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Tottenham Hotspur legend Gary Mabbutt insists that there is no reason for fans to panic over the club’s form in such a bizarre season.
The Premier League season is being contested behind closed doors because of the ongoing pandemic and Mabbutt has told Football FanCast that such conditions are only likely to add to the bizarre results we have seen at times this season.
Indeed, Spurs have struggled under Jose Mourinho and fell to ninth in the Premier League table at one point.
Their win over Burnley at the weekend means they are still just six points off the top four, though, with a game in hand on fourth-placed West Ham United.
And Mabbutt insists there is absolutely no reason for fans to worry given that the season is largely upside down.
He has cited Liverpool as an example, with the Premier League champions, who lost just three games last season, currently sixth in the Premier League table, with seven defeats to their name.
They are 19 points off league leaders Manchester City, and are almost certain to lose their title this season.
Speaking to FFC earlier this week, Mabbutt said: “People talk about how we’ve fallen away since December, we were top of the table mid December, and then we slipped away a little bit.
“Well, it’s exactly that: slipped away a little bit. In real terms, in a normal season, dropping from top to ninth would be, ‘how did that happen?’
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“But in this current season, when you’ve got the champions who pulverised everyone before them last season, lying in sixth place, whatever, and losing their last four games at home. Excuse me, it’s just an absolutely one off season that is seeing results no one would expect.”
Mabbutt also expressed his sympathy for the conditions the players are being forced to play in, with him making the point that the Premier League is being played in “training ground conditions”.
He added: “It’s proven football is just not football, as we know it, without fans in the stadium. I mean, I feel sorry for the players. And for the staff.
“It’s the crowd in the stadium that wants to create the passion, the intensity, the excitement, it’s the players that rebound off that support, off the crowd. And it’s like playing in the biggest football league in the world, under training ground conditions, and that is not easy.
“For players to build themselves up, getting mentally right to get there, totally concentrated, is very, very difficult. And I do feel sorry for them. But that’s the way it is.”
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