It has been a strange old season for fans of Tottenham Hotspur. Having seen the departure of Jose Mourinho and ended last season under the caretaker charge of former midfielder Ryan Mason, it was then time for former Portuguese goalkeeper and Wolverhampton Wanderers gaffer Nuno Espirito Santo to try his chances at White Hart Lane.
That experiment was about as successful as Mourinho’s time in charge and many fans would have expected good odds on the likes of www.novibet.ie on that being the outcome, and Daniel Levy turned to experienced manager Antonio Conte as his next educated gamble to replace the much loved Mauricio Pochettino and push the club further on in both domestic competition as well as European endeavours.
Conte’s spell since arriving at the beginning of November is best described as mixed, but with solid signs of improvement. We are a little less attacking than many fans would still like at points, but as the months have passed by, defensively we appear to be improving and Conte does now seem to better understand how to get the best out of our offensive minded players and January’s capture of Dejan Kulusevski has definitely helped us better click on that front. His 30 games in charge to date have recorded 17 wins and 10 losses, with only three draws, so clearly there’s still work to be done but with the current form chart showing four straight wins on the spin (and good wins at that, 2-0 over Brighton and Hove Albion, 3-1 over West Ham United, 5-1 over Newcastle United and 4-0 over Aston Villa) there’s every reason to feel positive as we head towards the end of the 2021/22 Premier League campaign – particularly as we have Brighton up again this coming Saturday and there is every expectation of us completing the double over them.
Not least as, as I type, Italian Conte has us sat in fourth place in the top tier table and although Chelsea have a game in hand, we are only five points away from them in third place and the best Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side can do is draw level with us on 57 points if they win their game in hand.
Given we have to face our north London rivals in May, it is all to play for in so many ways and few fans would have thought that Spurs could be on for such a good season given the turn of form under former gaffer Nuno back at the beginning of the campaign, especially with the playing style complaints many had.
Our gaffer will undoubtedly still be looking for, and demanding further improvement between now and the end of the season and although there are only seven odd games left – there are very winnable games in our run in and even if we can turn a few of those ties that we know will be tough, and could potentially be future losses, into draws, there’s still no reason why we can’t clinch third place from Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea side and really go into the 2022/23 Premier League campaign with hopes and aspirations that we probably have not held since the more heady days of Poch.
To Dare Is To Do, but for now we trust in Conte.