5 Key Fixtures for Tottenham Fans to Focus on in 2016/17 Premier League Season

Tottenham Hotspur stunned English football last season with their ultimately failed Premier League title chase. 

Leicester City's triumph took the headlines, but Spurs' re-emergence as one of the elites of top-flight English football would have been the top story in any other season. 

Mauricio Pochettino's team were largely tipped as potential Champions League qualifiers, but instead they finished easily inside the top three and could have—with a little more luck—broken their decades-long title drought. 

The new season will bring renewed expectations as, having gatecrashed the top four, Tottenham will be seen as a disappointment if they fail to at least match that achievement. 

Defending their position won't be easy, but here are just a few of the biggest fixtures on the list for the 2016-17 campaign.

Everton Away (August 13)

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The opening day of the season carries great significance as the hope and expectation of a long summer coalesce around the first meaningful action since spring. 

This year Tottenham travel to Merseyside to face Everton in their opening fixture. 

Spurs' record against the Toffees has been underwhelming in recent seasons, and they took only two points from two meetings with Roberto Martinez's abject side last season. 

With Ronald Koeman now installed at Goodison Park, Everton may present a more tenacious opposition. 

Mauricio Pochettino has the significant advantage of consistency, though. He could pick his starting line-up for the opening tilt tomorrow, while Koeman is likely to spend the coming months reshaping his own squad. 

Spurs should see this as a fine chance to get their season off to a good start.

Chelsea Away (November 26)

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While the home draw against West Bromwich Albion realistically ended Tottenham's title hopes, it wasn't until the following week when another stalemate officially made Leicester the champions of England. 

That was the explosive 2-2 draw against away to Chelsea, a fixture in which a new Premier League record was set with five Spurs players being cautioned by the referee. 

Tottenham's relationship with the west London side is a storied one, and hatred between the two clubs is nothing new. But Pochettino's young charges have their own rivalry here and will be desperate to set things right this season. 

While away on England duty this week, Danny Rose admitted, per the Observer, that the renewal of hostilities at Stamford Bridge would be "the first fixture we’re looking at next season."

Tottenham travel across the capital in late November, fresh from derbies against West Ham United and Arsenal in a month that also includes two Champions League fixtures. 

Mousa Dembele will be available after his suspension expires at the end of September.

Arsenal Home (April 29) and Away (5 November)

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No matter the context of the season unfolding around it, the north London derby always stands out as one of the headline fixtures of the Premier League season. 

For much of the period since England's leading clubs broke away from the old First Division, Tottenham have been largely disinterested bystanders while their bitter rivals collected a hatful of trophies.

Despite the divergence in their fortunes, the meetings between these two eternal enemies always carry meaning. 

Now, with Spurs having forced their way into the league's top echelon once again, this fixture will assume even greater import. 

Can Arsenal help shove Tottenham rudely back down the league table? Can Spurs finally finish ahead of their neighbours? These storylines, and the constant that is the enmity between the combatants, make the derbies key fixtures. 

The home fixture, falling so late in the season, could be of great significance to the title hopes of one or both clubs. 

Sunderland (Home) September 17

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Sunderland have battled relegation for a number of seasons so their arrival at White Hart Lane is not ordinarily one to circle on the calendar, but this season it carries greater significance. 

It is not the fact that the Black Cats count several former Spurs players among their number, including legendary striker Jermain Defoe. 

Instead it is the coincidence of their trip to north London with the first round of group fixtures in this season's Champions League, scheduled for September 13-14. 

The league games after European action are a test of squad depth and coaching nous, and Tottenham know their hopes of back-to-back seasons in the Champions League rest on consistency in the Premier League.  

When Spurs were last in Europe's top competition, they actually shone in their domestic fixtures immediately following a Champions League group game. They collected 11 points from a possible 18 in those circumstances. 

Mauricio Pochettino will be desperate to orchestrate a comparable haul this time around and that begins with Sunderland's arrival in mid-September.

Manchester United (May 13)

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While the final game of the season, away to Hull City, will be a fixture of great significance, it is Tottenham's penultimate match that is likely to be more portentous. 

On that day, Jose Mourinho's Manchester United arrive at White Hart Lane. 

Spurs obliterated Louis van Gaal's Red Devils last season, but the Portuguese's side will be a far tougher opponent. 

United are likely to be gunning for Tottenham's place in the Premier League top four, and so this fixture could well be a default play-off for a Champions League place. It could even be of significance to the Premier League title race. 

Regardless of the context, Manchester United against Tottenham has been one of English football's glamour fixtures for decades and rarely passes without incident. 

With Mourinho's involvement, some degree of controversy is virtually guaranteed.