The Athletic

Hello everybody, a happy new year to you and welcome to The View from The Lane, the Tottenham-Otsburgh podcast from The Athletic. I'm Danny Kelly.

And joining me for the first show of 2022, we had a little breakover Christmas. Why wouldn't we?

Are The Athletics Jack Pittbrook and Charlie Eccleshare. Good morning, gents. Since we last gathered, Spurs have played three

times over Christmas very briefly. They won three at home on Boxing Day against Crystal Palace,

had a one-one draw at Southampton down on the South Coast, and then in the last minute managed

to beat Watford by Golds Neal. So seven points from those three games. I'll ask you two questions,

Jack and Charlie. Seven points from nine, is that a good return? And seven points from nine,

does that reflect how Spurs played over the Christmas period? Charlie? Yeah, I think seven points is about fair, though I'd probably flip them and say if you were going on what was merited, you'd probably say the Southampton game, they did more to win in many ways in the Watford game. I don't think they could have had many complaints if they'd drawn that game with Watford, but ditto if they'd beaten Southampton, given that ridiculous

offside, the disallowed goal, I don't think Saints could have had too many complaints

of Spurs had won that day. So it's probably about fair as a whole, yeah. And whether those are,

that's a good set of results, I think it's okay given it was such a good weekend, the one just

gone with United and Arsenal

both losing and Spurs are suddenly in a really strong position and I think that's it's such a

zero-sum game at this point that you know if you'd offered them gaining gaining points on both of those

teams that they're in competition with over the Christmas period I'm sure they would have taken Yeah, so I was at the Watford and Southampton Games. I think I'd probably agree with Charlie. I thought Spurs played better against Sir Hampton than they did against Watford. You know, they created chances against Sir Hampton. Stampton were pretty good and aggressive. Obviously, they scored two good goals that were not given. Was against Watford, I thought suppose pretty bad, to be honest. They, I mean, I think they only really made two real chances. There was the one where Skip nick the ball off, Inran loser, and Kane put it just wide. And then there was that one out of absolutely nowhere, where Lucas Mora put the ball through to Zon and Bachman made a great reflex. That's a good stop, wasn't it? Really good save, yeah. I was watching that game thinking, it's not really happening, is it? Like, Spurs are just, like, what, you know, Watford basically did a job on spurs and neutralised them. And so much of the, and the big talking point after the game was, can this team set up the way they are, create enough chances against teams that defend deep? Because, you know, the way the game was going, Danny, is that the ball would go out to Emerson Royale every time, who Watford were very relaxed about letting him get the ball. Royale is not very incisive when it comes to his crossing, and Watford just headed the ball away.

Oh, no, no, no. Watford, clearly, that they had a tactical plan, which was to make the ball go to

Spurses' right-hand side, where neither Davidson Sanchez, who had a decent game or Emerson

Royal are very good with the ball at their feet, or at least not as good as what is now the

absolute standard in the Premier League. They double-marked Region. are very good with the ball at their feet, or at least not as good as what is now the absolute

standard in the Premier League. They double-marked Reggion, who himself, let's be fair,

is no Roberto Carlos, but that's where the threat could have come from. They double-banked him

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