Tottenham have hit another level, and the Mirror football writer says they now have a genuine chance of winning the title...
Their FA Cup final or their Premier League coming of age?
The last time Spurs pulled off a result similar to their stunning victory over Chelsea – thumping Manchester City in October – they managed just one win from their subsequent ten matches.
The difference this time is that they now have their most influential players, Toby Alderweireld and Harry Kane, fit and available.
The absence of both men is the answer to why Spurs couldn’t play like this in the Champions League.
Alderweireld is arguably the best centre-half in the Premier League, let alone Spurs. He missed around two months with the knee injury he picked up at West Brom on October 15.
Kane, the current Golden Boot winner, missed six weeks with the ankle injury he picked up in the September win over Sunderland. Without them the north Londoners were toothless and rudderless in Europe.
With them, Spurs really do have a genuine shot at a title race that has a long way to go.
It is a coming of age because this is a Spurs team under Mauricio Pochettino moving to the next level. They haven’t dined out on last season like Leicester.
They are even more hungry to succeed where they failed last time around.
It is a coming of age because this is a Spurs era with a plan.
A Pochettino era with a firm, achievable target of a second season in the Champions League and a long-term plan of a regular seat at that table.
A Pochettino team just as consistent on the flat track – they beat Swansea, Hull, Burnley, Southampton and Watford going into Wednesday night’s win – as they are against the high rollers.
Make no mistake, they’ve had their poor spell. Let’s not beat about the bush.
Monaco away was abysmal given the stakes and the fact that the much-vaunted French title challengers were entirely beatable.
The Premier League draws at Bournemouth and at home to Leicester were also disappointing.
But the praise that Pochettino has had overall is deserved for the progress he has made changing the culture at Spurs as a club.
He has that nucleus of exciting young talent signed up to new contracts, all of whom buy totally into his philosophy.
He has that new stadium already taking shape to rival their old enemies down the road.
And he has built from the back, with the impressive defensive foundations improved further still by the bargain acquisition of Victor Wanyama, man of the match on Wednesday night.
Spurs have lost ground in the title race because for so long this season they have not had their key players on the pitch at the same time.
To even be back in it is a huge compliment to them. They will go for it in the FA Cup, beginning with Aston Villa at home on Sunday. But their main focus is on being regular title contenders.
Experience has taught Pochettino’s players that it can be done.
The pacemaker can be reeled in and challenged even if they have been off like a bat out of hell – just as Leicester, with one defeat in their first 17, were last season.
To be fair to the Spurs players this time around, they were openly bullish about stopping Chelsea and staking their own claim again after their wins over Watford and Southampton.
Few shared their optimism then.
They do now.
In terms of the title race, seven points is nothing. Especially with Chelsea set to go to Liverpool and then to host Arsenal over the next few weeks.
The optimism at N17 is particularly fascinating given that Spurs have come from further behind to leapfrog the Gunners, many of whose fans had written off their own team’s chances.
The belief is far stronger down the other end of the Seven Sisters Road.
What the Spurs players won’t do now is get carried away.
Pochettino won’t have them getting ahead of themselves any more than he will have Dele Alli getting carried away with the hype suggesting he is now good enough for Real Madrid.
Danny Rose perhaps epitomises the level-headedness in the squad best.
After Spurs’ Premier League win over West Ham at White Hart Lane in November, it was put to the England left-back that he is widely admired as the best in the country.
He reminded the three reporters interviewing him, including this one, of the reaction he still remembers when the club confirmed new boss Pochettino intended to stick with him rather than move him on when he arrived.
It is worth running his comments in full.
“I remember what people used to say about me a few years ago.” Rose said. “There were a lot of negative comments about me, even when I signed my contract before last. A lot of negative comments.
“It is nice when people do say nice things about me but I just want to improve.
“I owe my manager and this football club a lot for sticking with me and I feel as if I am playing some good football at the minute for club and country, as we all are, and I just want it to continue.
“It wasn’t nice but I feel as if I’ve got a strong character.
“I tried not to dwell on it too much. I have got a great small circle around me in terms of family and close friends and they have helped me massively to try and turn my form around from what it was a few years ago.
“The manager coming in and putting his arm around me – giving me confidence and making me feel I could be one of the best in this league and in Europe.
“I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but I feel as if I am playing well. I owe my team-mates, my manager, my chairman and everyone at this football club for how I am playing now and how I played last season and how I played the season before that.”
Guided by Pochettino, Rose has kept his focus magnificently to rise above his doubters. His team-mates too. They won’t be listening to the noise from the outside, just the voice on the inside.
