Spurs kept their hopes of Europa League qualification alive with yet another 1-0 home win, in this case over bottom club West Bromwich Albion. On the face of it, the race for seventh spot looks finely balanced, with Spurs level on points with Man City and Fulham, and just one behind West Ham, the leaders of this four-team "mini league".

Yet while both Fulham and West Ham face a bottom three club as part of their run ins, Spurs have away trips to Goodison and Anfield to come. A top ten finish may be as much as the team can hope for this season.

Harry Redknapp is already plotting how to break the dominance of the top four and is suggesting that he needs to sign "one or two players" in the close season. He describes those he has in mind as "playing very well and in their prime." (Presumably, then, that excludes Kenwyne Jones, who was apparently a target in January: Spurs certainly do not need another misfiring striker.)

It's hard to gauge how serious Redknapp is about the possibility of closing what is currently a more than 20 point gap, especially given his programme notes for the West Brom game, which continued to witter on about having Man Utd "on the rack" last week.

It's more instructive to look at Liverpool's 3-0 demolition of Newcastle on Sunday, which could easily have been 6-0 but for the woodwork. Spurs beat Newcastle by a solitary goal, and recorded the same scoreline against West Brom, a team that hasn't won away from home in the last 15 attempts and has by far the worst goal difference in the Premier League.

No-one in the crowd could have complained if the visitors had taken a point away from the Lane. That they did not was due to a combination of poor finishing on their part, good fortune on the part of Spurs and a couple of fine saves from Gomes. The goalkeeper is credited in certain sections of the press with being responsible for the outstanding defensive record at home - Spurs may well set a new record in that regard with the visit of Man City - but again this is a rather skewed view of things.

The Brazilian remains a fallible figure, capable of spectacular saves but also of making the routine look difficult - as anyone who witnessed the five goals at Old Trafford would attest. If Spurs do indeed break the record set in the 1919-20 season, credit should surely go principally to King and Woodgate, and perhaps also to Redknapp for having the wisdom to sign Palacios.

To be truly competitive next season, Spurs need to start scoring goals. Although the manager noted - tediously yet again - "you are not always going to score three or four goals in every game", it would help the mental health of the Spurs fans if it could, at least occasionally, be more than one.

Pavlyuchenko needs a decent run in the side and Keane needs to rediscover his scoring touch, having netted only three times in three months. At least there remains one bright spot on the striking horizon, in the shape of the returning Jermain Defoe.