Depending on quite how much you adhere to Andre Villas-Boas’ crystal ball, Tottenham Hotspur are now perhaps only five wins away from once again reaching the promised land of Champions League football.
Before his side’s hard-fought 2-1 victory away to Swansea City during the weekend, the Portuguese set his team a target of six wins from their remaining eight games in order to secure another top four finish.
Whether such sentiments prove to be true, only time will tell, but however you wish to frame it, three points against Michael Laudrup’s side represents a small but incredibly important step towards achieving that goal.
And after what were two chastising league defeats in a row for the Lilywhites, both of which evoked haunting memories of last season’s fateful self-destruction, perhaps focusing on the short-term is exactly what Villas-Boas should be doing.
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Because in recent weeks, for all the talk of a winning mentality and a steely resilience that Andre Villas-Boas has looked to instill, there’s been a feeling that the sheer size of the achievement on the horizon, as well as the adjoining expectation that’s began to bubble under the surface, has started to eat away at his young side.
This Tottenham side do of course carry a very different complexity indeed to the one that now infamously spurred a ten point gap to Arsenal in the league last season. Yet while the club can change the manager, first-team squad and even replace the whole spine of the team, one thing that they can’t change is history. And regardless of the personnel that has or has not left the club since their implosion in the 2011-12 campaign, the shadows of last season have begun to weigh down hard upon the club in recent weeks.
While it would be somewhat naïve to suggest the 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham felt pre-empted, the writing felt very much on the wall for many supporters following the 3-2 defeat away to Liverpool.
The seven-point gap that Villas-Boas’ side had recently accumulated over their north London rivals was used not so much as a stick to beat them with in the media, more a narrative that was too tempting not to elaborate upon. It was always likely to be the stone that Spurs were likely to trip up upon and to all intents and purposes, perhaps they’d have been better off without whatsoever.
But now it’s gone, instead of fixing their eyes towards where they may or may not be come May, the emphasis must now be on taking things one step at a time.
While setting your side a tangible win target might have arguably applied more pressure onto the side, Villas-Boas may have conversely eased some of the strain that was starting to show upon his team. Five wins from seven games may still seem like a heady target, but after their win against Swansea during the weekend, they now feel one step closer to achieving their goal, rather than perilously close to surrendering it.
Could such a tentative psychological difference really give Spurs the edge? Only time will tell, but while they’d naturally prefer to still have that seven-point cushion going into the season’s run-in, maybe the pressure of that lead and the weight of expectation has now been lifted. It’s often said that one would rather chase a lead, rather than defend it going into a title charge.
Tottenham may still be defending a one point lead over Arsenal should the Gunners win their game in hand, but it will be sure to weigh an awful lot lighter than that of a bigger margin, given recent history.
In setting his side a total of five more wins, regardless of whether that may ultimately be enough to secure a top four finish, Villas-Boas may have also lifted the storm clouds that some quarters of the Tottenham support may have been anticipating during their impending run of games this month.
A trio of fixtures against Everton (H), Chelsea (A) and Manchester City (H) on the bounce remains an intimidating prospect, but in setting his side a target of five wins from their last seven games, the Portuguese is perhaps giving a coded suggestion that his team could theoretically afford to lose against the West Londoners and Roberto Mancini’s men and still achieve their ultimate goal.
With away games at Stoke City and Wigan still to come, it’s by no means a given that they would be able to do so, but perhaps their difficult run-in doesn’t look quite so daunting after all when it’s broken down.
Either way, setting your side a points target hardly constitutes much in the way of a managerial masterstroke, but when Spurs found themselves in a similar position last year, they were in desperate need of something to steady the ship. Instead of resetting their goals, supporters were greeted with a manager bemoaning their own luck and acknowledging how they were going to ‘give it a good a go’.
A renewed sense of ambition and steely sense of calm might be just what Spurs have needed to get their top four push back on track.
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