Does it matter that we're relying on our home form?

We're making Craven Cottage a fortress again - but will it be enough to achieve our ambitions?

Dom said something on the pod this week that got me thinking: our form this season resembles the days under Chris Coleman, Roy Hodgson, and Martin Jol. That is in the sense that Craven Cottage became a bit of a fortress, but we couldn’t win on the road for love nor money.

Granted, we’re only 12 games in, but it’s pretty well documented that 13 of our 14 points have come at home, with our solitary away point coming on the opening day against Brighton.

The period Dom referred to spanned a full decade, from Coleman’s first full season at the helm in 2003/04 to Jol’s final campaign (which he didn’t finish) in 2013/14. It was a phenomenon that transcended coaches, styles, opponents and eras, but the one constant was the duality of our home and away form.

The biggest takeaway from that period for me was: you can survive, but you can’t thrive. You’re effectively treading water - and when you do that for too long, eventually you drown. Which is exactly what happened in 2014.

During that decade we won just 33 away games compared to 94 at Craven Cottage. And during that decade, the fewest games we won at home in a single season was 2013/14 (five), when the gig was finally up.

Many of these years were spent battling in the bottom half of the table - the nadir being 2005/06 and 2006/07, when we won away just once in consecutive campaigns (it might have been two in 05/06 were it not for the infamous Sunderland snowstorm).

But even during periods of success we found travelling difficult. Under Roy in 2009/10, our only win of the season came on the opening day against Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Impressively, we managed to win 11 at home that term - not to mention a famous win or two in our Europa League campaign.

But therein lies the issue: we had to win more than half of our home fixtures in a single season just to finish 12th. And the way the top flight has evolved in the 15 years since, that’s an even tougher ask today.

We won 11 at home the season before, in 2008/09, on route to our record high finish of seventh, thanks to chalking up two more away wins, and - crucially - eight draws. So that’s just the three victories and seven stalemates needed this term if we’re to look at Europe, then. And just 13 games to do it in!

I’m being facetious, obviously. I guess what I’ve spent the past 500 words trying to say (apart from taking a short jaunt down memory lane) is: we’ll be fine this season if we keep shutting out sides at the Cottage. But it’s on our rivals’ home turf that the real gains can be made.

Spurs have won just one of their six home games so far this term - they are there for the taking. And if we add some away wins to our sack of home points, this season could suddenly start getting really interesting. You Whites.