Do Not Underestimate a Wounded and Stronger Tottenham Hotspur This Season

Do not underestimate the power of wounded pride. 

For much of last season, it appeared Tottenham Hotspur were on the brink of a historic season and their first league title in over half a century, but they would of course spectacularly implode and finish a sizeable 11 points behind Leicester City.

While Spurs were the Foxes’ most determined pursuers, if you consult last year’s final league table you will find they finished third behind Arsenal as well.

On the final weekend of the season, as Tottenham slumped to a shocking 5-1 defeat to Newcastle United, their north London rivals unexpectedly surpassed them and took great pleasure in revelling in their pain and embarrassment.

The final league table didn’t look quite right, disappointing Arsenal were runners-up and thrilling title challengers Tottenham were in third place. But there had been no mistake, and White Hart Lane was plunged into an uncomfortable summer. 

Three months on the feelings are still raw, and last week the Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino revealed how his side’s collapse had affected him, per MailOnline.

“I wanted to kill all of them and I did not have the opportunity to kill them. I kill myself, too,” he said. “They need to hear from the manager my feelings, how I felt after the game and after the season, because there was no time to share [then]. “

As the new season begins, Tottenham do not have the best players or the most glamorous new signings. Like so many of their rivals, they don’t have a new trophy manager either, but they possess something possibly even more powerful: a cause.

It was a cause—to prove people wrong and create history—that drove Leicester all the way to their incredible Premier League title win last season. And it was a cause, even for just 90 minutes, that fuelled dishevelled Hull City’s remarkable win against the champions on Saturday.

Tottenham now have a cause this season: to silence all the mocking and gloating they had to endure last season and prove they can last the distance after all.

Pochettino is an impressive young …

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