Below is a quote from a Spurs supporters who has a brain in his head.

I have in previous seasons provided extensive evidence of how playing Thursday matches in the Europa League has had a severe negative impact on Spurs’ results the following Sundays. It cost us certain CL qualification in at least two seasons and last season we even sacrificed a trophy (the League Cup) by playing most of the side who started the final in the game at Fiorentina the Thursday before.

Sadly the trend has continued this year as you can see from the following results, where I believe we have lost or drawn games we would have won comfortably otherwise (in each case we faded badly in the last 20 minutes):

Away to Swansea: 2 points lost (after Monaco away)

Away to Arsenal: 2 points lost (after Anderlecht home).

Home to Chelsea: 2 points lost (after Qarabag away)

Home to Newcastle 3 points lost (after Monaco home)

Home to Palace: knocked out of FA Cup – a tournament which this year we really had a great chance of winning (after Fiorentina away).

Without those dropped league points we would be 7 points clear of Leicester and 10 points clear of Arsenal.
But even without them we still have a once in a lifetime opportunity to win the league and hence (given the circumstances) make this the greatest season in our history.
However, it will NOT happen if we progress to the next round of the EL.

In previous seasons I could just about understand why we fielded strong teams in the EL. The chance of the glory of winning a tournament was worth it given that we could not win the league (although as mentioned above it actually cost us the League Cup last year). But this year we really can win the league and given that CL qualification is surely certain anyway the incentive for winning the EL is diminished.

This is why, for the first time in my life, I want Spurs to lose on Thursday and believe that failure to do so will destroy our chance of winning the PL. That why it is one of the most important games in Spurs history.

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I join in this thinking and would not expect that we field a full squad. Our attention should be on Sunday game versus Swansea and nothing else.

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About Terry Charalambous

Current chairman of Cyprus Spurs Supporters' Club