Tottenham Hotspur have galvanised themselves and hit top form at the perfect time after surging into the Premier League ’s top four following a run of seven victories in their last nine games, yet Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville feels there has been “nothing spectacular” about their recent showings.
Spurs have steamrolled a number of sides over the past two months, hitting the back of the net 28 times in their last nine outings while creating a three point cushion over fifth-placed Arsenal.
But the Manchester United legend feels that Antonio Conte ’s side have purely benefited from Arsenal and Man Utd’s poor results of late, rather than crediting them for becoming a dominant force in recent weeks.
Speaking on his self-titled podcast on Sunday, Neville said: “I don’t think they’ve been spectacular in this last couple of months, but they’re almost growing out of the very recent run of Arsenal, and Arsenal starting to drop points, and what Manchester United are doing and thinking… 'hang on a minute.'
"When you’re starting to play well and the other teams are dropping points, you grow even more. I think that’s what’s happening with Tottenham, I don’t think there’s anything spectacular happening there. In fact, a few weeks ago, Conte was in that position where he was saying ‘I need backing in the summer to stay’, if you remember the reports.
"He got the two players in January, they’re making a big impact. But even after that, there was a point whereby you were saying Arsenal are gonna finish top four, United will, Tottenham… he needs £100million, £150million in the summer, he needs backing to stay."
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Conte’s preferred wing-back system has finally clicked with his players and that has shown in their recent run of good form, with Spurs thrashing a number of sides due to their deadly attack proving too much for opposition defences.
Harry Kane has found his goalscoring touch again, while he has also been providing a great number of assists. Son Heung-Min has also been a huge threat up top, and January signing Dejan Kulusevski has proved to be a great bit of business.
The Swedish international arrived from Juventus along with midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, and the pair have made a huge impact on Conte's side, with the former in particular hitting the ground running with three goals and seven assists in 11 games.
But Neville has at least recognised the impact of Tottenham’s front three, saying: “I think Tottenham are basically getting there because they’ve had a bit of experience in the last three, four, five years of getting into the Champions League.
“You’re almost in some ways thinking ‘over to you Tottenham, you might as well go and take the Champions League space, why not?’ – we know they’ve got an exceptional front two, stroke front three, we know that, but there’s still a lot to play for.”
Spurs may have benefited from a few poor results of late from both Arsenal and Man Utd, but nothing should be taken away from Conte’s revival of the side. However, they’ll be keen to prove Neville wrong and the only way to do that is by winning all of their remaining games.
