the league title in the process.

There's also the small issue of a Spurs win moving them even closer to a European spot and in the process claiming the crown as the out right kings of London which means they finally step out of the shadow that both Arsenal and Chelsea have cast over them for so long.

While finishing in a Champion's League spot may not be a trophy as most critics will readily argue, in the long the long run its a good start when taking into consideration of how Man City have managed to raise the bar, the emergence of a red hot Liverpool and that consistent Champions League along with the redevelopment of White Hart Lane would be key for Spurs to emulate the exploits of their city rivals.

Why this is the worst Arsenal team

Someone clearly has a lot on his mind

Arsene Wenger’s name will forever be synonymous with Arsenal for the innovation and the transformation he bought to the club. The Frenchman transformed Arsenal not only into a recognized club, but also a global brand. This happened when Wenger took the Gunners into the 21^st century as he masterminded the move to the higher capacity Emirates Stadium. The move, however, placed financial constraints on Arsenal which meant that Wenger had to resort to potential talents and bargain buys to keep them competitive. While in the short Arsenal did keep within touching distance with Chelsea and Manchester United, but the drawbacks of using young and experience soon told. Arsenal would always fall apart at important points of the season. So with long term in mind in mind Arsenal acquired the services of Petr Cech, Mesut Ozil, Santi Carzola, Shkodran Mustafi, Olivier Giroud, Per Mertesacker and Alexis Sanchez.

The above mentioned players standout from their recent recruits as they fulfilled the criteria which Gunners required to make them winners again firstly because they were experienced internationals. Moreover, they had had varying degrees of success winning silverware either at international or club level. So it comes as a concern to see them perform even worse than when they had fresh faced teens and twenty-year-olds in their team.

Even the players who remained from Wenger’s rebuild have not lived up to the billing they once showed in their youth. The names of Jack Wilshire and Theo Walcott standout as examples as their careers have stalled in recent times.

Recent additions over the past few seasons in the Arsenal set-up in the forms of Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka and Sead Kolisinac are also following suit. These four were seen as players with great potential yet somehow they look nothing like the players they promised to be before arriving that the Emirates. Kolisinac’s case is the most notable as before he left Hoffenheim he was rated highly in the Bundesliga.

Essentially, all this comes down to the current environment at Arsenal where complacency and a loser mentality are prevalent where the bare minimum seems to be enough for the players, but unfortunately in the Premier League time doesn’t stand still and Arsenal’s current predicament has been a long time coming. and provides the lesson if stay in the same place for too long you run the risk of getting run over.

arsenal have officially reached a new low

Arsenal’s season reached a new low as the Gunners were easily swept aside in yet another 3-0 defeat to Manchester City. While thrashings at the hands of their rivals has become pretty much part and parcel to the later Wenger years Thursday night’s defeat may just earn itself its own notoriety as the day Arsenal suffered their worst ever defeat and as the day that Arsene Wenger’s career at Arsenal finally ended. On the surface, the 3-0 score line is not as bad when compared to their other humiliating defeats Arsenal have suffered at the hands of their rivals, however there is great distinction between those losses and the way they lost to City. Most, if not all, of those defeats occurred away from home where a combination of error, tactical naivety and feebleness in matches which matter led to Wenger and his men slinking off the field with their tails between their legs.

In Thursday’s defeat it was visibly clear that Arsenal had come out to play as they did on occasion trouble the City goal, but it soon became clear that even their best paled in comparison to City’s ordinary as the visitors were effortless in dispatching a so-called rival in a routine performance you’d usually see when the log leaders play a midtable or lower side. All in all, the loss to City highlighted the growing gulf in class not just between City and Arsenal, but the rest of the sides above them.

The Gunners in the games in the league against the top five have only won one out of a possible nine games, collecting only 5 points out of a possible 27 which effectively means that Arsenal you can’t count Arsenal amongst the league’s best, but you could rather say they are the best of the rest. Arsenal have also been in what can be described as relegation form with 6 defeats in 13 matches in all competitions and even worse still their league form their league form has been horrendous.

Away from home the Gunners have only managed to win only three games away from home which is shocking considering that it’s well into the second half of the season. Looking to the weeks ahead it’s difficult to see Arsenal returning to anything near what they used and their life line in the form of the Europa League looks a step too far for them.

5 Reasons Kane should not join Real Madrid

Harry Kane has been in superb form this season scoring 33 goals in 34 matches so it comes as no surprise that the Englishman has caught the eye of Spanish giants, Real Madrid. Los Blancos in a bid to rejuvenate their aging squad will likely make a move for Kane in the summer, however regardless of the prestige and attention which may come with moving to the Spanish capital Kane has plenty of incentive to remain in England.

Club of Legend

Kane is the darling of the Spurs faithful and the home support have lauded the forward as ‘One of our own’. Not to mention Kane stands to be the club’s greatest ever goal scorer as in as few as 189 appearances he’s already scored 123 goals in all competitions and in the process cracks into the club’s top ten all time goal scorer list just one behind Teddy Sheringham. One the other hand Madrid fans aren’t the best at supporting their own players and tend to fickle not even star man Cristiano Ronaldo has been beyond boos and jeers.

Spurs on the rise

In the last two weeks Spurs’ stock rose greatly as they played three successive matches against top six sides and come out the other end undefeated. This was later topped by their performance in Turin as they clawed they back after going two goals down to earn a draw at one of the hardest grounds to visit in Europe. On the domestic scene Spurs have only tasted defeat only once in their last 14 games, and even though they currently sit in fifth spot just outside the top four, they look every bit the complete side and based on their current form they could finish in second.

Being the main man

Kane like all forwards; loves to score goals and the only that can be possible is if he’s the one playing up top. At Real he might not have the opportunity to be the focal point, if Ronaldo is still in the picture, as is the case with Karim Benzema as he has had to move out wide to accommodate Ronaldo as the chief goal scorer.

The allure of Manchester

 Real Madrid aren’t the only club with a rich history that could offer Kane the trophies and prestige befitting a player of his talents. Kane is type of player which Manchester United would need to make them a force again or he could easily wear the light blue of City. Speaking of which, according to Spanish website Diario Gol City have earmarked Kane as a potential transfer target for this summer.

The Ultimate Goal

The biggest motivator to remain in England would be the chance to become the greatest goal scorer in the Premier League’s history. The current record is held by Newcastle legend Alan Shearer with 260 goals. with Kane having already broken Shearer’s 22-year-old record of most goals in a calendar year, the all-time record is not that far away. In 142 Premier League appearances he has scored 101 goals and based on current estimates Kane will definitely break the record.

Arsenal in a spot of bother as they begin Europa League knockouts

For English teams the Europa League has been viewed as nothing more than an inconvenience with attempting to win the tournament carrying the risk of disrupting a domestic season. Not to mention the long travels to play less renowned opposition in smaller stadiums against players you’ve never heard of doesn’t exactly give teams the same level prestige compared to the Champion’s League.

That isn’t the case anymore now as the Europa League can now serve as an opportunity for a fifth English team to enter the Champion’s League as the level of competitiveness in England has gotten that much tougher making it an attractive alternative opposed to making the top four. Manchester United are proof of this as they found their way back amongst Europe’s elite after finishing sixth by winning the tournament last season. Arsenal now find themselves in the same position as they now have to put everything into winning the Europa League as a spot in the top four looks more and more likely out of their grasp.

Arsenal travel to Sweden tonight to take on Östersund in a clash, on paper, Arsenal should win and rather easily at that, but Arsenal head into the game under less than ideal conditions. The Gunners will have to make do without their best guns with Alexandre Lacazette being ruled out due to injury for the next six weeks and January acquisition Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can’t feature on account of being cup tied having already played in Uefa competition for Borussia Dortmund.

Having already sold Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United, and their alternative attacking options in Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud also departing, Arsenal have no other choice but to turn to Danny Welbeck as the Englishman is their only viable attacking option. This isn’t the most convenient of choices as Welbeck has only scored five goals over the past two seasons and is yet to get off the mark in the Europa League.

Stats prove Spurs are one of Europe's best sides

The occasion of European knockout football can either be a magical night which could live long in the memory or they can turn into a nightmare, and last night in Tottenham’s case the latter looked to be true. In the space of less than 10 minutes Italian champions Juventus shot into the lead with a brace from Gonzalo Higuaín and the situation looked to be going south with the Old Lady poised to pick the visitors off on the counter.

Higuaín narrowly missed out on a chance to secure a hat trick and from there what followed was one of the most spectacular away performances from Spurs as they pulled a goal back afterwards and leveled matters later on. From that performance you can observe that Spurs now look like a proper Champion’s League side as not only did they survive, but they thrived in one of the most hostile grounds to visit in European football.

Ever since Juventus’ move to the Allianz stadium only one team has ever managed to win in Turin in the Champion’s League, that was Bayern Munich back in 2013 when they lifted the trophy, Spurs can consider their away draw as good as a win especially because the homeside don’t make a habit of conceding goals as Spurs along with Sporting, Monaco and Lyon are the only teams to score at Juventus over the last two seasons combined in European football.

On closer inspection you’d also realize that Barcelona, once boasting the attacking talents of Messi, Suarez and Neymar, lost 3-0 there last season and in their return they couldn’t find the net either even after having outplayed the Bianconeri at the Nou Camp earlier on.

An even more impressive statistic is that between 2012 and 2018 only five teams, excluding Spurs, have scored two or more goals against the Old Lady in the Champion’s League. All this goes to tells you how formidable an opponent the Italians are and how good Tottenham had to be in order to stage a fightback leaving them well poised for the return leg at Wembley.

Chelsea doomed their title defence before it began and could miss out on top four

Football just like everything in life is usually determined by fundamental laws and one that tends to come to mind with regards to repeating is the adage which states “If aint broke don’t fix it”, unfortunately for Chelsea they’ve been guilty of transgressing that law. In a bizarre bit of decision making Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic were allowed to depart Stamford Bridge and sooner or later those decisions were bound to come back to haunt them.

The Blues had been looking impressive a few weeks ago when they were tied for second spot with Manchester United and it seemed that they had gotten over their slow start to the season. Since then the Blues have dropped ten valuable points in winnable games. This has mostly come down to something which could be a point of concern for Chelsea as the players they brought into the side haven’t exactly been able to fill the void left by Costa and Matic, Álvaro Morata wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders before his injury and Michy Batshuayi as his back up didn’t seem suited to Chelsea’s playing style.

Hence Chelsea have had problems in attack so what’s becoming more evident is that in order to compensate for their lack of depth they’ve been becoming over reliant on certain players like Eden Hazard to carry the team. The Belgian seems to be the only creative spark for Chelsea and there are signs of great partnership forming between him and new teammate Olivier Giroud. The former Arsenal man assisted in the first of two goals but in a team boasting the attack talents of Willian, Pedro and Fabregas you’d have to fear for Chelsea in the run in towards the end of the season especially as they take on Barcelona followed by back-to-back trips to Manchester.

Those two trips could prove to be pivotal as losses in both games could mean an end to their Champion’s League hopes as the team’s around seem to be changing up a gear. And still they also have problems in defence with their previous heavy defeats coinciding with the absence of Andreas Christensen. Christensen was subbed off against Bournemouth, what followed was a defensive with Chelsea going into meltdown mode. His return spells some great news for the Blues, but their overreliance on the Dane in a team with experienced internationals is concerning.

 So the lesson for Chelsea should take away from this season is don’t mess with a winning formula unless you have something better to take its place.