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To be fair to the Champion’s League chasing duo, every team shows exploitable cracks throughout a season but their ability to get over these setbacks are essential in proving their credentials for their CL push. Spurs and Villa have both had very good seasons so far but there have been signs of weakness which, thankfully for the duo, have not proven too costly so far due to the slipping up of their rivals but better form for a positional rival could make these problems very costly.

I thought that Tottenham’s biggest enemy this season would be injuries but so far they have shown that’s not the case – injuries to key players have resulted in the highly impressive step-ups of Michael Dawson and Niko Kranjcar which has shown that Tottenham have a squad capable of competing. Their performances against the teams around them have been good but Spurs have been guilty of conceding results to a few teams most would consider them superior to. Every team has off-days but home defeats to the likes of Wolves and Stoke are horrible points for Spurs to lose as there’s a sense that they should’ve been won and if they eventually fail to qualify for the Champion’s League they will be haunted by the matches that they should’ve won, not those in which they’ve been outplayed.

A major problem for Tottenham has been their mentality – the club do not see themselves as players of a Top 4 club and surrender to defeat easier than a “big” team would. Harry Redknapp’s done a good job in giving the squad more belief in themselves and looking to remove the troublemakers but there are still plenty of doubts over whether Spurs can get a Top 4 spot and it’s a question that the players themselves are not sure of. Determination is high but a failure to secure that Top 4 spot would not come as a surprise, disappointing though it would be.

Villa meanwhile are the subject of a big question – will they fade away like they did last season? If recent form is anything to go by then it’s possible, the games against Liverpool and Arsenal were meant to make their season but instead they lost them both and lost the chance to go further ahead of these big rivals and they are already looking less strong a team than they did earlier in the season. Villa have less competitions to worry about this season and should be better equipped to get through the season without tiring out but Martin O’Neill’s side do tend to suffer bad patches and a significantly poor one like last season’s could be on the cards given their relatively small squad and lack of top class deputies.

There’s no doubting that both sides have come on leaps and bounds from last season – Villa’s squad has improved whilst Tottenham are playing as a team now instead of as individual players like they did under previous managers. Unfortunately the desire to reach the Top 4 is more desire than a belief and the clubs must believe in themselves fully and fight to the final whistle in every game if they’re to give a significant challenge to the usual suspects for those places. Spurs cannot afford to allow teams like Wolves to hang onto their one goal lead – they must press for an attack. Villa can’t allow their squad to tire out, they must sign new players are rest key players when in possession of a significant lead. Either club could be helped to a Champion’s League spot simply by the fact that Liverpool have been a lot worse than them this season and have shown little sign of improving whilst Manchester City’s early promise has faded but neither side can get ahead of themselves and must address their problems and deal with them quickly to deny their rivals any chance to come back into it. The managers must be diligent in keeping their mentality right as that’s essential to their whole seasons.

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