What a difference a goal makes

The league this year, as we all know, is extremely tight and may come down to the smallest of margins. Everybody below 9th place is looking over their shoulder at the looming relegation zone and amongst them sit Tottenham Hotspur, only goal difference separating them from the drop. After salvaging their season last year and their successful Carling Cup campaign, Spurs may well have expected to push on to greater things this season and it would certainly have been a shock to them to be fastened to the bottom of the table without a win in 8. However, when reading the figures in the league table, there is only one major issue left to tackle at the Lane, the strikeforce, and they are in the perfect situation to do something about it.

Last year they had the hugely exciting pair of Berbatov and Keane to lead the line, a duo that meant Spurs were one of the most frequent scorers in the entire league. However, Berbatov had not really got going properly until about this stage of the season. After 16 played, Dimitar had only scored twice but netted an impressive 6 goals in the next 4 games, including the 4 he scored in the 1 game against Reading. However, more notably Tottenham were scoring from all over the pitch, defenders and midfielders all pitching in to make Spurs one of the highest scoring teams in the league. The real problems were in defence though and, no matter what they tried, they could do nothing to stop the tide of goals flying in at the other end. When Spurs lost their talismanic frontmen over the summer things looked a little bit dire for the North Londoners. They had lost an average 50 goals in Keane and Berbatov and, as far as anyone else was aware, they had not yet repaired their habit of leaking goals.

All fears were realised when Spurs sat nailed to the bottom after 8 games and, despite a good little run, they are still right down the wrong end of the table. However, the league does not make for as nasty a read for a Spurs fan as their position would suggest. Although they are only on 20 points, their is still just 5 between them and 10th place and points aren’t even the only important thing in a league as tight as this. Where Tottenham have really managed to turn things around is at the back, conceding just 25 times in their opening 20 games. It might not be a title-winning statistic, not by a longshot, but neither is it relegation worthy. They have the lowest amount of goals against them than anybody below Fulham, with West Ham and Bolton on 28 and Middlesbrough and Sunderland on 29. That is a huge turnaround for Tottenham from this time last year when they had let in 36.

I would say that repairing a leaky defence is a much tougher prospect than fixing a misfiring attack, especially when you have the talent going forwards that Tottenham have in their squad. They have the time, money and now the opportunity (being in the January window) to start making the necessary moves to change in their favour and now that Modric and Pavlyuchenko appear to be adjusting to England, it is not hard to see Tottenham adding to their goal tally in the near future. If they can regain the ability to not just rely on their strikers and start notching up more goals from across the park like they were doing last year, it would really make a difference also. 

When it is as close as this, with so many teams all lurking around the same amount of points, goal difference begins to be extremely important and that is where Tottenham have the upper hand. If it comes down to it then the bottom 3 as well as Middlesbrough could find themselves in difficulty as they have almost twice the goal difference than most of the teams down the bottom. Portsmouth must also be concerned as they are equally bad off, having -12 to their name. They have to start winning again or else they will be in trouble and they do not want that poor goal difference to start counting against them.

Interestingly, for all the great work they have done, Hull City have an unbelievable -9, even though they sit 8th in the league! That is 13 less than anybody else in the top 9, with only 4 teams in the whole league with worse, 3 of them in the relegation zone. They have let in more than anyone in the league and it is only their incredible ability to score that sees them where they are. Should they lose that for any reason, an injury or a dip in form, and they could drop like a stone. I really hope not though, as they have won themselves many admirers this season, myself included.

I would feel fairly optimistic for Tottenham fans then at this stage of the season. A couple of wins and they will almost certainly be out of the precarious situation they found themselves in a few months back and finding form in front of goal could have them seriously climbing the table.