The Tiger In Us

The DNA of the Tottenham team is not that much different from the DNA of us as mainstream people, especially for the last 50 years, which is they have not found the tiger within them.  For sure they recognize the cockerel because that is the logo of Tottenham Hotspurs.  Today the expectation and statistical probability deemed that Tottenham would not win at Everton, but that observation forgets to look at the history of prior games, where Everton has always been a venue which has produced their best results. 

Even with the expectation that Everton were in a good position to take points, the actual eventuality has been that Spurs closed the gap on Manchester City is the last thing anyone expected, especially when I had seen the screen flash that Manchester CIty had taken the lead against Crystal Palace.  In that particular game Palace found their Tiger within and came away with an improbable 3-2 win.  That result coupled with today's mauling of Everton saw Spurs find their scoring boots as they created a tennis match score, winning 6-2.

In order to win a championship teams need three things to happen

• They need to have "tiger within" no matter how much they have spent on players
• They need to be consistent over the long-haul and not in just one or two isolated matches
• They need to win when they don't play at their best, grinding out a result or just being lucky

I did not expect a tiger performance from Tottenham, where all four of the FAB FOUR (Harry Kane, Heung Min-Son, Christian Erickson and Delle Ali all scored in the same match, making it the first time they have scored together in the same match.   To add more gloss to this win, the much criticized Mousa Sissoko suddenly has found a position on the field where he is contributing to the teams overall - where every Spurs fans wanted to offload Sissoko in the next transfer period, now they were singing his praises as he came back.

Leicester City found the tiger in themselves for one season when they beat Spurs to the title, and right now Spurs fans would take being a Premier League title winner for at least one season, being that it is now 57 years since Tottenham won their last league championship.  The value for me in watching football is the analogies and metaphors from the beautiful game, which we can draw in our own life experiences. 

I would be infinitely more successful if I simply found the tiger within me, but too much second guessing and playing for safety rather than success has turned my tiger into a purring and lazy pussy cat.  Since I was expecting a draw today, the nature of today's victory showed me for the first time an intent to do something brilliant.

With Liverpool playing Manchester City at the turn of the new year, it all depends on how Tottenham now navigate the rest of their Christmas fixtures and where the next surprise or shock result is coming from.   Liverpool are the only team in recent years that was top at Christmas and who did not go and win the league title.  Chelsea and Manchester City completed their march to their respective titles because they were both well organized and applied their tiger within.

What this result means is that Tottenham is definitely in the title conversation.  Spurs do have two pivotal matches away to Liverpool and Manchester City, but right now they have the best away record in all five major soccer leagues in Europe.  Given that Spurs have always had a better second half of the season than the first half and with additional home games still to be played.

Now that we saw the tiger awaken in them as the obliterated what is on paper a good Everton side, there is plenty to look forward to in 2019 - so long as we keep seeing this tiger in the Tottenham team week after week after week.  Who knows, while Manchester City is the favourite  and Liverpool have the team - Spurs could surprise both of these teams or if they don't they are teaching me with their performance, to find my own tiger within.