As Christmas Day and the new year approach, a number of sides will be revising their preseason targets -- and Tottenham should certainly be among them.
At the beginning of the campaign a top-four finish looked a big ask and manager Mauricio Pochettino and his players were loath to announce a specific goal, preferring to talk in vague terms about improving on last season and finishing as high as possible.
Now there is no escaping the fact that Spurs have a big opportunity to qualify for the Champions League, and to hide away from that would show a rather concerning lack of belief and ambition.
It could hardly be going much better for the north London outfit. They have got away with their gambles following an underwhelming end to the summer transfer window -- Eric Dier has proved to be an effective holding midfielder and Harry Kane has stayed fit while scoring 11 goals for his club.
Meanwhile, Chelsea's dramatic implosion has left the door to the Champions League wide open, and Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton are all struggling to maintain consistency. Indeed, all three teams lost at the weekend. Everton have the excuse that their 3-2 home defeat came against the surprise league leaders Leicester City, but Liverpool's 3-0 loss at Watford shows they are still finding their feet under Jurgen Klopp, and United's 2-1 reverse against another newly-promoted team, Norwich, at Old Trafford was a big upset.
Liverpool and Chelsea have already changed their managers this season and Louis van Gaal is now under real pressure at United after six games without a win, while Manuel Pellegrini's long-term future at Manchester City is in doubt after Pep Guardiola announced he will be leaving Bayern Munich at the end of the season.
The managerial changes and speculation suit Tottenham perfectly, given they are in a rare and valuable period of stability under Pochettino, and they will spend Christmas Day in fourth place.
The challenge now is to ensure they capitalise fully on the madness around them, and their rivals' weaknesses and distractions, because they may not get a better chance for a while. After all, their nearest challengers for a top-four spot, after Man United, are Crystal Palace, Watford and West Ham.
Just imagine if, after five years of being the frustrated nearly men and getting so close to a Champions League return -- particularly in 2012 and 2013 -- a new team gatecrashed the party and grabbed a place at Europe's top table, with all of the resulting financial benefits, and it wasn't Tottenham.
This season could prove to be a glorious success or a particularly bitter disappointment and the upcoming two games against Norwich and Watford -- who were both in the second tier last season -- give Spurs a big opportunity to go into 2016 dreaming of how high they could go, rather than fearing what they might miss out on.
Of course, it was Norwich's victory at Old Trafford on Saturday that allowed Tottenham to leapfrog United into the top four. Now Pochettino and his players must ensure they don't return the favour and suffer their own slip-up against Alex Neil's men at White Hart Lane on Boxing Day, especially as Spurs lost their last home game against a Newcastle side who, like Norwich, are lying in the bottom five places.
Kane has described that defeat as "a kick up the [backside] that we probably needed" and, on the surface, Saturday's 2-0 victory at Southampton suggested the lesson has been learned as the north Londoners secured their first win in four league games.
However, anyone who watched the first half hour at St Mary's may well have been a little alarmed. Spurs were lucky to be level when Kane broke the deadlock with his fine solo goal in the 40th minute. And, while Tottenham supporters will rightly praise the striker's positivity and skill and hail Kyle Walker and Dele Alli for the second goal that promptly followed, Southampton fans will justifiably lament their side's defending and argue that both goals were entirely avoidable.
Spurs may be in the top four, and their season may hold great promise, but they have lacked creativity in a number of league games recently and have not been at their fluid, incisive best in the top flight since the impressive 4-1 home win over West Ham a month ago, on Nov. 22.
They will certainly need to make a quicker start on Boxing Day than they did at Southampton because Norwich have been awkward visitors for most of the top-half teams this season. In addition to their latest success at Old Trafford, they have earned draws at Liverpool (1-1), West Ham (2-2) and Everton (1-1), and they were only beaten by one goal in their defeats at Chelsea (1-0) and Manchester City (2-1).
This is therefore a key test of whether Spurs are better equipped than their rivals, and whether they can maintain their place in the top four over the coming weeks and months.
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