We’re Back, Baby!

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’ ” – Jack Kerouac

So, dear reader, this is where we find ourselves. On the brink. It’s perhaps fitting that while our season gets up on its feet this weekend, it’s done so against a team with which our last great odyssey ended. That delirious night in Manchester, three months ago, when the collective hoorahs of a million Spurs fans could’ve been heard by Joseph Kittinger at the edge of the Stratosphere. As he plummeted toward earth. Crouch. Eighty-second minute. Header. You remember the rest. It were reet good.

But, as they say, if that was then- this is very much now. Things have moved on a bit since May; at least from the point of view of our Mancunian cousins. City have had a busy summer. You may’ve noticed. And not busy in the sense of getting bizz-ay with some salacious lady of the night in the back of a minicab. Roberto has splurged gazillions on some real cushty items since we last met. Just scrolling through their squad list on the pages of Wikipedia and it appears they’ve not only nabbed the only worthwhile packages in the shop window, they’ve ejected most of the chuff, too. They’ve stream-lined. No sign of the forty-five strikers they were addled with last year. Sure, it may still be an abundant forward line to say the least, but anyone who can hand-pick from Adebayor, Bellamy, Tevez, Robinho, RSC and, most likely, Balotelli (having a medical as we speak), is probably not doing so badly. Defensively they look strong, too. Kolarov, Boateng, blah, blah, blah.

You get the idea. They look awfully decent sur la papier. Wherein lies our advantage, however, and part of the reason I think an opening day ruckus with Citeh is perhaps more favourable than, say, the turn of the year, is we’re a good team off paper, also. Comings and goings have been sparse but it’s still the same compound of players which dismantled Arsenal and Chelsea at the business end of last season (my word, I just said business end and it was relevant to Tottenham). Key players remain and the nucleus of everything good about this side- a world class goalkeeper, a pair of clean-heeled wingers, Modric, Dawson, etc.- are all elements which have not only stayed firm, but with any luck, improved. And will continue to do so as the season tumbles along. Man City, you’d hope, will need games under their diamante encrusted belts; time before the whole begins to look anything like the sum of its parts. Tactical and cerebral harmony doesn’t happen overnight. Not often, anyway. An early goal from us we could see the whole thing unravel.

Team news, you say? Well, I’ve got just thing. Baring any eleventh-hour coups, I would guess that the line-up be might be something we’re familiar with, albeit with a take your pick affair with regard to our men up top. Robbie Keane is flavour of the month again so he could well lay in wait for a start. With whom, by anyone’s reckoning, is hard to tell. If I were a betting man or inclined to have a shot in the dark, I’d suggest the exact pairing ‘Arry began last season with: Messrs Jermain and Robert. And I suppose that worked out okay. So, other than that, it’s all systems a go-go.

2-0 to the Hotspur.

Altogether now.

Ceeeermonyouspuuuuuurs.