It was a close game on opening day against Brentford as we drew 2-2 at the Gtech Community Stadium. Our vice captains linked up as Cristian Romero opened the scoring from a James Maddison free kick early with a brave header, which resulted in him being injured and substituted for precautionary measures. Brentford then turned it around to give themselves a 2-1 lead before Emerson Royal scored beautifully to level just before half time. This was the beginning of ‘Ange ball’ as it is known with the way he plays with the full backs coming into midfield positions. This was highlighted in Emerson’s goal. Tottenham then stayed unbeaten for a further 9 Premier League matches, including against Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, winning 2 of those games and drawing at the Emirates. Most notably from this was the 2-1 win against Liverpool with the VAR fiasco over Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal, which was arguably the biggest error of the season. It was frustrating because Tottenham had played well for large periods but all the talk was about this decision, but it was, of course, a lack of communication resulting in a poor decision.
Tottenham then played Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs started brightly as Kulusevski scored early, and it could have been 2-0 when Son put the ball in the net, but he was a fraction offside. We received 2 red cards, one for Romero and one for Udogie, and eventually lost 4-1. Jackson scoring the worst hattrick you’ll ever see, but the damage on the day was not just that, it was also the injuries sustained to James Maddison and Micky Van De Ven and the suspensions of Romero and Udogie. With a weakened team we didn’t win any of the next four games, losing to Wolves, Aston Villa and West Ham. We deserved more from the Villa and West Ham games, as our performance against Villa was very good but just lacking in a finish, and West Ham goals were very fortunate to them. Kulusevski earned us a dramatic point at the Etihad to give us something in this period.
Richarlison turned a corner in his Spurs career in the Newcastle game, where we ran out 4-1 winners and he scored twice. He went on to score 10 goals in the next 10 appearances. As 2023 became 2024, Pedro Porro’s thunderbolt sent Spurs into the 4th Round of the FA Cup against Burnley, but luck was not on our side as we drew Manchester City in the next round and lost 1-0 to a controversial Ake goal. Branthwaite’s 94th minute equaliser denied us all 3 points at Goodison Park, where a visibly frustrated Richarlison scored two fantastic goals and could not celebrate them due to his Everton past.
Brennan Johnson scored a last minute winner against Brighton, before Wolves did the double on us in a lethargic display. Werner, Romero and Son scored against Palace to get us back to winning ways before that incredible 4-0 demolition of Aston Villa at Villa Park, which ultimately came to nothing due to the tough run in Tottenham faced.
5 losses in 6 games, losing to Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City in quick succession will not bring back any good memories for us Tottenham fans, but we ended the season on a slight high with a win and a clean sheet at Bramall Lane. Dejan Kulusevski signing off for the season with a brace, as he did 2 years ago at Carrow Road. This sealed a 5th place finish and Europa League football. It was a season of change having lost Harry Kane days before the season began, but Ange Postecoglou has taken us from 8th to 5th and we are hopefully on the up from here. COYS.
On a personal note, I am in my last few days with The Pure Family having decided to start a new account. I would like to thank them, and all their members for giving me this fantastic opportunity to be the Tottenham Hotspur admin, and I wish The Pure Family all the best moving forward!