As Manchester United keep up the pace on league leaders Manchester City, Tottenham lie in waiting.

It was scheduled to be the season opener for both clubs but the exceptional circumstances in London forced the game to be postponed and was finally completed on the evening of Wednesday January 11th with Spurs cruising to a 2-0 victory.

It is hard to say if the game would have produced the same result had it been played when intended as Spurs’ start to the season was somewhat disrupted by the transfer window saga that unsettled their influential midfield playmaker Luka Modric amongst others. Everton faced a far more settled side than they would have back in mid August.

The game itself was mostly one sided, I remember games of this nature involving these two teams being mostly edgy affairs with the home side nervously scraping a win or disappointingly slumping do a draw or worse, a defeat. These days the confidence in every department is evident. The goalkeeper could possibly be the biggest reason for this new found swagger as there is no doubt the defence is much more confident and less destructive with the experienced Friedel between the posts. Michael Dawson returned for his first Premier League game after a four month lay off and looked as if he had never been away. The two full backs of Walker and Assou Ekotto constantly attack and cause all sorts of problems, while the pace of Bale and Lennon further up the flanks is frightening. Modric was his usual influential self while Jake Livermore, who ranks as third choice holding midfielder, behing Parker & Sandro had a fantastic game in front of the back four, a very assured performance with a very high percentage of pass completion.
The forward line of Van Der Vaart and Adebayor was also dangerous throughout the game and with Defoe waiting in the wings and the potential of a new striker arriving in the upcoming transfer window Spurs could have even greater options going forward.

The result puts Spurs level on points with Manchester United in second place, albeit eleven goals inferior, but also they are only three points behind leaders Manchester City. Perhaps more significantly for Spurs is that they are eight points ahead of Chelsea and nine ahead of Arsenal meaning the are very much in the driving seat for a top four finish which would have been the target at the start of their campaign.

Are Spurs genuine title challengers? It has to be said that they are, they are almost unstoppable at home and have dramatically improved their away form this season, they have cover in all positions, although long term injuries to Modric, Bale or Adebayor could prove costly. January could be season defining for Spurs with home games to come against Wolves and Wigan while in between those games Spurs face City at the Etihad stadium which is building up to be a huge game, if Spurs win that and they can beat United at White Hart Lane in early March we could have unexpected Champions in May.