Published: 29 December, 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY

THE excitable hullabaloo surrounding Tottenham reminds me of the time when Norwich City led the league table for several months back in 1993 only to fall away, as we always knew they would, in the springtime months.

It was almost two-fifths of a George Clooney lifetime* ago now, but everybody remembers those plucky Canaries. By law, that Norwich team with Jeremy Goss and, um, Jeremy Goss is always described as plucky.

Similarly, neutrals must be urging plucky Spurs on, cheering on the cheeky upstarts.

If you don’t support Arsenal or Chelsea or West Ham or Leyton Orient or or or, you are probably hoping Tottenham actually do it.

Yet they remain prone to doing a Norwich.

The tough statistic nobody talks about at the Lane is that Tottenham have only won one away match against a team in the top half of the table this season.

That was against 10th-placed West Brom.

Away from home, they must still play Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal.

These are not warming facts for anybody who wants Spurs to go one better than the Norwich side of 1993.

*A “Clooney”, as explained in our November 24 edition, is the measurement of football seasons without a title.

Tottenham have not won the league since the year George Clooney was born.

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