Last Thursday I tweeted that I'd be disappointed if Tottenham weren’t perched in 3rd place come Tuesday morning. There was an element of chutzpah in there, but I felt that the long weekend could end up with a media love-in over us breaching the upper echelons of the league. And so it proved.

Liverpool’s result at the Bridge and Newcastle's defeat at Eastlands resulted in yesterday's game becoming one some fans were more worried about slipping up on than one we were looking forward to, and not just the cynical, ‘seen-it-all,’ Spurs supporters. The opportunity arose, the game came and went. It took a minute or two for the side to settle before two deserved goals followed, no heart murmurs, a muted response from our opposition, and a leap into the top triumvirate of British football.

I would give you the date we were last 3rd in the league (after a significant number of games), but I don't know it, and that fact emphasises that this elevated standing is something we've certainly not been used to. But the ultimate irony, I'm sure you'll agree, is that far from being content with the table, and although revelling in us achieving such a lofty height, I can't help but want more…

But that’s always been the way, hasn’t it? When you reach new heights, you don’t settle, you want to use it as a foundation for further success. We achieved a Champions League place but then all displayed various levels of disappointment last season when we couldn’t repeat the feat, even though we’d found ourselves watching our team in Milan and Madrid.

Looking a little further back, the story is the same. On that important day when we beat Chelsea for the first time in… ok this is another one I don’t know… with goals from Lennon and Dawson, we didn’t sit back and say ‘oh that was nice, maybe we can beat them some time again in the next decade,’ we wanted it to be a turning point in our Premiership history, we wanted to make it a habit, to not fear a team who had for too long been our unfortunate superiors. As it happens, that victory had the desired effect. We saw we were a talented young side who could win against anyone on our day and that belief led to us beating them in a Cup final and scoring victories against them on further occasions at the Lane.

We continued to progress and slowly transformed from a side who would turn up and gallantly lose or draw against the big boys, into one with the quality to dispatch them at home, and then eventually begun to beat them on their own patches. Only Jack Wilshere would claim that we don’t have the edge over Arsenal at the moment, and the win at Anfield was another all-too rare event that we achieved with aplomb. After our recent transfer activity, we are now a fluid attacking force, with a strong spine and a tough streak of experience who can not only impress in the standout games but are consistently overrunning the lesser sides at home, as well as turning up at their places to fight and scrap to take 3 points back to North London - even when at times we don’t deserve it.

Make no mistake, this is a seriously good Tottenham side who have developed and grown over the last few years into a team who have a little bit of everything; a random group shot of our players displays a coalition of class that would interest the top, top clubs.

And so when we find ourselves third in the league, some jokers such as myself don’t want us to settle but push on, to see the progression perhaps continue. And why not? Although fully aware that we may not necessarily retain our top players if our financial position remains precarious, there is a real feeling that this could be a special year. Despite knowing that a Madrid could offer Luka £150k a week, or a Milan could ask Adebayor if he wants a new Armani suit and a Lamborghini as a signing on fee, or even a Barcelona tapping up our Gareth, there is a serious feel-good factor around the club at the moment. Who knows – if we can sort the stadium business out, we could have our long-term future at the top table cemented. But that’s still a while away, so perhaps we should enjoy the moment.

And while the sensible and slightly boring side of me says to take one game at a time – West Brom away is a tough test in itself – the wild streak, the ambitious one, the dreamer, well he asks why can’t we keep going? And why can’t we keep aiming for a little bit more? Billy Nich’s phrase resonates, doesn’t it?

Man City are unfortunately a freakishly strong squad and are looking fluent but United are lacking a spark and have a stack of injuries while Chelsea have many of their own problems, including an inexperienced, not particularly likeable manager who appears out of his depth.

There will be a loss, a disappointment, a shock result – but we won’t be the only ones. And while we should first try to spend a little longer than a few days in 3^rd, it’s going to be tight at the top, and it looks like that’s where we’ll stay. How tight, how close to the top, how close to winning the league – well that’s up to us, but there’s no reason why we can’t continue to be a smoothly purring, elegant feline amongst the filthy pigeons - and for no one to be surprised at our presence there.

Audere est Facere.

COYS

 Find me on Twitter @lev1602

Comment on this article here

Register at WeAreTottenham here

Take a look at our Main Board

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites