2019/20 Premier League preview - Tottenham: Top-three finish again the target to kick-start new era

Richard Jolly runs the rule over Tottenham ahead of the new season, including key player, new signing to watch and predicted league finish

SHANGHAI, CHINA - JULY 25: Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur and Paul Pogba of Manchester United compete for the ball during the International Champions Cup match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at the Shanghai Hongkou Stadium on July 25, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images )

Mauricio Pochettino has said that he would have resigned if Tottenham had won the Champions League. Yet if a chapter ended, a new one has begun.

Tottenham have belatedly spent, after 18 months of self-imposed austerity, with Tanguy Ndombele an exciting, expensive arrival and others targeted, while Kieran Trippier is gone.

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Who finishes where in 2019-20?

20. Sheffield United. Chris Wilder, pictured, has achieved a great deal in getting the Blades up, but staying in the top flight could be a task too far. PA Photo

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But there is also the question of how good they are: while reaching new heights in the Champions League, their points total has slipped from 86, in 2016/17, to 71 last year.

Injuries and a focus on Europe were factors, but Spurs lost their last six away league games. Pochettino has a terrific starting XI but, with the gap to the top two, it is another test of his alchemy.

Key player: Dele Alli

Harry Kane’s goals can be taken for granted. Alli’s cannot. His return decreased from 22 goals in 2016/17 to seven last year. It is only partly explicable by sometimes playing in a deeper role and injuries, but also by deteriorating form. Getting Alli back to his best as a big-game scorer would make a major difference.

 

Signing to watch: Tanguy Ndombele

Spurs’ club record buy looks well suited to Pochettino’s brand of football. The Frenchman’s power and ball-carrying ability mean he is a belated replacement for the hugely influential Mousa Dembele. That physicality equips him well for the Premier League, but he flourished for Lyon in last season’s Champions League.

Talking point: Can Pochettino again get the best from players who thought they were leaving?

Toby Alderweireld was expected to go in 2018 and then had an excellent season. So far this summer, Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen and Danny Rose, who could all have gone, remain on the books.

Alderweireld seems resigned to staying again but it is a test of Pochettino’s man-management to motivate the potential departures when the Belgian and the Dane can be his best defender and midfielder respectively.

With Alderweireld and Eriksen out of contract in 2020, Spurs also have to show the persuasive powers to get them to sign new deals, rather than leaving on free transfers.

Prediction: 3rd