Tottenham have rolled the dice and an injury-ravaged side’s anxiety may only get worse as West Ham close the gap
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hen did the reality dawn? Perhaps it was towards the end of the first half of West Ham’s game at Chelsea at the end of January with the away side leading 2-0. Or perhaps it was when West Ham took the lead against Manchester United 10 days later. As it turned out, West Ham won neither fixture; had they done so they would have had five points more and so been level with Tottenham going into this weekend. And then Tottenham’s proximity to relegation could not have been denied.
West Ham’s revival means this isn’t like last season, when a win at Ipswich at the end of February took Tottenham to 33 points and as good as confirmed their continued presence in the Premier League, allowing Ange Postecoglou to focus on Europe. Were Spurs to pull off something extremely unlikely and beat Arsenal on Sunday, they would move to 32 and, for all the glee their fans would feel, nobody would feel secure.
If Nottingham Forest’s performance at Fenerbahce is indicative of what is to come under Vítor Pereira, this may be a season when it actually does take 40 points, the traditional mark seen as necessary for survival, to stay up. Which should make every club in the bottom half a little anxious. Quite apart from the fact that Spurs really shouldn’t be in a relegation battle, it wasn’t at all clear under Thomas Frank where the four wins they may need were going to come from.
