ted harper

When did Spurs last score five or more four times in a season?

It's not so long since Spurs have scored five or more goals four times in a season, but they have never achieved that milestone after only 9 games of the season.

Only two years ago, Spurs beat Anorthosis Famagusta 6-1 in the UEFA Cup, Fulham 5-1 and Reading 6-4 in the league, and (ahem) Ar5ena1 5-1 in the Carling Cup Semi-Final second leg. It was in that Reading game that Dimitar Berbatov was the last Spurs player to score four goals in the league, and not Jurgen Klinsmann's four at Selhurst Park in 1998, as mistakenly reported in several of this week-end's newspapers. Check out the 2007-08 match reports here for full details

It was also in the 2007-08 season that Robbie Keane passed the 100 goal milestone in all games played for Tottenham. His four-goal haul on Saturday took him to 90 league goals for Spurs, so the 100 league goal tally is much closer now. Robbie is currently Spurs' 13th highest ever League goal scorer, and if he makes it to the 100 mark, would become just the 9th player in our history to do so.

Burnley were the victims of a heavy defeat in our seventh league game of the 1968-69 season, when we won 7-0, with goals by Jones (2), Robertson, Greaves (3 - 1 pen), and Chivers. In the 1930-31 season, when we were in Division Two, Spurs won their first two games 7-1 and 8-1. The 7-1 was over Reading, in which Ted Harper became the first to score five league goals for Spurs. That record has since been equalled by Alfie Stokes and Bobby Smith. Harper also scored twice in the 8-1 win which was over Burnley on September 1st 1930.

Robbie is only the 20th player in the history of the Premier League to score four goals in a game, and the third Spurs player of those 20, with Berbatov and Klinsmann his predecessors.

A pattern is emerging after 7 games. There have been a record low number of drawn games, and teams in the top half seem to be picking off those in the bottom half at will, generally speaking. There have been and will continue to be exceptions of course, and let's hope it doesn't start for us at Bolton on Saturday.

Without wishing to detract from our excellent start, I would say that the standard of the Premier League has taken a dive this season, and that it is going to take three very bad teams to get relegated. There are already two holding up the table, and most of those in the bottom half will be battling not to fill the third place, surely. It is more than a little embarrassing to think that this time last year, we had lost at home to Hull, and we were holding up the table. Thank heavens for Harry Redknapp, and here's to Spurs future!


Results 26-28.09.09

B'mingham 1-2 Bolton
Blackburn 2-1 A. Villa
Fulham 0-1 Ar5ena1
Liverpool 6-1 Hull
P'tsmouth 0-1 Everton
Stoke 0-2 Man Utd
Spurs 5-0 Burnley
Wigan 3-1 Chelsea
S'derland 5-2 Wolves
Man City 3-1 West Ham

Barclays Premier League

Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts

1 Man Utd 7 6 0 1 17 6 11 18
2 Chelsea 7 6 0 1 16 6 10 18
3 Liverpool 7 5 0 2 22 10 12 15
4 Spurs 7 5 0 2 17 10 7 15
5 Man City 6 5 0 1 14 7 7 15
6 Ar5ena1 6 4 0 2 18 8 10 12
7 A. Villa 6 4 0 2 9 5 4 12
8 S'derland 7 4 0 3 14 11 3 12
9 Everton 6 3 0 3 8 10 -2 9
10 Wigan 7 3 0 4 7 13 -6 9
11 Burnley 7 3 0 4 5 15 -10 9
12 Stoke 7 2 2 3 5 9 -4 8
13 Bolton 6 2 1 3 8 9 -1 7
14 B'mingham 7 2 1 4 4 6 -2 7
15 Blackburn 6 2 1 3 6 9 -3 7
16 Wolves 7 2 1 4 7 13 -6 7
17 Fulham 6 2 0 4 4 8 -4 6
18 West Ham 6 1 1 4 6 9 -3 4
19 Hull 7 1 1 5 6 19 -13 4
20 P'tsmouth 7 0 0 7 3 13 -10 0