Tottenham-Fiorentina Preview | How To Shape Your Season in Ten Days
Dial the clock back just over a year and Spurs are about to enter a ten day period in which their season would ultimately be defined. Indeed, the late-February 2015 version of a Tottenham fan was one with a bounce in their step; still in fevered pursuit of Champions League qualification, the last 16 of the Europa League in their crosshairs and a trip to Wembley just days away.
We’ll win the bloody lot, was the optimistic cry. Hope springs eternal.
By the beginning of March, the threads of Spurs’ campaign had all but unravelled. An ugly scraped 2-2 draw to West Ham in the League sent the first wheel wobbling— virtually ending any chance of reigning in 4th. The disappointment snowballed into the following week as Fiorentina delivered a knockout blow in the second leg of the Europa League last 32.
By Sunday, José Mourinho was rolling about on the Wembley turf with a League Cup trophy in his hands and Spurs’ season was terminated.
When it came to the crunch, we fell just a little short on all fronts.
Tottenham find themselves in familiar waters this week. Ahead looms four fixtures in ten days which have the distinct look of season-defining about them. The F.A Cup is dead to us now, but just as things began to uncoil at an alarming rate last year, it’s vital that Spurs hold their nerve in this most critical period.
Tonight, it’s Fiorentina at White Hart Lane, then three League games in seven days: Swansea at home, West Ham away and *gulp* a gargantuan North London Derby. It’s time to discover what this new brand of Spurs is really made of.
So, first up, Fiorentina. Like Spurs, the Tuscan side have rather bucked convention and not let the Europa League become too much of a hindrance on their domestic endeavours this season.
Sitting contently in third, there’s even the low-frequency buzz of a title challenge in the air, something they’ve not managed since the late-Sixties. Although the chances of both Juventus and Napoli succumbing to a home-stretch collapse looks unlikely. Still, they’re only four wins away from equalling last year’s points total with twelve games remaining.
Spurs go into the fixture as favourites, with home advantage and a handy away goal tucked into their breeches from the first tie.
Team news, you say? Well the smart money is on a relatively unaltered line-up from the Florence leg. With the Europa League now shifting up on the list of priorities, we perhaps might have expected to see Harry Kane replace Nacer Chadli as the lone-striker, in an attempt field something close to a full-strength side.
But the England striker went and busted his nose bone in the weekend’s defeat to Crystal Palace and, despite rumours of a face-protecting mask, will miss out.
Heung-min Son has done much of his best work in Europe this year and it might be tempting to entrust him with the task of leading the line. Though he mightn’t offer some of the useful qualities that Chadli offers as an improvised centre-forward— strength, heading and the like— it might make for a more fluid attacking ensemble with him involved, with perhaps the Belgian and Erik Lamela working in tandem. It could prove an exciting proposition.
