WHEN the football calendar condenses around the festive period, a season’s worth of drama can be crammed into a single week. That’s all it took for Tottenham Hotspur to go from table-topping title contenders to sixth place and floundering.
The slide began with points dropped against Crystal Palace, a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park, prior to which they had been Premier League leaders, edging tentatively ahead of Liverpool. Then a midweek loss to the champions was followed by defeat again, this time at home to Leicester City, and suddenly Spurs had slipped six points from top. Chelsea’s 3-0 thumping of West Ham on Monday night saw Tottenham kicked yet further back, into sixth.
The losses to Liverpool and Leicester marked the first back-to-back defeats of the season for Jose Mourinho’s men, who had, up until the draw against Palace, showed the hallmarks of ruthlessness, organisation and efficiency of the Portuguese manager’s great sides of the past.
Mourinho had silenced many of his most ardent critics with the way Spurs had performed in the 2020-21 season’s early running. Those who considered him past him prime and out of touch with the way modern elite-level coaching has evolved had been forced to commend a job well done. He had even rediscovered his propensity to coach and improve the players at his disposal, his failure to do so in recent years having been a particular bone of contention for his detractors.
Midfielder Tanguy Ndombele struggled last season after a club-record move from Lyon, yet this term he has been one of the league’s best in his position. Harry Kane, worn down by the overwork of past campaigns, has – with nine Premier League goals and 10 assists – looked back to his best. And Son Heung-min – the division’s second-highest scorer, with 11 goals from 14 starts – has taken his finishing and movement to new levels.
But the margins are inherently thin with Mourinho’s cautious style, as the Liverpool loss exposed. Tottenham were on the verge of securing a creditable point at Anfield that would have turned up the volume of talk about a possible title charge. One split-second lapse, though, as Roberto Firmino rose uncontested to head home a stoppage-time winner, and Spurs were staring at a setback.
Tottenham were top of the league six days ago pic.twitter.com/jNmLK3zRSL
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 21, 2020
The nature of the Leicester loss, and the fact it meant Spurs had gone three league games without a win, was more concerning. The organisation and discipline of previous months was lacking, as a Jamie Vardy penalty and Toby Alderweireld own goal evidenced. A James Maddison strike, ruled out by VAR for the most marginal of offsides, could have further embarrassed Tottenham, who were outshot 17 to eight by their visitors.
"The fact that we didn't start well, is not because I didn't tell the players not to start well, don't get me wrong," Mourinho said after the game. "I didn't tell any player, 'Don't be proactive,' or 'Be reactive,' but I admit, we did start bad.
"I'm frustrated when I lose but it is not like there is a target that cannot be achieved. Our target is to win the next match and the previous matches, they don't interfere in our target for the next match. The next match we want to win, like we wanted to win today.
"We want to win matches and what happened in the match before shouldn't have an impact on the next one, which is what I think is going to happen. You have to try always to win the next match."
There are greater indignities than to be beaten by Liverpool and Leicester, currently, according to the table, the top two teams in the Premier League. But Tottenham had, up until last week, been proving themselves equal.
Worryingly for Tottenham, old habits are creeping back in. Full-back Serge Aurier has been enjoying a much-improved season, cutting out the costly errors that have so exasperated fans since his arrival from Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. But the Ivory Coast international clumsily gave away a penalty against Leicester. Mourinho’s post-match comments, although positive in looking ahead, entailed thinly veiled blame-throwing, deflecting responsibility away from himself. And Spurs as a unit are once again starting to crack just as they were beginning to be taken seriously as contenders.
With a trip to Molineux to take on Nuno Espiito Santo’s formidable, if inconsistent, Wolves side next up, the festive fixture list isn’t easing off on Spurs. It is in moments such as these, though, where Mourinho needs to prove reports of his resurgence – and of Tottenham’s title challenge – have not been greatly exaggerated.
Tottenham to win the league (18/1) To finish in the Top 4 (21/20)
