Tottenham Hotspur lost 3-2 to Arsenal in a Premier League match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last Sunday. They then followed it up with a 2-0 defeat to another London-based side, Chelsea, on Thursday. The Spurs suffered three straight defeats and are now fifth in the league table with 60 points from 34 matches.
Fourth-placed Aston Villa is seven points ahead of them, but has played one game more. Tottenham will hope that they are able to finish inside the top four to be able to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Dominating the Match Against Arsenal Not Enough for Tottenham
Ange Postecoglou’s team dominated the proceedings in the North London derby, but fell behind 3-0 in the first half itself. It was down to some very ordinary defending from set-pieces, with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg scoring an own goal from a corner to give the Gunners the lead.
Tottenham dominated ball-possession and had more than 70% of it at one point in the first half. However, the Gunners’ ability to hit through counter-attacks helped them score the second goal. The Spurs rallied in the second half and scored a couple of goals to reduce the deficit, but it was not enough in the end for them.
This has been a feature of their team this season, as they have entertained spectators with their attractive and aggressive brand of football. However, a number of sides have hurt them through counter-attacks, with Chelsea doing so most notably in their 4-1 win last November.
With neither Yves Bissouma nor Pape Matar Sarr enjoying a rich vein of form since coming back from the African Cup of Nations, Tottenham have had to play Højbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur as their double-pivot. This has made them a bit vulnerable defensively.
However, Spurs have mostly suffered while playing a high line, as James Maddison and Son-Heung Min have not been able to produce the kind of form of late that they did during the initial stages of the season.
Even Timo Werner, who is on loan at Tottenham from RB Leipzig, has scored only two goals in 15 matches for them so far. Richarlison, their other forward, has fared better with 11 goals in 3- matches, which is still not good enough for a top player in a top club. Moreover, Pedro Porro, who has had a decent season so far, should have combined more effectively with Dejan Kulusevski through the right flank against Arsenal.
Tottenham Still Has Tough Matches to Play
Spurs will still have to play against Liverpool and Manchester City, each of which could prove to be very tough oppositions, Manchester City will come hard at them, as Guardiola’s men aspire to win their sixth league title under the tutelage of the Spaniard.
A very tough set of last few matches could potentially further derail the campaign for Postecoglou’s men. Ideally, they would not want to lose in any of those matches to make sure that they are in the hunt for a top-four finish. However, even three draws in those three matches might not serve their purpose, as far as overtaking Aston Villa is concerned. Hence, we could still see them going gung-ho in their remaining fixtures to notch up as many wins as possible.