Now the bottom three have been confirmed, and it is a near certainty Chelsea will be crowned Premier League champions this weekend, pundits and newspaper columnists across the land are desperately trying to convince us that there is still something mildly interesting about the rest of the season, honest.
Is there more pressure on Spurs and Harry Redkanpp to finish fourth this season?
That mildly interesting something comes in the form of the race for fourth place, and a Champions League qualification spot for next season. It is now between Manchester City and Tottenham, and with the two playing each other at Eastlands tonight, it is essentially a play-off for fourth. Winner takes all. The prize is there, just go and grab it. Except, Spurs will be quite happy with a draw, and why would they go out guns blazing when a point would suffice?
Harry Redknapp has added a bit of spice to the affair by claiming City bullied them out of signing Craig Bellamy last year. “City said: ‘If you do not drop out of Bellamy, we are going to sign Palacios.’ They said: ‘If you pull out of Bellamy, we will pull out of Palacios and then we both get a player,'” said the droopey-eyed Spurs manager as he threw the rest of his toys out of the pram.
While City instructed their team of sharp-suited, highly-paid lawyers to ‘look into’ the comments made, Redknapp continued by saying that Spurs were not the team under pressure tonight by reasoning: “‘We set out for a top-seven finish so we’ve definitely exceeded expectations. There’s more pressure on them.”
However, I would question this claim. Yes, City are under a certain amount of pressure to finish fourth this season, but I would say that pressure is shouldered mainly by manager Roberto Mancini more than anyone else, and a failure to take City to the Champions League could see him leave the club.
But the fact the Eastlands club have such a financial backing behind them suggests it is only a matter of time before they break the hegemony of the top teams, and judging by Liverpool’s fall from grace, this may come around sooner rather than later. If City fail to get fourth this time around, it would be highly surprising if it happened again next season.
Tottenham, on the other hand, may never have such a good opportunity to achieve the Champions League football some of their displays have merited this season. In a campaign when all the big hitters have been nowhere near their best, this was an ideal chance for team harbouring Champions League ambitions, such as Spurs, Aston Villa, Everton and City to really take the initiative.
But when City undoubtedly throw their millions around this summer, I can’t see Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea being as poor as they have been this term, will Spurs have missed a trick if they miss out on fourth?
Yes, Harry said they were just aiming for a top seven finish this season, but now the chance for something so much more has opened up, Tottenham need to take full adavantage of the situation, as who knows when it will be available to them again.
No doubt the comments made by Harry were just good-old mind games, but for Spurs fans, the lure of Champions League football is massive, and just by that fact alone, there is huge pressure on Spurs tonight.
Tristan Mann's Blog 