How Long can Tottenham’s Unbeaten Streak Continue?

Tottenham ended last season 8th on the table, one point behind Aston Villa and one point ahead of Brentford. This shows how fine the margins were and how their season could have ended slightly better or worse.

Fans must have prayed for better this season, and five games in, their prayers are being answered better than they might have hoped for. With four wins and one draw, Tottenham is sitting second to the defending champions, Manchester City, and tied with Liverpool and Arsenal in points.

While five matches might not seem like a lot, in the EPL, where all points and every goal scored counts, Tottenham are off to a blistering start with their 5-game unbeaten streak. How long could the streak continue? Will it end when they play title runner-ups from last season away on September 24th? Arsenal are odds-on favourites for the match up according to many top betting sites, with odds of around 4/6 to win. Spurs on the other hand, are sitting at around 7/2, while a draw is also around 7/2, so it seems bookies think this game could be the one to end the unbeaten streak.

So what’s behind the change of heart? At a glance, Spurs are on a run of form that seems as if it could easily take them through this game. However, on closer inspection – and with no disrespect to the teams involved – it becomes apparent that they have not faced the most vigorous opposition in their first five games. Indeed, Spurs’ first five fixtures were against Brentford, Manchester United, Bournemouth, Burnley, and Sheffield United. Yes, even the Red Devils are not a strong opposition; all you need to do is look at their last five matches, where they have lost four and conceded 14 goals. If Tottenham Hotspur is the poster boy for good form, Manchester United is the direct opposite.

Tottenham’s situation is not helped when you consider that they have already crashed out of the Carabao Cup very early in the season. Even if they didn’t lose the game in 90 minutes, being knocked out by Fulham, who regained promotion to top-tier football in the 2022-23 season, is not flattering.

The second reason banking on Tottenham to continue in this form is borderline risky is because they lost their talisman, in the name of Harry Kane, to Bundesliga giants F.C. Bayern Munich before the season began. Harry Kane is one of the most prolific goalscorers in the history of the competition. He is second to Alan Shearer in the Premier League’s all-time goalscoring record with 213 goals, having outscored Manchester United’s Legend Wayne Rooney, who bagged 208 goals. He is Tottenham’s all-time goal-scoring leader, with 280 goals in all competitions, and single-handedly delivered 116 goals for the team in his last four seasons.

While Harry Kane has been replaced by another incredible striker in the name of Richarlison, who was signed from Everton in 2022, it would take some doing and perhaps some time before he is able to properly fill in the void left by England’s number 9. In Richarlison’s last five seasons, he scored a total of 50 goals, less than half of Kane’s tally in his last four seasons. In the 2017/18 season, Richarlison netted 5 times, 13 times each in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons, 7 times in the 2020/21 season, 10 times in the 2021/22 season, once in the 2022/23 season, and he already has one this season. It is crucial to note that he’s not the only one in the team roaster tasked with scoring goals, as Spurs have exciting talents like the South Korean forward Son Heung-Min, the magnificent Swede in Dejan Kulusevski, and one of Croatia’s Golden Generation players in Ivan Perišić to name a few. As a result, all these players can toss their hat in the ring and combined make up for the loss of their former striker.

Another area where Tottenham is losing out is the telepathic connection Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min have developed in the last few seasons. They have joined forces to net a goal a record 43 times, more than any other duo in the Premier League’s history. This means that while Son and Kane are fantastic players individually, they give the team something extra with how easily they find each other across the pitch.

As if the above was not enough to create doubt in any punter’s mind planning to go long with Tottenham this season, there’s also the not-so-minor issue of Tottenham’s not-so-busy trophy cabinet. The last time Spurs won a major trophy was in the 2007/08 season when they won the League Cup or Carabao Cup, 2 -1 to knock out Chelsea, the defenders at the time. Since then, they have only been able to win friendly tournaments, lifting the Vodacom Challenge Cup in 2011, winning the Feyenoord Jubileum Tournament in 2008, the Barclays Asia Trophy in 2009, the Eusebio Cup in 2010, the AIA Cup in 2015, the Jockey Club Kitchee Centre Challenge Cup in 2017, International Champions Cup in 2018, Audi Cup in 2019, Walter Tull Memorial Cup in 2022 and Singapore’s Tiger Cup in 2023.

So when is the unbeaten streak going to end? No one knows. But if history is anything to go by, and it often does, defeat could come at any time. If you are a fan, you should stick by your team every step of the way. This might be that season where the Spurs live up to the expectations and quality we have always known was present in the squad. If things continue at this pace, it would not be too much of a shock if the team pulls off something similar to the Leicester 2015/16 season.