Tottenham Season Review: Highs and Lows
Highlights
Where to start? Tottenham’s best season of the Premier League era by a distance. After guiding them to an underwhelming 5th place in 2011, Harry Redknapp famously suggested that this would be as good as it gets for the North London club.
While fans might have rolled their eyes at Redknapp’s withering defeatism, they’d be forgiven for airing similar concerns after last year’s unlikely title race with Leicester City.
In a division newly stocked with continental super coaches, armed with untold wealth, how could fans possibly hope to replicate another third-place finish in 2016/17?
Would that be as good as it got for Spurs?
The answer, categorically, was no.
Measured by cold numbers alone, Tottenham obliterated almost every modern club record going. Including *deep breath* most wins, most clean sheets, best defence, most goals, longest winning run, best goal difference, best home record.
The list rolls on.
In fact, only in the really vital categories (points and wins) did Chelsea best Spurs’ totals for the season.
The great shame, of course, was that Tottenham’s greatest ever Premier League return just happened to coincide with a record-crushing Chelsea side.
Antonio Conte bullied a historic 30 wins out of the West Londoners, including a 13-game hot streak, stretching from early-October to late-December.
Spurs just couldn’t keep up.
Importantly, in amongst all the dizzying statistics, Tottenham were genuinely brilliant to watch this term. White Hart Lane became an impermeable stronghold; in the end, only earthmovers and wrecking balls could conquer her. Teams lined up to be flattened by Pochettino’s thrilling ensemble on a weekly basis. United, Chelsea, City, Arsenal and Everton were all beaten there.
Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Hueng-min Son and Christian Eriksen had remarkable campaigns individually, but as an attacking collective they were near on unstoppable. A joy to witness. As good as it gets.
Lowlights
The glaring negative of 2017 was that for all Tottenham’s thrilling football, they didn’t manage to win anything.
Jamie Carragher remarked that it would be a huge let-down if Spurs didn’t land at least one trophy under Pochettino’s guidance. Despite running close(ish) in the League and reaching an FA Cup semi-final, the wait goes on for Tottenham’s first piece of silverware since 2008.
The supposedly busted flushes Arsenal and Man United meanwhile…
It’s not escaped the players’ notice, either. Danny Rose this week, questioned whether Tottenham might always be considered ‘the nearly club that nearly wins the league’. Whether they’re particularly helpful comments or not, you can see his point.
Elsewhere frustration arrived in the form of another botched European crusade. Not once but twice. Most will point to Wembley as the common factor in our disastrous efforts, first in the Champions League group stage and then the Europa knockouts, but in reality, we look grossly underprepared in both. Some summer homework for Pochettino, perhaps.
Season marked overall: A-
**This first appeared on Yahoo Sport**
