Going into Saturday's game against Bolton, Spurs had won their last five games at White Hart Lane and over the course of the season had conceded just twelve goals at home - the joint best record in the league, along with Man. Utd. Bolton, by contrast, had not scored in seven of their last nine away games and had effectively nothing to play for, with relegation fears averted and Stoke seven points ahead of them with two games left.

The stage was set, then, for a Spurs victory and it was duly achieved, although not without some nail biting by the fans. Rather like Man. Utd's performance against Sunderland the following day, Spurs were the dominant force but could not secure a second goal which would have settled the nerves. Defoe and Pavlyuchenko failed to impress once again, which must be a concern for the manager going into what is effectively now a "cup final" against Man. City to determine which club will finish in the fourth Champions League spot.

If the attack was largely toothless, fortunately the defence was robust. As unlikely as it would have seemed at the start of the season, King and Dawson now look like a very plausible defensive pairing for England's World Cup campaign. King continues to play - albeit intermittently - despite being unable to train regularly, while the improvement in Dawson's game this season has been marked. Dawson has always been a wholehearted player, but in the past he has relied too much on his heart and too little on his head, which sometimes resulted in poor positional sense and decision making. Alongside King those faults seem to have been eradicated and, on current form, the two of them look a much better bet for England than Terry and Ferdinand. The chances of Capello starting both - or perhaps even either of them - are remote. Terry will no doubt retain his place on his "talismanic" qualities, namely jaw-clenching and fist-shaking. How could a cultured player like Ledley King hope to compete with that?

There was a school of thought that the manager would rest King in order to preserve him for the crunch game at Eastlands. In the event, Redknapp decided to play him to counteract the not inconsiderable physical threat of Davies and Klasnic:

"I had a choice with Ledley whether to play him today and against Burnley, or just Manchester City, but I just felt today's was a match we had to win. Who knows, he might even be fit for Wednesday. If not I have Sebastien Bassong to come in and he's terrific, so it's good that I've got options all over the field again now"

Those options will be tested to the full against a Man. City team who brushed Villa aside at the weekend. For the neutral, it is a fixture to anticipate, savour and enjoy. For the Spurs diehards, however, it is an altogether more nerve-wracking prospect.