With Tottenham Hotspur losing last weekend’s London derby clash with West Ham United, it obviously wasn’t going to take too long for ‘some’ in the world of punditry to slap on their anti-Spurs helmets and well, act like a complete helmet.
Talksport shock jock Adrian Durham was an obvious candidate following that performance and result, and he chose to focus on the fact that having lost a third of our games in the Premier League campaign of 2018/19, it showed just how far ahead Manchester City and Liverpool were given we still managed to remain in third place in the top flight table.
Speaking on 29/4 – 4.37pm, he said.
“For me it’s a sign that beyond Liverpool and Man City there’s not a huge amount of quality when you think Spurs, according to the table, are the third best team. And they’ve lost a third of their games and that’s absolutely shocking. To lose 12 games!”
What he, of course, doesn’t account for there, is that we’ve won 23 of our 36 fixtures and yes, granted, the sides above us have won more, but we all know some of our defeats by rights should’ve been draws.
It also doesn’t account for comparitive transfer spend at the top six clubs, nor the massive injury problems we have had across the campaign given that has undoubtedly held us back. I’m not saying we’d have been genuine title challengers given our dalliance with the top two earlier in the season, but with a lighter injury load given we didn’t strengthen over the summer or in January, I’d argue without that holding us back we’d be a damn sight closer and definitely further ahead of the chasing pack.
It’s about progress and we are still making it with this year being more just enough or nothing with our lack of draws. He’s right to find third place ‘absolutely shocking’ but absolutely not for the reason he does – then again if he acknowledged that he couldn’t have had a dig.