Published: 24 November, 2011

ARSENAL
A LITTLE experiment: I want all of you to think about George Clooney.

All of you.

Picture him in your head.

I’m talking about the actor man George Clooney.

Maybe you remember him from ER.

Or Batman.

Or Ocean’s Eleven.

Just keep thinking Clooney.

GEORGE CLOONEY.

CLOONEY!

Right.

You’re back in the room.

What kind of picture did you have when I asked you to think of George Clooney?

You should have pictured a swarthy 50-year-old man, his eyes a little ringed with laughter lines, a snatch of grey hair, mature and sophisticated.

A man who has seen things, done things, tasted everything that life has to offer.

Well, the little-known fact you need to know is that George Clooney, the actor man that you just thought of, him, was born on the exact same day in history that Tottenham clinched the league and cup double in 1961, the last time that Spurs were champions of the land.

So, the maths: it has taken the growth of an entire, real-life George Clooney to get to the stage where Spurs are thinking about winning the league again.

When George Clooney took his first steps, Spurs were waiting, when he fell off his tricycle, when he passed his driving test, when he first kissed a girl, when he made his first film, his 15th film, Spurs were waiting all that time.

Harry Redknapp is fun for banter, but it will take a Hollywood script for Spurs to end their Clooney-sized wait for the league championship this season.
RICHARD OSLEY

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
ALTHOUGH it’s getting cold outside, there’s a warm and pleasurable glow emanating from within me.

I don’t eat porridge so it must be the fact all is well in N17.

Gloating is not my style, unless we’re talking about beating Arsenal or Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, United…

OK maybe I gloat a little but not now.

No, readers, it is an unattractive trait best left to those that have further to fall from grace than you do.

The barefaced truth is Aston Villa were rubbish on Monday night!

Their fans put on more of a show.

But to coin a phrase, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and with a 2-0 final score, Spurs did that royally! Marshalled at the back by Ledley King & Co, there is a well-oiled precision about Tottenham at the moment.

My concern is we should have scored four or five, which might prove critical in the coming months. Having missed an easy header earlier in the game, Emmanuel Adebayor made the natives restless: thankfully, he managed to turn a baying crowd into a swaying one with two opportunistic strikes in the first-half.

Spurs’ leapfrog over Chelsea into third place with a game in hand, which might help Luka Modric wake fully from the dream he had earlier on in the season.

Substituted late, to tumultuous applause, the Croatian wasn’t the only player to engender such appreciation; Spurs are purring with efficiency at the moment making the rest of the season a sweet one to await.
TONY DALLAS