Things may appear to be almost going well at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. After all, Spurs have managed to retain their star striker, they have a much more popular manager than the last one, and they are at the top of the Premier League table while Arsenal are at the bottom.
But anyone thinking that Spurs can still hold a decent title challenge should check out top sports betting apps at gamblingguy.com. Each of the bookmakers featured here still have Tottenham way behind the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United in the odds to win the Premier League this season. So what is it about Tottenham that still makes the North London team so unlikely to claim the title?
Familiar problems persisting post-transfer period
Tottenham had a pretty good transfer period with the arrivals of Emerson Royal and Cristian Romero being positive steps towards building for the future. Plus the fact that Harry Kane was stopped from leaving to join Manchester City was one of the biggest successes of the summer transfer period.
While Kane has said that he has no regrets about the transfer saga, it will still leave Spurs fans a little uneasy about having yet another want-away star on its books. Previous big name players like Gareth Bale and Luka Modric caused plenty of distraction in their bids to leave Tottenham. Plus Christian Eriksen looked like a shadow of himself in his final Spurs season before leaving for Inter Milan.
All of which will put the pressure on Kane to keep delivering the goods for his club. While there is little doubting Kane’s temperament, there are still concerns about the fact that there is no back-up striker for the England star. It’s become something of an in-joke about how often Kane gets injured after the busy winter period, and it’s almost unbelievable that Spurs have yet to sign another out-and-out striker.
What’s all the more baffling is that Tottenham let Carlos Vinicius go after a pretty good loan spell acting as Kane’s understudy. When this is combined with the fact that Spurs went chasing after the goal-shy Adama Traore, it seems that Tottenham’s transfer policy could do with a shake-up.
In addition to this, it’s become evident that Spurs could do with more of a creative dynamo in midfield. Nobody’s doubting Pierre Emile Hjobjerg’s tenacity, but the Tottenham attack has been in danger of becoming too predictable. While Giovani Lo Celso has had his moments, he has proven to be frustratingly inconsistent, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Tottenham’s record signing Tanguy Ndombele just isn’t working out.
Why Spurs fans have a glimmer of optimism
Most Tottenham supporters will have been delighted with the team’s opening run of Premier League games. The fact that Spurs are sat on top of the table with three wins out of three has had the perfect counterpart in the fact that Arsenal are having their worst start in living memory.
It’s also given a near-perfect start to the new Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo. The Portuguese manager was a fairly surprising arrival from Wolverhampton Wanderers, but he is already looking like a much more likeable character than the previous Spurs manager – Jose Mourinho. Like Mourinho, Nuno excels at creating a dynamic and strong defence, but the new manager is also capable of cultivating the kind of free-flowing attacking football that has become synonymous with Tottenham.
The signings of Emerson Royal and Cristian Romero look like long-overdue steps to overhauling a notoriously shaky Spurs defence. The club had previously been relying on makeshift defenders like Eric Dier who haven’t risen to the challenge. Plus it’s been encouraging to see a new generation of Spurs players like Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga breaking through the ranks.
As long as key players like Kane and Son Heung-Min stay fit through the coming months, then there’s every chance that Spurs can improve on their poor seventh-place finish of last season. But with Manchester City waiting in the wings to snap up Kane in the winter transfer period, it could be yet another tricky season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
