All statistics are from the excellent WhoScored.com.

 

1. Spurs are putting a lot of pressure on their opponents.

Tottenham are 6th for tackles, 4th for interceptions and 4th for fouls committed in the Premier League this year.

Pochettino likes his teams to press energetically and stop the opponents from having time on the ball.

 

2. But Spurs are bottom of the Premier League table for aerial duels won.

Tottenham have averaged only 10.5 per game, just below Aston Villa on 11.5 and Swansea on 11.7. Unsurprisingly, Tony Pulis’ old teams Stoke and Crystal Palace top the league with more than double our total (29.2 and 22.8 respectively).

In the League Cup game against Forest, Fazio won 10 aerial duels on his own. Maybe the Argentine could make us more competitive in the air in the league?

 

3. Tottenham, along with Southampton and Chelsea attack the most down the centre of the pitch.

Or to put it another way, these three sides play with the least width. 32% of their attacks come through the centre, more than any other teams in the division.

Two of these teams have been heavily influenced by Pochettino. Does this say something about the Spurs manager’s tactics?

 

4. Erik Lamela has made the second highest successful dribbles per game in the Premier League.

Eden Hazard is top with 5.2, Lamela has 3.3, with Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling in third place on 3.0.

The young midfielder can be a real asset to Spurs. A player who is willing to take defenders on is a very useful weapon when trying to break down a tight defence.

 

5. Lamela is also the most fouled player in the Premier League.

He has been impeded illegally 16 times, and shares this dubious distinction with Everton’s Steven Naismith.

Opponents have realised Lamela is a key weapon and that fouling him slows down Tottenham’s counter attacks.

 

6. Etienne Capoue is fifth in the league for average number of passes per game.

Toure is top with 92.8, Capoue has 78.3, easily the highest for a Spurs player (Eriksen is second on 53.8).

The big Frenchman has been our passing hub so far this season.

 

7. Vlad Chiriches is the Spurs player with the highest passing accuracy of 94.1% from his two league appearances.

Dembele is the next highest on 91.5%. While that partially reflects the fact that the Romanian defender has made a lot of passes in low pressure areas, it is still an astonishingly high number. For comparison with our other centre backs, Vertonghen has 91.4% and Kaboul has 82.9%.

Chiriches seems to be a “mistake waiting to happen” at present but at least he’s a very talented “mistake waiting to happen”.

 

8. Spurs have only fielded one player in his thirties in the Premier League this year.

That’s Emmanuel Adebayor who is only 30. In fact 20 out of the 23 players we have used in the league (87%) are 27 or under.

Spurs have a young squad with lots of potential and a manager unafraid to give youth its chance.

 

Follow me on Twitter: @ABPSpurs

Do you have an other interesting stats from this season? Let me know in the comments below.

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