good morning!
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Trending Up / Trending Down, where your hoddler-in-chief takes a look at what’s trending up (and don’t forget down) in the world of Tottenham Hotspur.
Let’s take a look.
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Trending Up
Heung-min Son: Where else can you start with the most recent Man of the Match? The club captain netted a hat trick against Burnley last weekend – his first three goals of the season. And he seems to be really embracing that captain’s role. Hoping Ange Postecoglou keeps Sonny in the CF role.
James Maddison: We all knew going into this season how big a coup Maddison was for the club, but it’s become even more clear in recent weeks. He’s been a central focus in every single match he’s been a part of. The one he didn’t start? That was against Fulham.
He’s got two goals and two assists in four games this season. Not bad!
Alfie Devine: I was about to bemoan the lack of academy products playing for Spurs (the only one in the senior squad is Oliver Skipp), but Devine’s been making some inroads while out on loan. The 19-year-old was crucial in Port Vale’s most recent win, coming on as a sub to set up the tying goal. He followed that up with a gutsy penalty to win it in stoppage time.
And he was rewarded for it by being brought in to train with the England senior squad. Good on ya, Devine!
Trending Down
Oliver Skipp: Things aren’t looking too great for Skipp this season. After being favoured by the last handful of managers, he’s been looked over by Postecoglou in favour of other midfielders. That’s four Premier League games he has not started in so far.
Emerson Royal: Speaking of being looked over, Pedro Porro appears to have made claim in his starting role. That’s left Royal out of the Starting XI in the last three games. There’ve been questions over Porro’s defensive capabilities (and he still has some to prove there), but so far he’s kept Royal out of the starting lineup.
Cup competitions: Tottenham won’t play another cup fixture until 2024. That’s because there is no European football this year and because they crashed out of the EFL Cup against Fulham. At the very least Spurs can just focus on the Premier League for now.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Comme ci comme ça, by Ahmad Jamal
And now for your links:
Alasdair Gold on how he thinks Postecoglou will change Spurs from the inside
Dan KP on how Postecoglou is ‘ripping up the past’
Spanish football federation sack women’s national team head coach
