A run of four points from five league games have left Tottenham’s title hopes in ruins. Just one win in those five matches and that was at home to bottom of the table Crystal Palace. They try to get back into winning ways with an away game at a Watford side that lost 4-2 at home to Manchester United on Tuesday.
It all seemed to be going well for Tottenham this season as they were in the top three and their Champions League campaign had gotten off to a promising start. Success in the Champions League has continued with that amazing win over Real Madrid and an away win at Borussia Dortmund, but everything else has been going wrong for Spurs.
They led West Ham 2-0 in the Carabao Cup and ended up losing 3-2 and have lost their last three away league games. Defeats at Manchester United, Arsenal and most recently at Leicester City, along with failure to beat West Brom at home have drastically changed their season.
Spurs can forget all about winning that first title since 1961 and their battle now is to ensure a top four finish. One good bit of news is that Harry Kane has scored in his last three games and will fancy his chances of making it four in a row this weekend. Take away Kane, Alli and Son and no other Tottenham player has scored a league goal since October 14 and six games have been played since then. The form of Alli is a major concern at present, he’s just not playing anything like he did last season and while that continues, the London side are in trouble.
Watford would have probably preferred an easier game after losing 4-2 at home to Manchester United on Tuesday evening. It could have been a fair few more and they must have been glad that Romelu Lukaku is going through a goal drought at present. More worrying for the Hornets, who had won their last two league games, it’s another heavy defeat and games against both the Manchester sides, Liverpool and Chelsea have seen them concede 17 goals, no wonder Arsenal fans were so upset over losing 2-1 at Vicarage Road and even Everton put three past them at Goodison Park.
Those figures indicate that when this Watford side go up against the best in the league, it’s more than likely they are going to struggle defensively, so they could have a few problems against an in-form Harry Kane and the last two times they have faced Tottenham, they have conceded four goals.
At least they won’t be losing the services of Marco Silva but he knows there’s work to be done on his team. Their strength seems to be in midfield with Doucoure, Richarlison and Hughes but the latter is expected to miss this game after going off injured against Manchester United, another huge setback for Watford.
Conclusion
Tottenham come into this game trying to rebuild their season. Their title challenge is as good as over unless the Manchester clubs totally collapse. It’d be a big step backward if they don’t qualify for the Champions League next season, so this run of bad form must end as soon as possible. At least they don’t have the combination of poor form and Harry Kane not scoring so there’s hope of a revival. Watford have defensive problems and it’s more than likely they won’t be able to cope against Tottenham. An away win looks the likely result in this game.
The Key Stats
Last Five Premier League Results – Most recent first
Watford – LWWLL
Tottenham– LDLWL
Head to Head – Last Five League Meetings
08/04/17 – Tottenham 4 Watford 0
01/01/17 – Watford 1 Tottenham 4
06/02/16 – Tottenham 1 Watford 0
28/12/15 – Watford 1 Tottenham 2
17/03/07 – Tottenham 3 Watford 1
- Tottenham have won their last seven league and cup games against Watford by an aggregate score of 17-4.
- Watford last won a league game against Tottenham in 1987.
- Watford have no wins in their last eight home games against Tottenham.
- Watford have conceded 15 goals in seven home league games.
- Watford have scored in eight of their last nine games.
- Watford only have two clean sheets in their last seven home league matches.
- Tottenham have lost their last three away league games.
- Tottenham have conceded in nine of their last ten games in all competitions.
- Harry Kane has scored in his last three games.
- Tottenham have conceded in five of their last six away league and cup matches.