Are Tottenham Hotspur genuine title contenders?
It's a question that has been put to many following the team's hard-fought 1-0 win away at Burnley on Monday evening.
Jose Mourinho's men currently sit fifth in the league table and are two points off league leaders Everton after six games, yet they could really be top having dropped valuable points against Newcastle United and West Ham at home.
The results so far this season suggest the title race is wide open and Spurs could be the team to take full advantage of the usual suspects slipping up.
Liverpool have a huge task on their hands trying to retain the title due to Virgil van Dijk's ACL injury that is likely to keep him out for the remainder of the season, while Man City have only won two of their opening five games.
Fellow top-six clubs Chelsea and Arsenal sit 10th and 11th respectively, with Manchester United all the way down in 15th.
In a game in which they probably would have lost a few months earlier, Mourinho pointed to a "change of mentality" as they dug in deep to come away from Turf Moor with three points in the bag.
It was put to the head coach during his post-match press conference if his Spurs side are genuine title contenders and he made his feelings very clear on the subject.
"I will never consider ourselves title contenders," he stated. "I assume that every match we play – doesn't matter where or against who – we go to win.
"Every match I will tell the players a draw is not the result we want. Doesn't matter where.
"I will take that position of let's see what happens. I don't have anything more than this to promise. But we need to keep ourselves very balanced.
"Today I was speaking to Joao and Ledley about changes during the match but in the end we need to keep the balance. This is the kind of match where if you risk too much you have the risk of losing it.
"And with the level of the attacking players we have, even not playing well and creating lots of chances, there is always the chance to score a goal, which we did. And the last 15 minutes we managed the game very well."
While he may not admit in public at present that his side can go on and challenge for the title, Mourinho may well very believe that they can go all the way.
Spurs have two more league fixtures coming up before the November international break and wins over Brighton & Hove Albion and West Brom could put them in a very good position to kick on once league football resumes.
Teams always seem to be given a nightmare run at some point in the football calendar and Spurs' comes just past the midway point in November when Man City make the trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
A daunting fixture on paper, Pep Guardiola's team have struggled on their past two visits to N17 with the hosts coming out on top on both occasions.
The Man City match is then followed by derbies against fierce London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal.
Although the form book does tend to go out of the window in a derby contest, both have endured extremely mixed starts to the season and Mourinho will be confident of getting points on the board at Stamford Bridge and then at home a week later.
Crystal Palace are certainly no pushovers in their next league game, before they can really make people stand up and take notice when they travel to Anfield for a mouthwatering midweek fixture just prior to Christmas.
Spurs' daunting runs of seven games then comes to an end with a home game against Leicester City and an away visit to take on Wolves at Molineux either side of Christmas Day.
While it is an extremely tricky run of fixtures that they have to contend with, it is worth pointing out that no team in the league will want to play Spurs when they are on song given their wealth of attacking options.
The upcoming games against Brighton and West Brom can ensure Spurs head into that period in top form and it will be extremely hard to stop them if they are on a roll.
The festive season is always a crucial period in the league season and Mourinho may well change his thinking if Spurs come out it unscathed and in a very good position in the table to really push on in 2021.
Given the struggles of last term as they only clinched a European place on the final day of the season, Tottenham could be about to make their mark once again in the Premier League.
Tottenham's remaining league fixtures in 2020:
1/11 - Brighton & Hove Albion (H)
7/11 - West Brom (A)
21/11 - Man City (H)
29/11 - Chelsea (A)
5/12 - Arsenal (H)
12/12 - Crystal Palace (A)
16/12 - Liverpool (A)
19/12 - Leicester City (H)
26/12 - Wolves (A)
28/12 - Fulham (H)
*Please note fixtures are subject to change due to Tottenham's Europa League commitments and TV scheduling
