It’s been a while since I’ve actually had the time to sit down and write an extended post about Spurs’ fortunes, so it seemed to make sense to pick up by looking back at the season so far as the new year looms large. As I write, Spurs sit a heady third in the Premier League table, above both Chelsea and Arsenal – sound familiar? That AVB has maneuvered what many would argue is a weaker Spurs side than that which Redknapp had at his disposal, into the same position as his predecessor at this stage, speaks volumes about his achievements so far.

Admittedly, third place could well be usurped by Chelsea come the close of the day, but the progress under AVB has been encouraging. Whilst the media were eager for him to fall flat on his face at Spurs, he has instead done an admirable job, contending without a recognised out and out left back for much of the first half of the season, and only two recognised strikers. Having also failed to secure his top transfer target, Moutinho, over the summer, the achievement of getting the team up to third can be further praised.

AVB has also shown a willingness to adapt, the lack of which he was criticised for at Chelsea. Tactically, he has departed, for now, from his preferred 4-5-1 formation, in favour of the 4-4-2 which seems to be yielding the team more goals. The 4-5-1 often looked too toothless, and left Defoe stranded in the lone striker position – Adebayor and Defoe still look an awkward partnership in the 4-4-2, but at least this has afforded the opportunity for our midfielders to get amongst the goals. In terms of personnel AVB has similarly learnt from his time at Chelsea; Dawson was frozen out and looked set for departure from the club back in August, but has made his way back into the fold, ore it due to the long-term injury to Kaboul. The transition from Friedel to Lloris was also handled superbly, in a manner that minimised the impact on either goalkeeper.

In terms of the team’s composition, it’s still very much a work in progress, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see one or two new faces through the door by the end of January. Competition for places is needed up front, and our perennial defensive injury problems always pose the question of whether they need addressing. Competition for Lennon on the right wing also wouldn’t go amiss, and there still remains plenty of the money gained from the sale of Modric to reinvest.

Up front in particular, Spurs have looked shaky at times this season. Defoe’s prolific run of form masked the fact that his partnership with Adebayor has never really sparked; in addition, his form always seems to flatline once he gets an extended run in the team. You need look no further than yesterday’s fixture against Sunderland for evidence of this; Mignolet’s save in the second half from Defoe may have been an excellent one, but you would expect an in-form Defoe to find the net from point-blank range. Adebayor’s form has been impacted by his injury and lack of match-fitness at the stat of the season, but he’s far from the vital lynch-pin of the side that he was last season, and has looked short on confidence. It’s no secret that he performs better as a lone striker, but with AVB’s current preference for 4-4-2, it’s easy to see Ade being left out in the cold if another striker comes in in January.

Spurs’ ability to close out games has been the main frustration for much of the first half of the season. The statistic several games ago was that, if all games finished at the 80 minute mark instead of 90 minutes, then Spurs would be heading the table. Conceding late goals has been a bad habit that, thankfully, over the past few fixtures, the team have shown signs of dropping – however, there still seems to be an unerring ability to make the final ten minutes of games unbearably nervy, perhaps as a consequence of conceding so many late goals previously.

In terms of style of play, it’s still not quite the swashbuckling Spurs we saw under Redknapp, but AVB’s Spurs are evolving into a more efficient beast. The strange thing is that they almost seem to flounder when afforded too much dominance – in the previous two games, they’ve failed to press home an advantage when well on top, and have only found the net when the other team has started to assert themselves on the game. Perhaps this speaks of a remaining inability to break down more stubbornly defensive teams – but attacking reinforcements in January should help with this.

The only blight on a so far encouraging season has been the 5-2 loss to Arsenal. Obviously this was compounded by the early sending off of Adebayor, and it’s a source of frustration because we would otherwise have had the opportunity to avenge the 5-2 reversal we suffered at their hands last season. Still, the reverse fixture is still to come, and it’ll no doubt hold the same importance in terms of our final league position as it did last season. At the very least, we look a team capable of inflicting defeat on any team in the league on our day, as victory over United a month or so ago showed – the challenge for AVB now is to make this a more consistent return.

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After the general despondency stoked by another disappointing and lack-lustre Europa League draw mid-week (the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed the lack of match reaction – there’s only so many times I can write about 1-1 draws without just glazing over), it was a relief to see a performance with a little more life against Southampton yesterday, even if it was inconsistent at times. As mediocre as our European performances might have been thus far, at least they don’t seem to be sucking any of the life from our Premier League campaign (as yet). There were still niggling problems, and the win could have been far more comfortable than it eventually was, but all in all it’s another three points safely in the bag, and we’re currently sitting pretty in fourth.

The performance from Spurs in the first and second halves made for a stark contrast. After the first half, we could easily have been heading in at the interval having scored three or four goals, but for some wasteful finishing; in the second, we seemed to struggle to regain the momentum we’d built up in the first 45 minutes, and at times struggled to threaten an awoken Southampton. Considering the Saints had won the previous five fixtures at St Mary’s, the win is a good result, but the manner of Spurs’ play in recent matches has had more than a little of the Jekyll and Hyde about it (yes, this is a tenuously shoe-horned, topical Halloween reference).

This nature was mirrored by the performances of the players – some had games to remember, such as Sandro, whilst others had games to forget (Defoe). One big question the game brought up is whether it’s time for Friedel to make way for Lloris in the Premier League starting XIs. Friedel has of course been a reliable servant for Spurs, but there were one or two flappy moments against Southampton, and you could maybe even argue that he was at fault for the Southampton goal. The American has also yet to keep a clean sheet for Spurs this season, a feat Lloris managed in his first Premier League game. There is little doubt that Friedel still has a part to play in Spurs’ season, but with Lloris chomping at the bit behind the scenes, perhaps his time has come.

Jermain Defoe also had something of an off day – he might have provided the prelude to Clint Dempsey’s close range finish for Spurs’ second goal, but aside from that his shooting was woeful. Every shot he took seemed to get further from being on target rather than closer, and he remains an unfathomable team-work vacuum; he may have gotten the assist re: Dempsey’s goal, but it was entirely unintentional. A performance of this variety from Defoe will have had Adebayor thinking he might still have a sniff at sneaking into the first team. Up until now, the big man’s chances have been somewhat thin on the ground, but you’d've thought he’d fancy his chances of getting some decent game time midweek against Norwich in the Carling Cup.

One player who acquitted himself well was Tom Huddlestone. I’m still not sure what to make of Thudd – he’s got all the manoeuvrability  of a heavily armoured tank, and in one or two recent games has looked a little at sea, but his famed range of passing was on the mark against Southampton. The dinked assist for Bale’s opener was deftly executed, the likes of which we’ll hopefully see more of.

Elsewhere, what’s fast being dubbed ‘The Curse of Livermore’ once again reared its ugly head. You have to have a bit of sympathy for the guy, who’s introduction as a substitute on two or three occasions this season has prophetically heralded the Spurs defence rapidly conceding a goal. Sure enough, his arrival onto the pitch yesterday brought about the same result  - at least it’s not as bad as the curse of Gareth Bale was. Livermore’s a player I have reservations about, and personally I think he’s only getting anywhere near the team as a consequence of Scott Parker’s extended injury lay off, but if AVB is going to insist on involving him on a relatively frequent basis, then hopefully he can banish this bugbear sharpish.

Finally, it’s worth putting in a word for Sandro’s extended excellent performances so far this season. He’s certainly cut a more disciplined figure than he was when he started life in Harry Redknapp’s Spurs side, and he’s right up there in the stats for successful tackles and interceptions. With the absence of Parker, he’s probably one of the players we can least afford an injury to – with Livermore the likely back-up, we’ll all have to hope that Sandro can keep himself fit and well for the majority of the season.

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So, after a run of nine games undefeated in all competitions, AVB’s Spurs side slipped to only their second competitive defeat under his tenure against Chelsea at the weekend. In fairness, it wasn’t the most unpredictable of defeats; whilst the win against United might have given the team confidence of springing another relative surprise, I think secretly before the game we all would have been perfectly content with a draw. In the end, the real frustration was the manner in which we handed Chelsea the win, with defensive slackness playing a part in every Chelsea goal.

William Gallas, in particular, had an afternoon against his former club to forget. In terms of embarrassment levels, it might even rank up with that time he cried at Birmingham whilst at Arsenal. His goal at the second half can’t do much to cover the cracks in a performance from the Frenchman in which he looked every single one of his 35 years – especially disappointing considering that thus far into the season, his performances had defied that number.

Chelsea’s first goal came through an exquisite finish from the unlikely Gary Cahill, but from a header back into the danger area by Gallas when Walker was waiting to clear behind him. Should Walker have given him a shout? Probably, but Gallas should still have known better than to head the ball straight to the middle edge of the penalty area.

The second Chelsea goal again came from poor defensive work on Gallas’s behalf. A Chelsea attack that looked like amounting to nothing was awkwardly cleared by Gallas, again into the middle of the park rather than out wide or further upfield, and Juan Mata was waiting to gratefully receive the wayward ball. So far, two Chelsea goals, two Gallas assists, and the Frenchman is barely vindicated by having been involved in all three goals up to this point.

Goal number three is perhaps the one to which least defensive blame can be attached, but Gallas can still be criticised for failing to notice Mata’s run in behind him, even if Spurs’ midfield had failed to track the Spaniard’s run. After that, Gallas took a back seat and allowed Walker to take the ‘comedy defending’ reins, with the right-back inexplicably deciding to take on Mata rather than passing the ball out. A few stumbles and a failure clear later, and Mata escapes with the ball before setting up Sturridge for a fourth.

It’s frustrating that Chelsea’s performance, whilst clinical, probably didn’t deserve the margin of victory they emerged with. Spurs’ lack of cutting edge in the first half was remedied excellently after the break, and at 2-1 up they briefly looked in control of the game. However, after Chelsea’s quick-fire second and third goals, the match fell into a predictable groove, and the chance of victory was long gone by the time Sturridge concluded the scoring. Still, Spurs’ performance again showed the promise of progress under AVB, and it’s a shame that basic errors are what cost the side any chance of a point.

So, what can we take from the game? Well, Gallas may have had an unexpectedly effective start to the season, but I wouldn’t expect him to be getting anywhere near our defence once Kaboul regains fitness after Saturday’s showing. In fact, once BAE is match-fit, it seems likely Vertonghen and Caulker will form the first choice centre-back partnership. Until then, despite AVB’s obvious lack of desire to play Dawson, he might find himself being the best option in Gallas’s stead until those injured players recover.

Elsewhere on the pitch, the performance was hard to criticise. Perhaps we’re still missing a fully fit Adebayor, but Defoe is still chipping in with the goals, and in the midfield Aaron Lennon is in some of the best form of his career. We undeniably missed the presence of Bale and Dembélé in the middle of the park, and Clint Dempsey showed he’s still not quite back at the top of his game after his lack of pre-season, but we none-the-less still managed to carry an attacking threat – and became the first team to score against Chelsea in the second half this season.

The next three games or so will be of particular interest; we’ve seen, over the past weeks, that this new-look Spurs can measure up favourably against the big boys, or be it with a few kinks left to iron out. With Southampton and Wigan up next in the Premier League, along with a fixture against Norwich in the League Cup sandwiched in between, anything less than three wins would be considered a disappointment.

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It was an afternoon of firsts last Sunday at White Hart Lane, and Spurs once again ran out winners to record their fourth Premier League victory in succession, and stretch the unbeaten run in all competitions to nine games. Paul Lambert played his part in the victory, relegating Darren Bent to the bench once again despite his recent run of goals for Villa, and instead opting for the services of the misfiring Benteke. Bent was once criticised during his time at Spurs for missing a sitter of a chance, with Harry Redknapp famously claiming “my missus could have scored that,” and Benteke’s missed chance was right up there with that.

One person who wouldn’t have been complaining about Benteke’s wastefulness was Hugo Lloris. Drafted into the starting line-up for the first time in the Premier League, and bringing to an end Brad Friedel’s run of 310 consecutive Premier League appearances, it was his misplaced throw out that led to the chance. That aside however, he had a solid game, even if Villa didn’t provide much in the way of a stern examination. It will be interesting to see if he resumes his place against Chelsea after the international break – AVB was quick to provide a diplomatic response claiming that Friedel will be back in the first 11 ‘as soon as possible’, but you have to suspect that could well have represented a changing of the guard. Up until now, Lloris has been making his appearances in the Europa League – it wouldn’t be a big surprise if we were to see the role of the two keepers reversed.

Elsewhere on the pitch, Stephen Caulker claimed his first goal for the club, but it perhaps wasn’t one he’ll be showing the kids ten years down the road. Saying it owed a little to luck would be putting it mildly – pinging in off Caulker’s heels after Defoe’s shot, he knew nothing about it whatsoever until it was nestling in the goal. Still, it crowns a series of impressive performances for the youngster after he’s broken through into the first team, and a clean sheet for the first occasion in the Premier League this season.

Plenty has been said about Gareth Bale’s hilariously terrible dive approximately a mile away from Brad Guzan’s incoming tackle, so no need to dredge it all up again, but suffice to say that it was unnecessary, and not the kind of thing we want to see Bale doing regularly. It crept into his game a couple of times last season, so it’s a shame to see that it still hasn’t been kicked out. Hopefully someone behind the scenes will have had a stern word with him after the game, and we won’t see anything of its like in the near future. That said, the penalty he won for Wales against Scotland last night looked more than a little suspicious. We don’t want him getting a Suarez-esque reputation…

Adebayor’s return was, on the other hand, good to see. Whilst Defoe has done an admirable job in his absence, essentially as the only other striker on the books, in one or two games we’ve missed having the big man to hold up the ball up front, and once Adebayor gets a bit of match sharpness and back in amongst the goals, the team can only get better from his inclusion. On the subject of goals, it was also good to see Aaron Lennon back amongst them after a barren spell stretching back to January. One of my problems with Lennon is that he can sometimes spurn excellent shooting positions in favour of a pass – he’s almost the complete opposite of Defoe in that regard – so it was refreshing to see him get into a good position, then rifle in a finish.

So, was it a convincing performance from start to finish from Spurs? Well, no. AVB’s side still looks a little rough around the edges, and one or two players still haven’t shown the ability they’re capable of. Sigurdsson, in particular, is still far from an integral part of the team, but his chance will come. What’s important is that, unlike the first three games of the season, Spurs are getting the points without necessarily being on top of their game. Once AVB has had time to fully implement and consolidate his ideas for the team, they could get even better. As it is, we sit in 5th place in the league, after our second best start to a Premier League campaign. Not too shabby.

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It was a game that represented everything that’s still very much wrong with the Europa League. Playing in front of what looked like approximately 20 Panathinaikos fans, Spurs’ lack-lustre performance last night was what the word pedestrian was invented for. The two teams served up a bland mix that the word ‘dull’ doesn’t seem quite enough for, and the overall lack of caring on the behalf of both sides was clear to see. Even AVB’s goal celebration was a muted parody of his fist-pumping jubilation in Spurs’ league games.

More’s the point, last night was the opportunity for Spurs’ first team fringe players to put in a performance, and in terms of this, the performance was mediocre at best. Michael Dawson may have found the net, but his poor clearances from defence and lack of mobility did little to suggest he’ll be forcing himself into AVB’s league plans any time soon. Similarly, Tom Huddlestone’s supposed passing ability showed little sign of developing anything resembling incisiveness, and the big midfielder wandered around the pitch in a slightly dazed-looking manner for much of the game.

Overall, the effort just wasn’t there from Spurs. Sure, the squad isn’t the biggest after all of the summer departures, and many of the team who turned out last night had also appeared against Manchester United the past weekend. However, all of the blame can’t be shouldered by the fallacy of tired players. Panathinaikos, as ITV4′s commentators were at pains to frequently point out, have had an appalling start to their season, sitting just about the relegation zone in the Greek league, and with a wealth of financial problems. Their captain was sacked from the team prior to the game, and since the beginning of the season they’ve only managed to net three times. This wasn’t a team that should have caused Spurs any problems – on the contrary, it’s likely to be the easiest game in the group.

Perhaps that was the problem – complacency. Spurs never really got out of walking football mode, maybe mistakenly thinking that they merely needed to put in an appearance to start banging the goals past Panathinaikos. Getting the team motivated in the Europa League has to be a worry for AVB; they might have turned up for the biggest game of the group against Lazio, but after last night’s failure to take all three points, Spurs can probably only afford to drop points once or twice more for the rest of the group stage in order to stand a chance of getting through to the knock-out stages. Can they raise their game against Maribor? Once again, not a big team that the players will be relishing playing, but one we need to go to the trouble of putting in the effort to beat.

Regardless of that, it’d be good to see a reaction against Villa at the weekend. They’ve improved marginally since their pretty poor start to the season, but should still be there for the taking for a team of Spurs’ calibre. We’ve had the win last week against United to really give the players some belief – perhaps we now need the win by several goals in order to boost the confidence of the players even more.

Image © Spurs Official

It certainly took a while, but finally, almost 23 years after Gary Lineker helped Spurs to a 1-0 victory in December 1989, Andre Villas-Boas led Spurs to the banishing of one of their biggest bugbears in the Premier League era – securing a near-mythical victory at Old Trafford. For those of us who can remember the 5-3 and 5-2 defeats in the past, from 3-0 and 2-0 leads at half-time, there was a nervous sense of the inevitable backlash after half time; however, whilst the second period made for a much rockier ride, Spurs showed some unexpected resolve by holding out and making a small piece of Premier League history.

It looks like AVB’s Spurs side is now well and truly coming together, albeit helped by a lethargic performance from United in the first half, and with the team now up to 5th place in the league, all those who were lambasting the Portuguese after the first two games are probably starting to feel, well, a bit silly…

Back to the game, and, in the first half, Spurs had United on the ropes from the start. Vertonghen blazed a stumbling trail through the Red Devils’ ranks, before a fortuitous deflection off Johnny Evans sent his shot into the bottom corner of the net. At the time, it felt too early to score – simply a case of waking a slumbering giant – but bizarrely United’s response was muted, and from there they had no answer for wave upon wave of Spurs attacks. Their attacking triumvirate of Van Persie, Giggs and Nani were hopelessly isolated for most of the half; it seemed as if Vertonghen at left-back had been identified as a possible weakness, with United’s rare forays forward tending to come on their right-hand side. If so, it was a colossal misjudgement of tactics from Ferguson.

Quite aside from the fact that Vertonghen regularly occupies the position for Belgium at international level, on account of them having an embarrassment of central defensive talent, his performance slotting in there in the second half against QPR showed he was in no way uncomfortable in that position. If anything, it seems to give him more licence for bombing forward – anyone who’s seen footage from Vertonghen’s time at Ajax will know that he’s more than happy to weigh in on the goalscoring front, and has outstanding composure on the ball for a defender. He might have perhaps been guilty of an unpunished push on Nani in the penalty area in the first half, but overall his performance set the tone.

Gareth Bale, too, had an excellent game, after the more humdrum offerings of the opening games of this season. He scored Spurs’ second goal, and his deflected shot fell to Clint Dempsey to slot in the third – his own goal, in particular, was characteristic of the Gareth Bale who terrorised defences during Spurs’ debut Champions League season. His positional discipline can still be called into question, but his driving runs forward give Spurs so much impetus when he’s on form, and if he can carry it into this weekend’s game as well then perhaps he can put together a run of goals after a slow start by his standards.

At centre-back, Stephen Caulker had a game that will have done little harm to the murmuring of future international distinction. In fact, with both Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Kyle Naughton still out for a short time, he has the perfect opportunity to stake his claim for a regular first team place, with Vertonghen shunted out wide in their stead. The issue of Gallas’s age can’t be avoided, and though in fairness to him he’s had a better start as a first team regular than many of us expected, Caulker must fancy his chances of leapfrogging the frenchman in the pecking order over the next few weeks.

The only negative from the performance was the way in which we were completely pinned in by United for the majority of the second half. It was to an extent to be expected after their insipid first half showing – there was no chance that they’d put in such a poor effort twice – but it emphasised that Jermain Defoe just isn’t capable of performing the holding up role as a lone striker. Had Emmanuel Adebayor been available, there’s little doubt he would have been deployed in the second half to try and give us a presence in the United half. This isn’t to belittle Defoe’s work; though he may still be chasing that elusive 200th league goal, it was his excellent movement that led to two of Spurs’ goals, and he proved that despite the fact he isn’t often directly involved in the build-up, he can still have an effect on the game.

Even up until the final second of the game, there was an expectation of crushed hopes that goes hand in hand with being a Spurs supporter. Especially following United’s second half dominance, any Spurs fan who claims they never doubted the win in the course of those final minutes is a plain-faced liar. Yet the final whistle came and went, much to Sir Alex Ferguson’s ridiculous chagrin, and Spurs finally brought to an end the seasonal mention of Gary Lineker’s goal at Old Trafford in 1989.

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Since I’m a bit late with this, I thought I might as well make a return to the ‘winners and losers’ format for old times’ sake – so here we are. Spurs win against QPR wasn’t the daring, swashbuckling performance we were perhaps expecting, but regardless of the somewhat fortuitous circumstances, it gets Andre Villas Boas off the mark with his first win at White Hart Lane. After the great performance against Lazio in the Europa League, it was a bit of a comedown to scrape victory against a QPR side still deep in the squad-gelling process, but then tiredness after the mid-week fixture was always an anticipated factor. At any rate, a win leaves us buoyed going into the League Cup tie against Carlisle tomorrow – and here are the winners and losers:

WINNERS:

- Jermain Defoe: Making the most of his current run in the team by banging in the goals on a weekly basis. He might offer little else to the team (off the top of my head, I remember reading he had something like 17 touches of the ball over the 90 minutes against QPR), but when he’s on a prolific streak, you can’t argue with his inclusion. The question is whether AVB will prefer the more rounded contribution of Emmanuel Adebayor once he’s back to full fitness – in most of our games so far this season, Defoe has been an isolated figure, and whilst he’s scored several goals, it could be argued his selfishness whenever remotely near a scoring opportunity might have denied the team several as well.

- Jan Vertonghen: An inarguable Man of the Match performance from the Belgian centre-half, despite him occupying his less preferred left-back position for the second half. He showed he’s not immune to making mistakes after losing Bobby Zamora for QPR’s goal, but bar that he was one of the few Spurs players to emerge from the first half with any credit. In the second half, his performance kicked up a notch – his rampaging run from left-back led to Gareth Bale’s crossbar-rattling shot, which was then turned in by Defoe, whilst his last ditch tackle on Junior Hoilett denied an excellent opportunity to level things up. He may have only played 4 games for the club, but in each of those he’s recorded a 100% tackle success rate, and he’s fast become a firm favourite with Spurs fans.

- AVB - He may have got the initial line-up wrong, with Gareth Bale ineffectual stepping in at left-back, but he didn’t shirk from making the needed changes at half-time, and whether by good fortune or not, they paid off. A home win will get the media even further off his back, and was the perfect prelude to a much trickier game away at Old Trafford next weekend. I’m still at a loss to explain how there can be Spurs fans who still want AVB to fail after witnessing his frankly brilliantly enthusiastic goal celebrations, but there you go.

LOSERS:

- Gareth Bale: He may have started his Spurs career filling in at left-back, but on Sunday to describe his first half performance as forgettable would be putting it kindly. There was little sign of the searing left-flank runs that characterised his breakthrough into the Spurs first team, and it was little surprise to see him shifted back to his now usual role on the left wing after half-time. Even then, although his shot led to Jermain Defoe’s goal, he’s still nowhere near reaching the heights of performance we know he can. All too often he displayed a selfishness that has perhaps impacted on his game of late, going it alone Defoe-style when team-mates were in much better positions and crying out to receive the ball. Perhaps that’s an unavoidable consequence of the way his past performances thrust him into the limelight, but it’d be nice if he could find the way back to being a bit more of a team player.

- Gylfi Sigurdsson: Sigurdsson is another who’s stuck in a rut of poor form. Back in pre-season, where he assisted a couple of goals and grabbed a wonderful individual goal against LA Galaxy, it looked as though he would prove a perfect fit for Spurs. However, fast-forward 5 games into the season, and he’s still yet to shine in the Premier League, currently looking like a poor man’s version of the player who was smashing in goals for Swansea left, right and centre in the second half of last season. It’s not so much his lack of goals that’s the concern, rather the frequent misplaced passes. You’d've thought that, after coming from a passing side like Swansea, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but against QPR in the first half his passing was frequently woeful, and there was little surprise that he was the man pulled at half time. He’s had some good moments – his defence splitting pass against Reading for one – but he needs to find some consistency.

- Hugo Lloris: After a series of cracking saves from Brad Friedel, Lloris still doesn’t look like getting that Premier League first team place any time soon. Big Brad might have his faults, and he’s still yet to keep a clean sheet in the League so far, but he definitely deserves his place in the team until he shows otherwise. Of course, any supposed discontent on the behalf of Lloris is essentially another facet of the media’s AVB witch-hunt, but unless Brad drops a massive clanger in the new future, he’s probably assured of his place for much of the rest of the season. Which is no bad thing – there’s no reason Lloris can’t ease himself into life at Spurs by playing in the cup competitions, then taking on the mantle in the Premier League next season.

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After the disappointment of seeing two perfectly good goals disallowed against Lazio on Thursday night in the Europa League, Spurs don’t get all that much time to dwell on it, as they’re straight back into action against QPR today. On paper, at least, it seems like a golden opportunity for Andre Villas Boas to secure his first home win, against a QPR side that are still yet to really settle after a huge influx of summer signings. However, so far Spurs have been struggling to break down teams that set up to shut us out, with the exception of against the porous Reading defence last weekend, so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare, with Mark Hughes’ side almost certain to try and play for a point at White Hart Lane. With Hughes without both Fabio and Ferdinand at the back, we hopefully shouldn’t have too much trouble, but with Cesar in goal, it could easily turn into one of those games where we routinely beat everyone but the goalkeeper.

- Spurs come into the game having secured their first Premier League win against Reading last Sunday, and currently sitting tenth in the table (LDDW). QPR, meanwhile sit in 19th (LDLD).

- This is the first time QPR have failed to win any of their opening 4 matches of the season since the 1991/92 season. They have also failed to win in any of their past 15 away games, losing 8 of their last 9.

- In their past 9 away games, they’ve only managed to score more than one goal on one occasion – in the 3-2 defeat to Manchester City on the final day of last season.

- Spurs have conceded in the last ten minutes of all of their Premier League matches so far this season. All of the goals conceded to this point have come from inside the penalty area.

- The last time QPR won at White Hart Lane was in May 1994. Since then, they’ve amassed just one point from a possible nine. Meanwhile, Spurs have only been beaten 3 times in their past 38 Premier League home matches.

- Jermain Defoe is currently averaging 6.5 shots per game, more than any other player in the Premier League. Luis Suarez is second, with 5.8 shots per game.

- QPR have conceded at least two goals in 8 of their last 10 away matches. However, new recruit Julio Cesar kept a clean sheet last time out against Chelsea.

- Spurs’ average possession figure so far this season has been 54%. They’ve only recorded possession below 50% in one match – the opening defeat against Newcastle (48%).

- By contrast, QPR’s average possession figure is 49%. They’ve only managed over 50% possession in one game, their previous fixture against Chelsea (53%).

- 59% of QPR’s goalscoring chances have come from the middle of the pitch.

- 59% of Spurs’ shots this season have come from outside the box – the highest figure in the league.

- Moussa Dembélé won 100% of the tackles he attempted against Reading last time out.

This week’s stats courtesy of WhoScored, Squawka, Spurs Stat Man and BBC Football.

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If there was any doubt about how seriously AVB is taking this season’s Europa League competition, it was comprehensively dispelled last night before the game even started. Unlike last season, where we became accustomed to seeing a largely reserve squad team trotting out for the club’s Europa League games under Harry Redknapp, against Lazio last night we saw essentially a full strength side sent out to do the job.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite mission accomplished at the end of the night, but the blame for that could be lain squarely at the door of the officials for disallowing two perfectly good goals, including what would’ve been a home debut goal for Clint Dempsey. At least that decision was a close call – there seemed to be nothing in the ‘foul’ that prevented the award of a deserved goal for Caulker late on. Thankfully, in this group, a failure to win against Lazio probably won’t damage our prospects too much – no disrespect to Maribor or Panathanaikos, but the two are definitely third and fourth favourites to make it out of the group.

Lazio themselves did little to dispel the Italian footballing stereotype. They only truly threatened on a handful of occasions, with Gonzalez thundering a strike off Hugo Lloris’s crossbar, and Klose failing to connect from ten yards out in the first half. For most of the rest of the game, they sat off Spurs and invited them to attack, and though the pace of captain for the night Aaron Lennon frequently punched through the defence on the wings, chances on goal were frequently stifled by the Italians’ stoic back line. Lazio fans also did little to dispel the sterotype of Italian supporters, goading Jermain Defoe with monkey noises that you can be sure will  be punished by a paltry UEFA fine of around €3.

Handing Lennon the captaincy was a ballsy move from Andre Villas Boas, but in fairness, it was one that seemed to pay off for the large part. Lennon still has huge issues with final balls, as I frequently bemoan, but even with that handicap he created numerous problems for Lazio last night, and seemed lifted by the responsibility placed in him by the manager. He might not ever reach the heights we all want him to reach, but this was at least a step in the right direction.

Another who impressed was Hugo Lloris in goal. Against a backdrop of incredulous reaction in France at him not being a first-team shoe-in, Lloris kept his cool and cashed in a flawless performance that’ll have Brad Friedel looking nervously over his shoulder. Every aspect of the Frenchman’s performance was sublime – his presence in the box, his willingness to come and claim crosses, his quick and accurate distribution to kick-start counter attacks. I expect Friedel will still keep his place for the Premier League fixture against QPR this weekend, and that AVB’s plan is still to utilise Lloris mainly in the Europa League – but the American can be under no illusions that one slip could cost him his place.

Elsewhere, Kyle Naughton did an excellent job of covering at left back in the continued absence of Benoit Assou-Ekotto. His performance against Reading was promising, but slightly marred by a the giving away of a few cheap and unnecessary free-kicks. Last night, he seemed much more disciplined, and was rarely caught out by the Lazio attack – good news, since estimates suggest Assou-Ekotto could be out for a month, and we have no other dedicated left-backs. Of course, the bad news is that Naughton was left limping heavily at the end of the match by one of many ‘robust’ Lazio challenges; hopefully it’s nothing too serious, or we could be facing the beginning of the traditional Spurs defensive injury crisis even sooner than usual.

The more immediate concern has to be, after putting out such a strong side last night, whether we can replicate the performance against QPR at the weekend. AVB seems to have won over a lot of the fans undecided about his reign in the past week, but there’s still some work to do, and a first home win would be a perfect way to round off the week. It won’t be easy against a new look QPR team who’re starting to find their feet after an uncertain start, but another three points would instil even more confidence in the side.

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Late on Sunday evening, a distant grumbling could be heard in press offices around the country as journalists worked late, frantically re-wording their pre-written, AVB-bashing match reactions. Up until Bale’s goal in the 70th minute, it was looking like one of this season’s typically Tottenham performances – long periods of domination characterised by a failure to turn the dominance into goals. The longer the game went on, the more you could sense that the events of the previous two games, where potential 1-0 wins were squandered into 1-1 draws, were preying on the players’ minds. Thankfully, once the vital second goal was netted, the shackles (to an extent) came off, and the rest of the game was seen out in a relatively comfortable fashion.

Conceding late on was disappointing, though you can’t help but feel that Hugo Lloris probably greeted that with barely disguised glee in the stands. Friedel had very little work to do up until the consolation goal, largely unchallenged by an incoherent Reading attack, and aided by an excellent defensive performance by Jan Vertonghen – so far fulfilling his promise. The absence of Benoit Assou-Ekotto with a supposed knee injury was covered by an able, if not flawless showing by Kyle Naughton; the young defender committed a few unnecessary fouls which suggested he still needs a little more experience, but overall put in a good shift.

It was up front, though, where AVB had the bold personnel decisions to make, opting to stick with Jermain Defoe as a lone striker instead of bringing in Emmanuel Adebayor. It was a choice that would surely have attracted inevitable lashings of criticism from Fleet Street had Spurs failed to take all three points, but as it was Defoe rewarded the policy of sticking with the man in form with two goals – if anything, he should have had more. I’ve criticised Defoe before, and I probably will again, but on this showing perhaps he’s growing into the lone striker role; he was a threat throughout to an admittedly holey Reading defence, giving rookie keeper McCarthy plenty of nervous moments, and decidedly unlucky not to take home the match-ball. His old faults were still there to see, selfishness chief amongst them – on several occasions he took on the shot with team-mates better placed, whilst several wasteful attempts flew wide of the target. Still, AVB’s faith in Defoe is being rewarded with goals, which, when it boils down to it, is all anyone asks from a striker.

Others in the team had more of a mixed game. For Aaron Lennon, the game’s first half was essentially his career in microcosm. His awareness to pull the ball back for the opening goal was unexpectedly commendable for a player who has a reputation for playing with his head down; however, his control at other points during the half let him down several times whilst in good positions, and it was all too easy to tag his performance with the same old ‘lacking in an end product tag’. He threatened the Reading defence, but despite several defence splitting runs, perhaps didn’t deliver as much as he could have.

Elsewhere, Sigurdsson’s first half was solid, and lit up by a killer through pass that led directly to Defoe’s opener. He perhaps should have scored after McCarthy’s mistake gifted Defoe possession, but his failure to do so can perhaps also be put down to Defoe’s delay in passing the ball across. However, in the second half, Sigurdsson misplaced several passes, and his influence waned until his substitution.

At this point, an honourable mention has to go to his replacement Tom Huddlestone, whose cameo performance this time around was a drastic improvement on his (rescinded) sending off against Norwich two weeks ago. He can perhaps look forward to more action in the Europa League than in the Premier League this season, but he pinged some delightful passes around the pitch, and his turn taking out four Reading players without touching the ball late on was a joy to behold. Clint Dempsey, too, looked lively after his introduction – still working his way towards full match fitness, we may well get to see a bit more of him in the Europa League later in the week, along with Emmanuel Adebayor, who was kept on the bench by Defoe’s goals.

As a note of caution, we should be under no illusions that this was a tough test – Reading offered little. However, it was vitally important for Spurs to get back to winning ways, and equally important to win convincingly. A 1-0 win might have gotten the points on the board, but scoring three goals will hopefully be a big psychological boost for the players, and one which they can carry into the next game against QPR. It was equally important, too, for AVB – for a short time, at least, it’ll silence the murmurings of John Cross and his ilk. The focus now will turn to our first Europa League game against Lazio on Thursday – hopefully, despite the inevitable changes in personal, the team can keep the momentum going with another good result.

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