Another Spurs myth that needs debunking

[kushiro]

I noticed on a Guardian thread today that an old Spurs myth about 2015/16 had reared its ugly head once again.  That old canard about TV scheduling in the title run-in. I'll quote the post verbatim:

 

Leicester played first something like 6 weeks in a row due to TV schedules. Didn't come to it of course,but would have been interesting to see what might have happened had Spurs had the opportunity to apply some pressure by playing first occasionally

 

Now it's true that we did play first several weeks in a row in the title run-in.  Four times in a row in fact, with our games against Sunderland, West Ham, Swansea and Man U. We also played first the following weekend too (the Everton game), but we were already champions then. 

 

So although the guy exaggerated a bit, it looks like he has a point, right? Well, he says would have been interesting to see what might have happened had Spurs had the opportunity to apply some pressure by playing first occasionally. But if you look at the four matchdays immediately before the run of games above, you see that in three of those four, Spurs did have precisely that opportunity to apply pressure by playing first. Why doesn't our Spurs fan mention those fixtures? Well, it's becaue they don't fit the theory. Let's have a look at the detail:

 

1) With just 10 games to go, Spurs had the chance to finally go top if they could beat Arsenal in the Saturday lunchtime game. Despite being 2-1 ahead for that famous 14 minutes, and despite Arsenal being down to 10 men, they allowed a late equaliser, and later that day we took advantage at Watford, going five points clear. 

 

2) With just 8 games to go, they had the chance to reduce the lead to two points if they could beat Bournemouth. They did - they won 3-0. But what was our response to this pressure? We beat Newcastle on the Monday night to restore the five point lead.

 

3) With just 7 games left, Spurs had the chance again to get within two points by beating Liverpool in another Saturday lunchtime fixture. They failed, with Poch famously beating the Anfield turf in frustration. We responded by beating Southampton and moving seven points clear.

 

To sum up, in the title run-in, Spurs dropped points in four crucial games. Two of those were in fixtures where they played before us (as mentioned above), two were in fixtures where they played after us (West Brom and Chelsea). So the theory is basically bollocks. They bottled it when they played first, they bottled it when they played second. The only constant is not the scheduling, it's the bottling.

 

Edited 3 February 2018 by kushiro

[Brainy]

So if they usually played 2nd then it isn't true that they "put the pressure on"?

[ozleicester]

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts my auntie might be my uncle.

 

LOSERS!

[SystonFox]

This is all well and good. And apologies to criticise your post but who cares?

 

we won the league

by ten points

spurs finished third

 

the end

[GloverFox]

... I enjoyed the read and appreciate your time in putting in the post, but you missed the killer close .... they still ended up third in a two horse race! That’s how much they bottled it.

[Nalis]

Good read.

 

So basically the three times when it mattered that they played before us, we won our games anyway and therefore any pressure was just batted away.

 

Also, with the whole 'Spurs bottled it' comments I've seen around - the only thing Spurs bottled was losing 2nd place to Arsenal; we would have won the league regardless of how Spurs did.

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

What a bizarre and protracted way of saying Spurs came 3rd in 2016

 

Weird

[Wolfox]

Enjoyed that...  pressure can do funny things

 

pressure to apply pressure and pressure to respond to pressure

 

i guess we just dealt with the pressure better...  well the team at least as I was complete wreck every weekend 

 

[sylofox]

Not read the OP seems to long for 8am Saturday. But trust me its true no lies or hyped up shit spuds fans are all CVNTS.

[sylofox]

2 minutes ago, Wolfox said:

Enjoyed that...  pressure can do funny things

 

pressure to apply pressure and pressure to respond to pressure

 

i guess we just dealt with the pressure better...  well the team at least as I was complete wreck every weekend 

 

I was completely wrecked every weekend so I dealt with the pressure fine.  

[onekeithweller]

I still rant every time I hear a pundit say ".... and they nearly won the league in 2015/16" or " They threw away the league " and other similar garbage.

Some small minds are still unable to process what we did.

[foxes_rule1978]

1 minute ago, onekeithweller said:

I still rant every time I hear a pundit say ".... and they nearly won the league in 2015/16" or " They threw away the league " and other similar garbage.

Some small minds are still unable to process what we did.

It is a joke, we beat them, we only lost 3 games and that was to 2 teams only... they were never close 

[SheppyFox]

Can’t wait for them to lose all their decent players  

[foxy boxing]

If we hadn't played first then they wouldn't have been able to sing their chant "we're coming for you, we're coming for you"

[GloverFox]

... also, winning by a ten point margin and plus three goal difference over 2nd place is not chance or fluke ... we were Champions for a very good and clear reason ... simply the best ‘team’ over the season.

[Mr Mister]

They finished 3rd in a 2 horse race. That goes to say how shite they were.

[ScouseFox]

not to mention the fact that in 2 of those 4 games you've quoted we didn't win, not much of an advantage playing first to put the pressure on your opponents if you don't actually win. 

[Kitchandro]

Well, we can talk about pressure or playing first or bottling but actually the most important factor was that we were a superior team.

[orangecity23]

Usual Spurs bollocks, crying their little eyes out because it's so unfair they didn't win the title. There is no worse fanbase for delusion in all of football, aided and abetted by a massively London based media which is rammed to the gills with Spurs fans and Spurs players. The myth that they are some behemoth of football is constantly fed by the media, when the facts, that they won absolutely sod all of any relevance (and had achieved no more than us in the last 20 years, even before we won the league, and 1 of the league cups they won they narrowly beat us for in the final) simply don't bear that out. Tottenham must be a big team though! They won a double in the 1960s, and they are from LONDON, the only important city in the country, and Glen Hoddle, Jermaine Jenas and Danny Murphy all said they were massive and the bestest football team in the universe on TV, and they wouldn't have any reason to be biased in Spurs favour would they?

 

This myth will be trotted out forever though, and they'll keep banging on about refs, implying we cheated our way to the title. You'll never hear any mention of the penalty they got against Man City for handball when the ball hit Sterling's back, or Jon Moss basically fixing our game against West Ham. They think Vardy is the worst diver in football, yet seem to not be aware that Dele Alli is in their team and the worst diver the Premier League has seen in aeons.

 

Horrible team with horrible fans, horribly hyped up by a horrible media filled with horrible ex-Spuds like Hoddle, who basically commentates on Spurs games with his nob out, wanking over Harry Kane. Thank goodness they'll never actually win anything, can you imagine how awful the hype would be if these cnuts actually achieved something? Urghh. Fortunately, it's something we probably won't have to worry about anytime soon.

[Vlad the Fox]

2 hours ago, Mr Mister said:

They finished 3rd in a 2 horse race. That goes to say how shite they were.

I'd like to argue they were never in the race, they were just the team nearest to us for a while.

[foxes_rule1978]

3 minutes ago, Vlad the Fox said:

I'd like to argue they were never in the race, they were just the team nearest to us for a while.

They were top for 13 minutes remember...

[urban.spaceman]

You give them too much credit. 

 

It was 13 minutes not 14!

 

We spent 3 times longer than that on top just against Arsenal this season!

[urban.spaceman]

From the guardian: 

 

Guardian: Spurs have done everything right: if they cannot succeed, who can?

LEICESTER DID YOU FOOKIN TWAZZOCK

 

Not a single mention of Leicester in the article!

 

[Bert]

There was just as much pressure on us playing first. Any slip up and it automatically gives them a boost. 

[Buzzell]

WHO CAME THIRD IN A TWO HORSE RACE...