• Dawson missed out on last day with Tottenham in 2006
• Stand-in captain unfazed by daunting run-in
Tottenham’s stand-in captain, Michael Dawson, has predicted the struggle for fourth place will go down to the final afternoon of the season, resurrecting thoughts of food poisoning and dodgy lasagne.
Dawson is one of three members of the present Tottenham squad who were around to endure the agonising final day of the 2005-06 season under Martin Jol. Although the team hotel in London’s Docklands was cleared of any wrongdoing in preparing the pre-match lasagne, 10 squad members were affected by gastroenteritis and Spurs’ defeat at Upton Park allowed Arsenal to take the fourth and final Champions League spot.
“It would be fantastic if we could do it this time,” said Dawson, who took over the captaincy at Wigan on Sunday after Ledley King’s withdrawal with injury. “Was it really four years ago that we lost on the final day at West Ham? That was devastating. We want to be involved against the best in the world and the Champions League is where they are playing. To do it now would be a fantastic achievement.
“It will go down to the last day because there are so many teams in there. There is one point separating the four of us, and we are all in with a shout. We hope people do keep talking about it being between Manchester City and Liverpool – we will just keep going about our job like we know we can. We certainly did that against Wigan and that is all we are bothered about.”
Tottenham’s run-in has eerie echoes of 2006. Then as now three of their final five fixtures pitted them against Manchester United, Arsenal and Bolton and they finish with an away game at a team who play in claret and blue. This time it is Burnley.
Of the four sides competing for fourth place, Tottenham and Manchester City have a notably harder run-in than either Liverpool or Aston Villa. They have not beaten Arsenal in the Premier League in 11 years and have not won at Old Trafford since 1989. In between those two fixtures, they take on Chelsea at White Hart Lane. Nevertheless, Sunday’s 3-0 victory on a dreadful, churned-up surface at Wigan demonstrated the kind of resolve Redknapp has instilled into a Tottenham side whose reputation for being weak away from home, especially in the north, has been hard to shake off despite wins at Hull, Blackburn and Wigan and draws at Everton and Bolton. The two goals scored by Roman Pavlyuchenko on Sunday are proof that if the striker cannot get his hoped-for move to Lokomotiv Moscow before the Russian transfer window closes next month, he may still have a role to play at White Hart Lane.
“Belief has never been a problem for this team,” said Dawson. “We had one disappointing result at Wolves, that is all and that is gone now. Whatever the state of the pitch at Wigan, there could be no excuses for us. We went out and played fantastically. I hadn’t noticed that Pav has been down and, when he scored, all the lads were chuffed for him. The fans certainly like him, judging from the way they were singing his name.”
Tottenham HotspurPremier LeagueTim Richguardian.co.uk
