There have been many shocking story lines in this year’s Premier League Season. Of course there is Leicester City’s rise to first place, and Chelsea’s epic faceplate to 13th in the table. Yet, with all the craziness, one team has been quite surprising in their own right, the Tottenham Hotspurs. After their clutch and surprising victory over Manchester City on Saturday, the Spurs moved into a second place tie with Arsenal. Saturday’s victory over ailing Manchester City was not only a much needed three points, but a statement and testament to Tottenham’s play throughout the season. The Spurs have really had the mindset of; it won’t be pretty, and it sure as heck won’t be easy, but in the end Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen will somehow lead us to the promised land. After emerging star Harry Kane’s unprecedented season last year in which he scored 21 goals, good for second best in the EPL, Kane has continued his magic into this years season in which he has 16 goals, again good for second in the Premier League.
For a team that is currently seated second in the league table, the Spurs have the highest goal differential of any team in the EPL with +27, the team they defeated on saturday Manchester City is second at +20, and league leader Leicester City is third at +19. This is due to the Spurs incredible defensive play. Tottenham have only given up two goals in league play once through the months of November, December, January, and February. Not only has Tottenham’s back end really improved since the 2014-2015 campaign, goalie Hugo Lloris has been lights out this season which has been no surprise at all.
With twelve matches to go in this EPL season, the top four is still wide open. Although the Spurs have played City twice, and Leicester twice, their biggest matchup left is against Arsenal. Although Leicester has by far the easier schedule of any of the top teams, I am still confident that the Spurs will emerge as league champions when all is said and done.
My Prediction for the top 4:
- Spurs
- Leicester
- City
- Arsenal
Although Arsenal has many players that have recently been in form in the likes of Walcott and Welbeck, I don’t believe the Gunners have the experience of playing together to finish out a premier league title run. Obviously I’m not an expert, and Tottenham could just as well fall out of the top four, but I feel pretty confident in my predictions.
Point thats irrelevant to the columns main point:
Chelsea fell to PSG this week at Parc Des Princes with a score of 2-1. With the amount of injuries that Chelsea has, and their struggles in league play, the boys in blue should be very happy with their performance. Mikel’s goal in the first half stopping time wasn’t enough for Chelsea as the classic PSG combo of Ibra and Cavani. Unfortunately for the EPL, both Chelsea and probably Arsenal will be eliminated. There has been talk about the EPL maybe losing a champions league spot due to its teams poor play in the tournament. Unless Man City can somehow pull off a deep tournament run, the EPL could be out of luck.