Southampton 1-4 Tottenham: Expectations rising for Spurs?

Still signs of progress for Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham this season

Tottenham's 4-1 win at Southampton on Wednesday made it three wins in a row to take Mauricio Pochettino's men to within a point of the top four. Adam Bate looks at why the Premier League table obscures the fact that Spurs are still a side on the up...

For the second season in a row, Tottenham are preparing to travel to Watford for their 19th Premier League game of the season. A year ago, there was a real buzz about their exciting young team and a 2-1 win at Vicarage Road took them into third spot in the table.
This time around, they go there with more wins and more points than last season. They have scored more goals and conceded fewer at the other end too. These are the statistics of a side on the up. And yet, Spurs are currently fifth in the Premier League.

It's an indication of the task Tottenham face in trying to engineer progress under Mauricio Pochettino. While working with a smaller budget than their major rivals, as well as building a stadium in the hope of closing that financial gap, they must keep getting better too.
The problem is that everyone else is attempting the same thing and Spurs do not operate in a vacuum. So when Chelsea win 12 on the spin, it matters. When Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United all have more points than a year ago, it stymies their efforts.
As others recover lost momentum, the pressure is on this Tottenham team and affects the way their efforts are perceived, both inside and outside the club. Even modest improvement can spark criticism. Any dip, however brief, becomes a cause for concern.
Harry Kane has not got the headlines this season with some questions over his form, but it was his brilliant header that gave Spurs the lead at Southampton. It was his eighth Premier League goal of the season. Only half a dozen players in the country can better that.
For Kane, read Christian Eriksen, another who has received underwhelming reviews. His corner for Kane's goal was his fifth assist of the campaign. But for Oriol Romeu's deflection that technically denied him an assist for Heung-Min Son's third, he'd be second in the Premier League on that list.
Elsewhere, Dele Alli covered more ground and made more sprints than anyone else at St Mary's in a two-goal display that earned him the man-of-the-match award. The initial fuss over Alli might have died down, but he is on course to better last season's goal tally as well.