Jermain Defoe Blonde

Even the bookies are starting to take our league form seriously as you can now see quotes as short as 8/1 for Tottenham to win this season’s title. I still personally think we have to much to do to overhaul Man City and I’m sure Utd will bounce back after two straight defeats but what has really impressed me this season is our winning mentality. The game against West Brom this past Tuesday night really illustrates that fact. Roy Hodgson had a few injuries to key players and basically set up his team to take a point. They were very hard to break down and until Sisqo scored, it was looking like being one of those nights. In season’s gone by, that is the sort of game we would have ended up losing through a lack of concentration or determination but Harry now appears to have the players instilled with a belief that they can win every game, no matter the circumstances.

Some fans were saying the point against Swansea was a disappointing result but I definitely would have taken a draw before the game. Only one team has managed to go to the Liberty Stadium and win this season and when you consider it was our third game in quick succession, avoiding defeat was a good result. The performance against Norwich was sublime and Gareth Bale showed once again why he is one of the very best players in the Premier League. While one of the positives of us not being involved in the Champions League this season is our excellent domestic form, Bale not being able to show what he is capable of against the European elite is certainly a negative.

Now the January transfer window is upon us, I expect to see Spurs linked with the usual infinite fictional targets. Samba and Cahill are the most realistic names for me but with Dawson apparently set to start against Cheltenham, our centre back injury problems are easing slightly. A number of my close friends are Millwall fans, so it’s nice to see a couple of our younger players being loaned to the Lions. Hopefully it will be a win win situation, with Ryan Mason and Harry Kane getting some much needed first team action, while also helping Millwall stay in the Championship.

This could well be the key month as far as our title hopes are concerned. Homes games against Everton, Wolves and Wigan with a trip to Man City in there for good measure. City have tough Cup games against Man Utd and Liverpool which could well work in our favour. Is January 2012 going to be the month when Tottenham actually sit on top the Premier League? I bloody hope so!

So why not start using him? Gareth Bale can launch a throw in the same manner as Rory Delap and I think we should utilise this part of his game more. I’m not saying we make it a staple part of our play like Stoke but there would be no harm mixing it up a bit with a few ‘Bale Bombs’.

Yesterday’s defeat at the hands of Everton was unlucky but we have had our fair share of luck since Harry took over so I’m not going to let it get me down. I just think towards the end of the game we ran out of ideas. Although we had plenty of the ball in the last half hour, we needed to mix things up a bit to break down Everton’s two banks of four down. Bale came on with 20 or so mins to go, there would be no harm getting him throwing a few in the mixer.

I’m a bit concerned whether the Bale stat is playing on Harry’s mind now. When Chris Kamara told Harry we hadn’t won a league game Gareth Bale has started prior to us playing Fulham, he laughed it off. Bale hasn’t started either league game since with Harry preferring Benoit Assou-Ekotto. I think anyone would find it hard to make a case for Ekotto being a better player than Bale. He may be slightly better defensively but I don’t think there is an awful lot in it, and Bale is a much better footballer.

Let’s hope Redknapp starts using our own Rory Delap more often!