da bwin： There is a disease spreading through north London – and it looks to be contagious.
da dobrowin： For the last few seasons, Arsenal have been near the top of the league by Christmas, still in cup competitions both at home and abroad, only for February-itis to kick in.
Symptoms of this well-documented disease include getting to the month of February with high hopes, but swiftly losing ground in the league, slipping up in the cups and mistaking fourth place for a trophy.
Miraculously, the Gunners would be able to pick themselves up, dust off those red tops and put together a wonderful run before the end of the season, inevitably squeaking into the Champions League spots. But the disease has effectively put paid to their hopes of real glory in the last few seasons. In fact, ‘glory’ seems to take on a different form for those with February-itis, with finishing fourth enough to feel like a successful season.
We thought this was a syndrome specific to Arsene Wenger’s men, but it looks to be spreading to their north London neighbours Tottenham. Spurs really started to come into their own just before Christmas and in January, qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa League, positioning themselves for an assault on fourth place, reaching the Capital One Cup final.
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Mauricio Pochettino’s intense pre-season of fitness work seemed to be paying dividends; Spurs managed to win games very late on, scoring in stoppage time on numerous occasions. The Argentinian manager’s methods weren’t universally popular at the Lane early on in the season, but they seemed to have boosted the fitness of the players and that helped them to keep going late on in games when the opposition was tiring.
But by the same token, you’d think that their superior fitness would be telling at this time of the season too. Spurs have played plenty of games, given their Capital One Cup run and their place in the Europa League, but not that much more than most of the other top teams, and only Manchester United and Southampton above them weren’t in Europe after Christmas.
But Spurs’ form faltered anyway, and the month of February has ended their hopes of silverware come May.
Since then, they have been knocked out of Europe, lost the cup final, and defeat to Manchester United last weekend has left them down in seventh, six points off fourth place.
February-itis has spread, and it’s looking menacing at White Hart Lane.
Spurs have a young side with some promising but not-quite-there-yet players, they are out of every cup competition and have no distractions left (and crucially, no fixture congestion) to derail their league campaign. Sound familiar?
Spurs seem to be having a season much like the ones suffered by Arsenal over the last few years, thanks to their affliction with February-itis, and their latest defeat makes the Champions League look so far away.
Thankfully, a diagnosis of February-itis isn’t fatal. Arsenal have managed miraculous recovery after miraculous recovery. Even from positions where all seemed lost.
And this is what Spurs will be hoping for now. Emulating their bitter rivals in an attempt to save their season doesn’t sound like the kind of season Spurs fans had in mind for their own team, but ask any Spurs fan right now if they’d consider it a successful season if they finished fourth and they’d definitely say yes – clearly Spurs are approaching late-stage February-itis.
The disease is spreading, and clubs like West Ham and Chelsea should take precautions and be careful not to be in too much contact with their north London neighbours for fear that they too might catch the bug!
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