Friday Night Lights: West Ham to end Tottenham’s Challenge?

Tottenham head to the atmosphere vacuum that is the London Stadium this evening, knowing that a victory over West Ham would see them tiptoe within a point of the summit. For two days at least, Chelsea’s lead at the top could be clipped agonizingly short.

Mauricio Pochettino might even dare to dream. Before remembering that said dream relies on a team punching 58 points above their weight on Monday night. A team who are a David Moyes’ Sunderland away from being the worst in the division.

Still, those two days will feel pretty great, right?

Catch Me If You Can

Unlike the run-in of last season’s hopeless pursuit of Leicester, two of Spurs’ remaining fixtures take place before Chelsea’s. Even if it’s only a superficial gain, Tottenham can at least apply some form of psychological pressure, should they win their fixtures. Lose, of course, and Chelsea can head into their tie knowing a win would end it.

The final stretch was made doubly taxing for Spurs a year ago, as Europa League commitments meant their games would always occur on a Sunday or Monday. Usually after the Foxes had squeezed out a victory on the Saturday.

Spurs were forever chasing vapour trails; never able to give an impression that the gap was being whittled down. Four points became seven, seven quickly turned into ten.

Bilic Will Want a Strong Finish

Before Spurs can even think about sabotaging Chelsea’s title charge, there’s the not altogether simple task of beating West Ham.

In theory, Slaven Bilic’s side have nothing to play for, but for a handful of League positions to jump and several extra million to add to the end of season accounts. Which no-one in the boardroom will want to overlook.

For the fans, however, nothing would excite them more than a chance to terminate Tottenham’s title aspirations.

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Schadenfreude is a powerful force amongst football supporters. It’s not a phenomenon exclusive to fans of small clubs, either. Even for serial trophy winners, the delight one can harvest from the failure of a rival is remarkable. The more hilarious the circumstances, very much the better.

How many Man United or Chelsea fans showed compassion for Steven Gerrard when he let things slip in the most tragically ironic way possible in 2014? How much sympathy did Tottenham receive when they vomited on their Champions League fortunes with the previous night’s lasagne in 2006? Not much, I can tell you.

West Ham fans will be desperate for their team to crush Spurs’ hopes tonight and the players should be driven enough to meet their demands. The East London club are often ridiculed for their treating of this fixture as a Cup Final (they’ve played in more FA Cup finals than us in the last two decades, by the way) and this evening could see another open top bus parade if their old enemy’s title challenge is ended on live TV.

It could get ugly.