Comparing Tottenham Hotspur's 2013-14 Stats to Their 2014-15 Figures

Tottenham Hotspur's season has been relatively pleasing to most fans, given the chaos of the preceding year. 

Mauricio Pochettino has given the impression that he is a tough and capable manager who is right at home in the Premier League. 

The fans feel more connected to the team than they have in years, due to the sudden influx of youth players.

The exile of players like Emmanuel Adebayor, Younes Kaboul and Etienne Capoue has helped present Pochettino as a no-nonsense boss, but their replacements have shown he is not without a plan. 

The team feels like it is going in the right direction, but what do the numbers tell us?

Goals Scored

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As one might imagine, goals are quite significant when it comes to assessing a football team. 

Obviously, an inability to score regularly is an indication of a poor team, but consistently low-scoring matches are also just no fun.  

Last season, Tottenham scored 90 goals in all competitions. They played 54 matches, so this averages out to 1.66 goals scored per game. 

In 2014-15, they have registered 83 goals in 49 fixtures, for a slightly improved average of 1.77 goals per game.

This can largely be judged a tie, but with eight matches remaining, Spurs will expect to exceed last season's total and could push their average higher with a few more 4-3s. 

Spurs are at a consistent goal scoring level as a team, but Harry Kane's remarkable personal tally demands mentioning. 

Last season, Tottenham's top scorer was Adebayor with 13 goals in 24 appearances. Kane already has 29 in 40. 

The absence of a consistent individual scorer was a significant problem for Spurs after the departure of Gareth Bale.

Kane has now stepped into that role and so, despite the team scoring at roughly the same rate this year, they seem a stronger and more cohesive unit. 

Goals Conceded

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While Tottenham's goal scoring is no cause for alarm, there are problems at the other end of the pitch. 

Spurs have one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Hugo Lloris is indisputably among the finest players in his position, and yet Spurs' defensive record is appalling. 

Analysing why is the subject of another article, but the numbers themselves make for interesting reading. 

In all competitions, Spurs have conceded 60 goals this season. This gives them a handy goal difference of plus-23, but it must be remembered that those numbers include fixtures against Asteras Tripolis, AEL Limassol and third-division Sheffield United. 

The numbers in the Premier League are more sobering. 

Spurs have conceded 45 goals in 30 matches, more than double the 21 conceded by Southampton, who share Tottenham's league position. 

Only Newcastle and the three teams occupying the relegation zone have conceded more than Spurs this season. QPR are the only team in the division to have conceded substantially more than Spurs, with 54 goals. 

Spurs' defensive woes have been the major issue preventing their further progress up the table this season. 

Despite the perception that Spurs have improved across the board this season, they are actually conceding goals at an increased rate. If they continue at their current pace, they will actually concede six more goals (57) than they did last season.

When you consider the thrashings at the hands of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City last season, that is a confounding statistic.

Points, Wins and Losses

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Even more elementary than goals in terms of determining a football team's progress are points. 

The league table, it is said, does not lie. 

This season, Spurs have 53 points, which has them on track for 67 points by the end of the season. 

Under the dynamic duo of Tim Sherwood and Andre Villas-Boas last season, Spurs collected 69 points. This suggests that the narrative of Spurs' progress under Pochettino is more complex than simple numbers. 

It must be said that after 30 games last season, Spurs had 53 points, the same number they have now. There is no reason to believe that they can't exceed last season's total. 

Tottenham have beaten Chelsea and Arsenal this season, something they couldn't do last year. They've also competed with Liverpool and Manchester City, which also eluded them in 2013-14.

Individual results have generally improved, but the early-season slump has cost the team a chance to legitimately compete for the top four places. 

Spurs went from top of the Premier League after an August 24 thrashing of QPR to 11th following a home defeat to Newcastle in October. In that time, Spurs played seven Premier League matches, losing four and beating only Southampton.

They took just five points from the 21 on offer in that period. Had they won points at the same rate they have for this season as a whole, they would have taken 14. Those additional nine points would have Spurs second in the Premier League. 

Of course, all teams suffer through slumps, but even a few more points in that two month spell would have seen them among the Champions League teams.

Conclusion

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The numbers don't paint an accurate picture of Tottenham's season in 2014-15. 

They suggest stagnation or even decline, when in actuality the standard of football is drastically increased and there has been a significant restoration of faith among a previously jaded support. 

More Tottenham fans support Pochettino than supported either AVB or Sherwood. Pochettino has not yet achieved what Harry Redknapp did, but he also lacks the notable flaws that led many fans to never truly trust the former West Ham boss. 

The remarkable rise of Kane, alongside Ryan Mason's emergence and the growth of Danny Rose and Nabil Bentaleb have been the theme of this season. Tottenham academy products playing alongside some of the best players in the world in Lloris and Christian Eriksen sounds like Florentino Perez's pitch for the original Galacticos, which he described as "Zidanes y Pavones" (stars and youth players). 

This development is exciting to Spurs fans. Many felt that the disappointment of the League Cup Final would be quickly assuaged by this group of players. That optimism doesn't resonate with the statistics from this season, but it seems to be much closer to reality.