5 Things Tottenham Hotspur Need to Be Ready for the 2012-13 Champions League

Tottenham Hotspur's 5-2 thrashing by Arsenal was a startling reminder that very little in football is certain.

Before the game Spurs were talking of cementing themselves as the best team in London, at least for this season, and with it a return to the Champions League through a third-place finish in the Premier League.

Arsenal went about reminding them that they have some way to go to achieve both these aims, and that a team that rests on its laurels is destined to suffer such embarrassing falls.

How Spurs react from here remains to be seen. They still have a seven-point lead over the Gunners and Chelsea, but with difficult fixtures to come a lot of work is needed to ensure that gap is not completely eroded.

Champions League football for 2012-13 is definitely not guaranteed. But should they regroup successfully from the Arsenal defeat they still have a strong chance of fulfilling their season's aim.

And if nothing else, Spurs will have been reminded of what it takes to compete with Champions League-calibre opposition. Make no mistake, despite their recent travails, Arsenal are most certainly of that level.

If they should make it, here are five things Tottenham need to be ready for a return to Europe's premier club competition, from the improvements needed to their squad to lessons they can learn from their experiences in the Champions League last time around.

Do you agree? Which players do you believe Spurs need to be on the hunt for this summer? And just how valuable can a team's past experience be to their future progression?

A Pair of Top-Class Forwards

There is every chance that by the time preseason training begins this summer, Jermain Defoe may be the only proven striker on Tottenham's books.

It is unclear whether permanent deals for either Emmanuel Adebayor or Louis Saha are on the cards, and even if they are, the latter at least is not someone Spurs want to be relying on to lead their front line next season.

Defoe meanwhile has been revitalised this season, arguably producing his best football since originally joining Spurs. But even that has not been enough to convince Harry Redknapp that the 29-year-old should be a regular starter. Unlike the other two mentioned, Defoe does have a contract with the club, but by the season's end he might have decided his future lies elsewhere.

Whatever happens, Tottenham are in need of one or, more likely, two new strikers. For them to have any hope of progressing in the Champions League, they need to be a step up in quality to what they have now.

Last time out in the competition, Spurs got a lot of joy from the physical presence of Peter Crouch up front. Whether or not this strategy would have been enough to really see Spurs forward was ended by the now-Stoke striker's early dismissal away at Real Madrid.

Having that option again would be of benefit to Spurs for sure. This might come in the form of Adebayor, or a long-rumored bid for Athletic Bilbao's powerful forward Fernando Llorente might come to fruition.

The Spanish international has proven himself a solid goal scorer in La Liga and with his national side and, now aged 27, might be wanting to see what is on offer outside of the Basque region. Compared to Adebayor he offers a greater aerial threat and might revel in the role of an old-fashioned English No. 9.

What Spurs really want, though, is a striker that could feasibly grab them 20-plus Premier League goals and bring a similar scoring rate for European competition too. As far as top European names go, one of the few semi-realistic options might be Villarreal's Giuseppe Rossi.

Speculation abounded over interest in the Italian last summer, but if there was anything in it to begin with, any hope for Spurs was ended by Villarreal declaring him not for sale.

Despite his injury problems this season, Rossi will be in demand by several of Europe's top clubs, so securing his signature would be a coup. But he is undoubtedly the type of player who would improve Spurs and also act as a statement signing in declaring their intent.

A Manager Deflinitely in Charge by June

In addition to the names just mentioned, it should also be noted that Tottenham have also been linked with some highly rated young players.

Internacional striker Leandro Damiao has long been mooted as joining his former teammate Sandro at White Hart Lane, while most startling was Eden Hazard's recent revelation that he would be interested in a move to Spurs too.

However, for such acquisitions to be made, a manager has to be guaranteed to be there for young players to be happy to buy into a long-term vision of them being at the club.

Tottenham are still unsure of where the future of their manager Harry Redknapp lies with speculation still rife about him becoming England manager.

For a move for someone like Hazard to happen, Spurs will need to get in quickly, as they did with Luka Modric in 2008. Otherwise a big club will, if not actually sign him, at least put themselves in pole position to do so.

Any manager preparing for a Champions League tilt next season will have to be employed by mid-June at the latest. Later than that and Spurs will be playing catch-up in readying their squad for the campaign ahead.

That doesn't just mean in terms of making signings. A manager has to be there to set up that preseason schedule and then be there to help set the tone for what he wants from his team in the year ahead. These, too, are reasons that will probably end any chance of Redknapp only taking temporary charge of England for the European Championships.

A More Considered Approach for Away Games

During Tottenham's 2010/11 Champions League campaign they were virtually perfect at home. Their only loss came to Real Madrid when the tie was already over from a disastrous first leg, but even then they performed decently in a performance that was typical of the considered way they had approached each game at White Hart Lane in the competition.

Spurs' away games in the competition were not thought out very well. Tactical and, seemingly, mental issues plagued them in each trip abroad, with one game being the exception.

In the group-stage 4-3 loss to Inter Milan, the starting lineup was astonishingly naive and it cost Spurs dearly. While there was merit to employing the 4-5-1 formation they did, the central midfield selection of Jermaine Jenas, Tom Huddlestone and Luka Modric did not take into account what they were up against.

The experienced Javier Zanetti and Dejan Stankovic were sturdy and difficult to break through, and most crucially their danger man, Wesley Sneijder, was given too much freedom. This allowed him the space to put through the pass that would lead to Heurelho Gomes' foul on Jonathan Biabiany, an incident that saw him sent off and Inter go 2-0 up with the subsequent penalty.

On the bench, meanwhile, sat Wilson Palacios. The Honduran would have been ideal to man-mark Sneijder, something that would have almost certainly denied him the amount of space the Dutchman ultimately got.

Redknapp seemingly realised this when Spurs returned to the San Siro in February to face AC Milan. Not only was Palacios used this time, but also the similarly defensive-minded Sandro. The two of them combined to provide a vital extra layer of steel to the Tottenham defence as Spurs won 1-0.

It was Tottenham's only away trip where they managed to combine this tactical solidity with a level concentration and focus that is always beneficiary in football. These were qualities that, aside from a decent performance at Werder Bremen (a 2-2 draw), were lacking in all of Spurs away performances that campaign.

Home form may be enough to see a side through the group stage, but you also need to be thoroughly prepared on foreign shores for a different kind of contest. If you have an off night at your own ground, slip-ups elsewhere may come back to haunt you, as shown by Manchester United this season in their failure to qualify for the knockout round.

Make the Most of Their Previous Champions League Experience

Just what Tottenham's squad might look like come the start of a prospective Champions League campaign next season will be interesting to see. At least five or six of the key players that played in the competition last time around, you expect will likely still be involved.

For them and their since-arrived teammates, their experience from 2010-11 will be beneficial if they have learnt from it.

As described on the previous page, Spurs' away performances were certainly lacking in the all-round intelligent approach they required. You would have to believe that this time around, there would not be the sense of headless chickens running around with overeagerness that proved costly then, in particular in incidents like Crouch's early sending off against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

This is not a given, however. The calamitous defensive performance in last Sunday's 5-2 loss to Arsenal showed how even experienced players and/or ones in form can lose their heads if not careful.

It will be up to increasingly more valuable, veteran players like Michael Dawson and Rafael van der Vaart to both lead by example and guide their team in the tricky situations Champions League football throws up so often.

Making the Most of Their Remaining Premier League Tests

To even be in the Champions League next season Tottenham will have to get through a tricky upcoming few weeks with minimal damage; doing so unscathed leaves them with a more palatable run-in that should then see them home.

Those few weeks include Manchester United at home, before difficult trips to Everton and Chelsea.

Comparing Premier League games with those in the Champions League isn't always pertinent, but these tougher games against opposition who are regulars in Europe can provide a test of a team's ability to perform against strong sides.

When United come to town it is very much like a visit from a European giant like Milan or Real Madrid. Even as close as Spurs are to them now, they are a club and a team that still carry an aura.

These clubs are like Muhammad Ali, the boxer—arrogant, fast, powerful and skillful. A Joe Frazier might come along now and then, really give them something to think about and even beat them. But Spurs aren't Frazier, and if they want to move beyond the abundance of good but ultimately lacking heavyweights that Ali disposed of, you really need to up your game.

Chelsea are too erratic right now to make comparisons, but this is still a side that has competed with the best for a long time and retain elements of what made them great for the best part of a decade. To use one last boxing comparison, the visit to Stamford Bridge offers Tottenham an opportunity to see whether they are a capable of delivering a knockout punch to a fading foe when they're on the ropes.

The Arsenal loss exposed Tottenham's failings when they fail to focus, and Everton will provide a similar task. They are of course two different types of side, and the Toffees are not Champions League veterans like the other team.

But they are representative of the type of game you will get in the competition: a solid, well set-up side who can contain you, but then also take the game to you and capitalise on a failure to concentrate with two or three of their best players. They can be, to simplify, a test of a team's legitimacy.