Tottenham Hotspur are enjoying the best start to a season in some while though it hasn’t impressed everyone.
Still unbeaten after 10 games, Spurs’ title credentials are likely to be called into question over the next few games when they play Chelsea, Wolves, Aston Villa, Man City, West Ham and Newcastle United.
None of those six games will be easy, but if they’re able to come out of that period relatively unscathed, they might have more of a claim to suggest they’re in it to win it.
Until then, they shouldn’t even be talked up according to Stan Collymore.
‘It’s the ridiculous nature of influencers being involved in football discourse too that’s led to talk about Newcastle United, Arsenal and Tottenham being potential champions of England,’ he wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
‘We’ve never really analysed a season starting until eight to 10 Games in, and we’re still in that period so let’s just say Spurs, for example, have had a really good start. Nothing more than that.’
With City and Villa ominously just a few points behind them, Ange Postecoglou’s side can really put themselves in the box seat if their current good form continues.
Collymore, however, isn’t looking past Pep Guardiola’s swashbucklers to sweep the board again.
‘The current champions of England, champions of Europe and the FA Cup winners are just starting to go through the gears, have been champions in what five of the last six seasons, and some are already talking about other clubs being able to take their crown?!’ he added.
The one issue that the north Londoners have of course is a lack of experience in how to deal with the pressure of leading the pack.
Postecoglou will surely point to his own title win at Celtic as proof enough that he can lead with aplomb, and with experienced campaigners such as James Maddison and Son Heung-min, there’s a chance they could go one better than when Mauricio Pochettino almost got them over the line.
That’s a thought for another day according to Collymore.
‘We shouldn’t even really be talking about title contenders until at least February, March, April or May,’ he concluded.