Tottenham were on their way back to London when they relinquished their title as the Premier League’s great entertainers; statistically, anyway.
took Eddie Howe’s team to 85 league goals this season – 48 for, 37 against – Spurs were demoted to second place. Scored 49, conceded 35, the numbers could feel an example of Angeball in action, bringing back the Tottenham way, restoring the kind of excitement their fans craved.
Actually, their games had the most goals last season, but too much of the entertainment came at their expense as they posted a negative goal difference from the start of November to the end of the campaign.
Ange Postecoglou was brought in to provide a break from the recent past; that only three of the 13 players who featured for Spurs at Goodison Park in April started Saturday’s rematch shows the scale of the change in personnel.
Much of that has been at the back. A curiosity in Tottenham’s record, however, is that while each of their first-choice back five represents a success – most arguably exceeding expectations – their defensive record is undistinguished; had individuals not excelled, logically it would be worse. As it is, Spurs are on course to concede 58 goals, their second most in the last 16 seasons, if an improvement on sieving 63 last year. Those numbers could be still higher: they have the fourth worst expected goals against.
Which is one reflection of how well goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has done: another is that the World Cup winner Hugo Lloris has not been missed. Yet goals conceded from corners to Manchester City and Everton show the Italian’s problems when crowded and his reluctance to leave his line and command his box: Postecoglou can argue referees should not wait for VAR to penalise the goalkeeper’s nemeses but he is likely to face further hassle at set-pieces.