Tottenham’s relative lack of activity in the transfer market this summer has seen them float to the outskirts of the minds of gossip column purveyors, but don’t be duped by Lilywhite inaction when it comes to placing your seasonal match bets.
When examining this market at an earlier point of the summer, the news.bwin.com team observed Spurs aren’t yet ready to mix it with cross-capital foes Chelsea, but they are capable of finishing higher than Liverpool, despite what the odds gurus reckon.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men are a beefy 33/20 to finish 2015/16 in a loftier spot than the Reds, whose 9/20 to outstrip the north Londoners is a fairly clear indicator of who the bookies regard as the superior team.
Despite this, there are ample causes for Spurs support, most notably their record of finishing higher than the Merseysiders in recent campaigns.
Tottenham have finished five of the previous six seasons in a more prestigious position than Liverpool and with the influx of new arrivals at Anfield, this record could easily improve.
It’s the second summer of industrial-scale upheaval instigated by Brendan Rodgers, meaning yet more mass acclimatisation within the ranks, which threatens another sluggish start to proceedings.
Spurs, by contrast, have a largely unchanged group from the previous campaign; those they’ve shipped out were second-string, while their incomings have been exclusively defenders thus far.
One of which, Toby Alderweireld, assures their rearguard will be sturdier this time around.
They’ve hung on to all their star names too, whereas Liverpool have lost two first-team staples in talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard and precocious forward Raheem Sterling.
In Harry Kane, the Lilywhites have a line-leader who registered a league total last time around (21) that Reds’ exorbitantly priced marksman Christian Benteke would need two seasons worth of strikes to best, and even then this was only by two goals.
It was the England international’s net-bulging exploits that were a chief factor in Spurs outscoring and, ultimately, finishing above Liverpool in the previous edition.
Having kept their attacking unit intact and simultaneously augmenting their backline, Pochettino’s troops are actually better placed to out-point the much-changed Merseysiders this season than they were 12 months ago.
