Is Cup defeat for Tottenham a possible blessing in disguise?

No team ever wants to get knocked out of a Cup competition (unless by the look of Yesterday’s evidence you’re Manchester City) and especially not as this part of the season but could the defeat for Tottenham to Crystal Palace yesterday actually turn out to be for the best?

Much has been made about Tottenham’s squad size, you could argue it’s the right size but the balance of personnel is a bit lopsided. An overly stocked Midfield but light in Attack seems to be a fair assessment and to some a criticism but no one can argue that Mauricio Pochettino has managed the squad very well in terms of player rotation up until now.

Without looking for an excuse you could perhaps see  signs of fatigue setting in during the last two matches, Harry Kane being the obvious example. Him not scoring doesn’t automatically mean he is a shell of a man all of a sudden but on reflection you do have to wonder if he was really required to play in Florence on Thursday.  He had a quiet outing Yesterday but also I think credit has to go to a resolute Crystal Palace back line.

If tiredness was an excuse for Yesterday’s defeat (it may not have been the sole reason, but it certainly was a factor) then now that the club are competing on just two fronts then I don’t think that can be used an excuse for the rest of their campaign. If competing on three fronts was just unworkable then there’s no reason why they can’t attack the remaining two with full effect.

It’s usually leveled that Spurs tend to suffer after a Europa League fixture but this season it seems as if they haven’t been affected by that problem. Therefore they should be able to manage the two competitions especially with the talent they have at their disposal.

If the worst was to happen on Thursday and they went from three fronts to just one then you could almost put them in the box seat for the title, as then they could afford a relative rest and focus solely on the League. A luxury that Leicester have currently been afforded. They only have 12 games left to play as it stands while Spurs could play 20. Take the Europa League out of the equation and a Spurs side with just the Premier League to focus on becomes an even more dangerous side.

I reckon if you were to ask any Spurs fan Yesterday, IF you had to sacrifice one trophy this season then I guess it would be the F.A. Cup. The reward for winning it at the end of the day is no different to finishing 5th in the Premier League and if they only ended up with that and finished outside of the Top 4 then I guess the season would be deemed a failure.

Maybe if you were offered an F.A. Cup at the start of the season then again I guess most fans would take a first win in 25 years but from where we are now, then expectations have been raised and now without getting ahead of ourselves the thought of a major trophy and a route into the Champions League seems a very exciting prospect all of a sudden

So it maybe disappointment as the immediate feeling coming out of White Hart Lane but as they say every cloud has a silver lining and this one may just boost our prospects in the other two competitions who knows what we might be celebrating come the end of May. It’s going to be an interesting 3 months that’s for sure.