A Season Of Expectations In North London
Can Tottenham challenge for a top 4 finish in the Premier League this season? Will Arsenal challenge for the title? Today Jonathan Wilson takes a look at the season ahead for the North London rivals.
Tottenham
There is a golden rule in writing season previews, which is never to assume Tottenham Hotspur will do anything other than what they've been doing for the majority of the last half century, which is to say producing the odd glowing performance, flattering to deceive and ultimately disappointing. They have become the hungry ghosts of the Premier League, doomed always to haunt the netherworld that lies between Champions League qualification and midtable, never really threatening even to get far enough in the Europa League for people to start taking that competition seriously.
And yet they ought to be a force, although what that means perhaps requires clarification. The stratification of the Premier League is clear: there are, roughly, three bands: a third who expect to qualify for Europe, a third who expect to secure Premier League survival relatively comfortably and a third who would take fourth bottom now and forget the rest of the season.
Where the Premier League differs from other major leagues is in the size of its upper bracket. Perhaps its best teams aren't quite among the
