The key to playing in any European club competition is having very good squad depth. That was not what Spurs had last season to play in the Europa League on Thursday nights. Their record on the Sunday after the European game our record last term was extraordinarily poor!
Going into the season, I was thinking that we could do well in this competition, get on a decent run and then who knows? But not for one minute did I think that our league form would suffer whilst playing in the Europa League.
Just to show you how our league form suffered, here our Premier League results after each Europa League game.
Tottenham 1-0 Swansea
Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham
Cardiff 0-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-0 Hull
Tottenham 0-1 Newcastle
Tottenham 2-2 Man United
Tottenham 0-5 Liverpool
Norwich 1-0 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-0 Cardiff
Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal
Tottenham 3-2 Southampton
Played: 11. Won: 5. Drawn: 1. Lost: 5. Win%: 45.45. Loss%: 45.45
In my view, that record is not good enough for a side that is aiming for a top four finish. Two of those wins were only courtesy of a Roberto Soldado penalty. If we now look at Manchester City’s Premier League record after each Champions League game last season.
Manchester City 4-1 Manchester United
Manchester City 3-1 Everton
Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City
Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City
Manchester City 3-0 Swansea
Manchester City 6-3 Arsenal
Manchester City 1-0 Stoke
Hull 0-2 Manchester City
Played: 8. Won: 6. Drew: 0. Lost: 2. Win%: 75. Loss%: 25
As you can quite clearly see, City’s record is much better than ours by a country mile. Now, I know that many of you Spurs fans sitting and reading this right now will be thinking ‘that’s not fair, City have a much better side than we do!’ Yes, I know what you mean, but the bottom line is that we need to improve our Premier League record after European games to stand any chance of achieving a top four finish next season.
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