Running the marathon: time for us all to calm down a bit

We’ll start this blog with a simple public health warning to all those affliated with our wonderful white half of North London: stay away from the fixture predictors.

They’re scum, garbage; migraine inducing, venom producing, hysteria infusing weapons of mass dysfunction. And when placed in the hands of the wrong people – predominantly ourselves with our bordering-on-nihilistic apprehension for self-destruction – they can be deadly.

At this time of the season, it might not be such a bad idea to take things one step at a time and if further evidence was needed, we could do a lot worse than revisiting the mood in the camp following the Arse’s 3-1 over Norwich City during the weekend.

There have been £10million funerals better received than the sight of our North London rivals going just the singular point above us in the league table and judging by the way some were reacting, you would have thought old Maggie herself had posthumously burnt down the Chick King.

It was only a point. And needless to say, while some quarters came out of the 2-2 draw with Everton grieving for our ‘failed’ campaign, David Moyes’ men served a timely reminder for us to get over ourselves following his side’s superb draw at the Emirates on Tuesday night.

There’s an awfully long way to go in this league just yet and it’s time for us to stop believing in our own self-capitulating hype and start remembering that our two rivals for a top-four finish are hardly immune from a serious cock-up themselves.

Again, Chelski’s 3-0 hammering of BMJ’s Fulham side saw our Twitter TL’s fill up with a fair amount of collective gloom once more. “Looks like the real Chelsea are back then, that’s a shame,” were the musings to the tune of one downcast Lilywhite. But we’ll answer that for them – no they’re not.

Because if we’re going to play the long-game we should all be avoiding, we’ll see that bar anything else, Benitez’s side have still got to play Everton, the team that have held both ourselves and the Arse, at home. Is that a shoo-in? Not by any bloody chance. As neither their games against Liverpool, United or their clash with us in May are.

Last season has of course cast a shadow of panic and worry that is only every really going to be exorcised should we manage to qualify for the Champions League. But for want of a better word, we have to try and stop freaking out and responding so reactively to every single result.

This weekend’s game against Manchester City isn’t a three-pointer, it isn’t the ‘£40million game’ and it isn’t going to define our season. A draw would be a good result for us set us in good stead for our final five games of the season.

Could we find ourselves five points off a top-four spot before kick-off on Sunday? Yes we could, but should we panic and turn White Hart Lane into a GP’s waiting room as it was done for a good half an hour against the Toffee’s? No chance.

There’s a lot of football still to be played and a lot of twist and turns still to be had. But while this culture of panic and forecast of gloom might cloud our natural inner-thinking as Spurs fans, it’s one we’ve got to leave at the door this weekend.

No one has won or lost anything just yet and as long as we don’t roll over and take nothing away from the City game, that notion won’t alter come full-time on Sunday, however our rivals get on.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Let’s just hope we’re more Paula Radcliffe in 2003, as opposed to the one who kaks herself in 2005. Mind you, despite having a mid-race wobble, she still went on to win that year. Gives us all hope, doesn’t it?

COYS

You can follow me on Twitter @samuel_antrobus