Tottenham Hotspur fell to yet another home defeat in the North London Derby today, with Gabriel scoring the only goal of the game from a second-half corner.
Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:
Spurs have been much better from set-pieces so far this season and actually dealt with Arsenal’s well today… until they didn’t.
If Cristian Romero wants to be considered one of the best centre-backs in the world, he needs to be more commanding in the air in his own box. He scores so many at the other end, so he should be showing that same energy at the back.
It does beg the question – why do Arsenal have a specific set-piece coach and Tottenham don’t?
Tottenham’s new number nine looks more than a little rusty in front of goal, which is never ideal when you’re struggling to find the back of the net as a team.
Against Leicester, Solanke should have scored a hat-trick and put the game beyond doubt long before Vardy’s goal. Today, Tottenham’s two best chances in the box fell to him and he hesitated both times. You don’t always get time to take two touches in the box at this level and Spurs need to be more clinical.
The unfortunate truth is that Tottenham are becoming easy to play against. Simply give the Lilywhites the ball and have faith they won’t actually make the most out of their chances. No matter what, you’re always going to get a few of your own against Tottenham’s high line.
Jamie Vardy did that for Leicester. Isak did it for Newcastle. And Arsenal had more than a few chances on the break today. In the end, it was Tottenham’s inability to defend set-pieces that eventually broke the camel’s back.
Teams across the league will be watching and setting up a simple plan to beat Spurs in the coming weeks, unless Ange Postecoglou and the players can make a change.
Last season, Spurs went unbeaten for the first ten matches, winning eight and drawing two. This season, they have just four points from four games. It would be silly to suggest that Tottenham have regressed, but they certainly haven’t made the progress on the pitch many would have expected – especially against the big teams.
Was that really a North London Derby? Where was the passion to actually run through brick walls to earn a win? I haven’t seen such a toothless derby performance in a long time, especially in front of a packed home crowd and against an Arsenal team without two first-choice midfielders. It just never felt like Spurs were even knocking on the door of a goal, nor did it feel like they were particularly bothered by that fact.
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