A word I haven't heard too much of this season. Things have been going well. Really well. Bar our lack of cover up front, I can't think of a single thing to complain about. Here we are, in the top two in the second half of the season for the first time in my time as a fan, still in Europe, still in the FA Cup. The best defence in the league, the best goal difference in the league, only two goals behind being the league's top scorers. The football is attractive and fun to watch. There's a great atmosphere in the squad, full of young, hungry and likeable players, led by a classy and thoroughly likeable manager. What a time to be a Spurs fan.
And yet...I can't help but think that this is the weekend where it all goes tits up. Why? Because of that word. sexy. We all know what it means and what it symbolises. That knowledge that, no matter how well things are going, we'll find an impossible way to fudge things up somehow.
I'm sure I will hear some of you claim that THIS TIME things are "different". Like they supposedly were after we beat Milan at the San Siro and all we had to do was beat an awful Blackpool side to go third in the league. Or how we were 2-0 up and ten points clear of the worst Arsenal side in decades. How we'd done the hard bit in beating Chelsea 5-1 in the semi and had a tinkle easy final against Blackburn. I could go on. The point is, fans of my generation have been told that THIS TIME we won't screw up and that THIS manager is the Messiah so many times that we just don't buy it any more. It's all part of the sexy cycle.
Poch's record has been great. But, I would argue that he hasn't won a meaningful game yet. Don't get me wrong, he's won big games. He's won games against good teams. But not a meaningful game. Watching us thrash Arsenal, Chelsea, City and West Ham after the Sherwood era was fantastic. But...these sorts of games are not what I'm referring to. Winning a derby is great for the bragging rights, but that's all. Sticking four or five goals past the league leaders is also great, but again, not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about season defining matches that we know will have a huge bearing on our objectives as a whole.
There are only two games Poch has played that fall under this category. The League Cup final and Man Utd away last season. The cup final for obvious reasons, the United game because we had the chance to go level on points with them at the business end of the season in the race for the top four. We played well in the cup final but were well beaten in the end, whereas the six pointer against Man Utd was over within half an hour. Classically sexy. You could also argue the Leicester league game in January fell under this category too (although still a little early in the season to be truly meaningful). Again, we lost without scoring.
We don't win many games like this. The last one was three years ago when AVB beat Arsenal in March to put us seven points above them in the race for the top 4. And Sunday, is the first truly meaningful game of the season. Because up to now, it's been great plodding along, enjoying our football, doing what we're doing and quietly going about our business while Leicester distract everyone's attention as the shock leaders. But on Sunday, for the first time all season, we will be in a high pressure game against a rival in the title race. The season starts here.
What SHOULD happen is that we go there and batter them like we used to before they got the Sheik's money. I know that we've lost every game there since Crouch's header (the least sexy moment of the 2010s), and we've let in ten goals there in the past two seasons. But they haven't won back to back games since October 17th. They haven't beaten any of the top 6 this season (and have lost to four of them). They've been well beaten at home by West Ham, Leicester and Liverpool. Even if they won every game left this season they'd still have less points than the first time they won the Premier League. This is absolutely not a title winning side. Not only that, but our strengths of fast paced, counter attacking football, high pressing and being rough and tough are the kinds of things they've struggled with all season. Their manager also knows he's a dead man walking. They have a serious injury crisis. It seems a strange thing to say about a team that haven't dropped a point at home to us in the last six years and have been title favourites for most of the season, but a draw is a bad result for us on Sunday.
And yet...will we win? I think we will almost certainly lose. I'm not sure how. But we will. Why? sexy, that's why. Whether we feel the City backlash after the Leicester defeat, our players choke under the pressure, a poor refereeing decision, maybe Otamendi is going to suddenly morph into a £30m defender....I don't know. But we will.
Poch was my first choice from the start of the recruitment process. I have been thoroughly impressed by everything he's done. But if he's to be a true Tottenham great, he has to defeat sexy and win this weekend. Which he won't. You can give me all the logical reasons in the world why Poch is GHod and he'll find a way. But sexy trumps logic and reason. sexy didn't care that finishing in the top 4 gets you a Champions League spot. sexy didn't care that 72 points was our record and should get you a top 4 spot. If we are serious about being title challengers, and that Poch isn't just another con artist leading another false dawn, he will have to win the truly meaningful games like Sunday. And to do that, he'll have to do the unthinkable and overcome sexy.
Let's see what you're made of Mauricio.
