How Tottenham Can Ensure St Totteringham's Day Does Not Happen in 2015-16
Fresh from scoring twice in Tottenham Hotspur's 2-1 victory over Arsenal, Harry Kane triumphantly circled the scene of his feat. Cheering on the in-form striker, the White Hart Lane faithful could be forgiven for thinking they had just witnessed the coronation of a new king in their section of north London. Off the back of a strong couple of months team-wise too, was the Kane-led side finally ready to move ahead of their rivals?
Three mixed months later, the excitement prompted by Tottenham's victory has tapered and Arsenal are again celebrating St. Totteringham's Day—the point in the season marked by Gunners fans when Spurs can no longer mathematically catch their club in the league table.
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Head coach Mauricio Pochettino will pay no heed to the faux-holiday indictment of his squad's inferiority (going by his press conferences this season, the Argentinian has little care for anything circulated in the media relating to his team). But as he plans for a 2015-16 campaign which might see the potential of Spurs' better moments this season begin to be realised, ensuring the reality of St Totteringham's Day is not celebrated again will take some doing.
Tottenham have not concluded a campaign above Arsenal in the Premier League table since 1995.
Although more competitive in the last decade—in eight out of 10 seasons (including this one) they have also been genuinely in the hunt for Champions League football—Spurs always ultimately fell short. On a few occasions, agonisingly so.
Martin Jol's 2005-06 side suffered the misfortune of final-day, squad-wide illness when a win over West Ham United would have meant they finished fourth just ahead of Arsene Wenger's Champions League finalists. Harry Redknapp and Andre Villas-Boas' respective 2011-12 and 2012-13 groups might well have been out of sight, but experienced post-derby game collapses which cost them.
Bar the first campaign mentioned above—when Jol's young squad featuring Michael Carrick, Robbie Keane, Ledley King and Aaron Lennon took a complacent, distracted Arsenal by surprise—the superiority of Wenger's teams has been thoroughly earned.
The obvious answer to the Lilywhites' St Totteringham's Day frustrations, winning more games, is not easily achievable. Arsenal and the other clubs occupying the top four spots with three games to go are not going anywhere next season.
Despite the optimism created by Kane's brace in February this year, and the impressively aggressive, at times relentless collective performance behind it, Spurs staying ahead of the derby-day losers felt a long-shot. As comparatively behind the Gunners in their development as they are.
After last night's win over Hull City, Arsenal could yet finish second this season (their points tally now at 70 points along with Manchester City). Should they retain the FA Cup later this month, Wenger's men will be as primed to push on as they have been in over a decade.
Success breeds confidence. A team including such valuable, flourishing component parts as Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin and Alexis Sanchez not making the most of that would be a serious indictment of their manager's ability to get the best out of them.
In the event Tottenham push on too—that their talented, predominantly young squad suitably matures and is augmented by a few choice, team-enhancing additions—the biggest factor in their control in the battle for supremacy in north London would be for them to act like they have been there before. Especially when it comes to a second derby fixture of the season which has been of late, if not always pivotal, at least influential.
Use its importance to the supporters as a motivation tool, alright, but minimise the significance of the result. No matter which way it goes. A couple of times recently Tottenham's reaction to it has been too extreme.
"We are on an upward spiral in terms of confidence and they are in a negative spiral in terms of results," said Villas-Boas of the impact of Spurs' 2-1 win in March 2013, via BBC Sport. "To [get] out of that negative spiral is extremely difficult." A little humility would have served Spurs better, instead that statement was like a red rag to a bull.
Ten points clear prior to the match a year earlier, Spurs lost 5-2 and did descend into a negative spiral. There were others factors for sure, but the general failure of Redknapp's team to get over this blow undoubtedly cost them the third place they required that season to qualify for the Champions League.
In fairness to Pochettino and his men, while rightly enjoying the moment, they said all the right things after the most recent derby.
"We have to keep going, look forward and move onto the next game now," the head coach said to Spurs' official website. "We must remember we are only talking about one game today," offered captain Hugo Lloris, "there are a lot of games until the end of the season so we need to be focused and calm."
Their loss three days later at Liverpool did not feel like a consequence of complacency or a sense of collapse. More a promising but still flawed team (the coaching staff included) experiencing its present limitations. Underlined further by the way they lost ground on Arsenal in the challenging weeks which followed, tired and struggling for ideas as their demanding schedule took its toll.
Tottenham progressing next season is dependent on them learning from their first year together with Pochettino. It may be the case they are another year away from catching up Arsenal regardless—if that.
In the event they are good enough to get close in 2015-16's deciding months, remembering the greater significance of the big picture may help them avoid a 21st successive celebration of St. Totteringham's Day.
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