So having been ‘totally relaxed’ last weekend as England played and Spurs didn’t, I can now return to ABSOLUTE FUCKING PANIC mode for the remainder of the season. And that starts tomorrow. At 5.30. Because tv can’t show 3 o’clock Saturday kick-offs, iss’illegal, they put matches on at other times in order to help Sky.

For the first half of my life football was only ever played at 3 on Saturday, never shown live on tv and you had to wait for Match of the Day later that evening when they’d show ‘hi-lights’ from one game and 30-second snippets from 2 others. They couldn’t afford cameras at every ground; Jesus; what were you thinking?? If you wanted to ‘watch football’ you had to go to the matches. Which was fine then, it was cheap to get in and because most people stood for the match, you could squeeze twice as many bodies into the ground as you can since compulsory seating came about. Ok, it was dangerous (Hillsborough, Heisel…) but it was wonderful. If the ground was ‘full’ the guys would let kids jump over the turnstiles and go in anyway. Without paying. No-one ever had any real idea how many people attended. And most of them would puff their way through 20 Benson&Hedges during the 90 minutes. Health & Safety wasn’t invented until 2005.

Anyway, we don’t do it like that any longer. We have TV.

And thus as Spurs visit Liverpool in what has become a truly MASSIVE game. A match that could decide not only the league but also continued life in the entire known universe. Its THAT big.

Every game is big now. We’re done with ‘small’, with ‘pointless’, with ‘who cares?’ with ‘don’t really matter’. Every game is immense. Which is why it becomes a mental rather than physical challenge. The pressure. Which is massive too. And that’s just for the fans. For the players?? Wow.

If we win (may it please the Lord) tomorrow, we still have some chance, should Leicester ever think about slipping up to any even tiny degree, of winning the league. If we drop points we’re done. As it will be for each and every game now.

I’m rooting for resurgent Southampton who are playing the Foxes tomorrow. And I’m rooting for Watford, on the grounds that I’ll always root for ‘the other team’ when Arsenal are involved. If the Gunners played the Demonic Zombie Evil Alien Vampires from Hell 11, I’d get my Rocky Horror Show costume out and howl at the moon. Can’t help it.

But this isn’t the Devil’s work. This is Tottenham. From the Lane. And I want you all to cheer on my boys tomorrow, where you may be. For Spurs. For right. For everything that is holy and good. For God.

Happy Friday

A xxxx