Tottenham’s win against Crystal Palace at the end of October sent them to the top of the Premier League with eight wins from ten. It’s very different now.
Ange Postecoglou had seemingly built a side to potentially compete for the title, but the cracks have now started to show.
Spurs’ frustrations were clear to see as they failed to win once againGetty
West Ham won 2-1 on Thursday night away at Spurs, who have now failed to win in their last five matches.
A home defeat against Chelsea kickstarted their decline, with Wolves and Aston Villa claiming wins against them in the following fixtures.
Dejan Kulusevski’s late header against Manchester City sealed a huge point for them at the weekend, suggesting Spurs were back on track. But they couldn’t build on it.
Cristian Romero gave them a first-half lead before goals from Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse completed West Ham’s turnaround.
The takeaways from this latest result offer more grim reading for Spurs fans after what was such an impressive start to the season.
Postecoglou’s side are the first in Premier League history to fail to win five games on the bounce despite taking the lead in all of them.
“It’s unacceptable,” Spurs captain Heung-min Son said after being told the statistic in his interview with Amazon Prime Video Sport. “I think players should take responsibility, this is unacceptable.
“The fans don’t deserve this, especially when you play at home, when you go 1-0 up early on you should play with even more energy but we didn’t, and that’s why we lost.”
Postecoglou was also hugely critical of his side as they wait yet again for another winAFP
Son added: “West Ham have always been tough to play against so we knew what was coming.
“But we were soft, and especially in the Premier League, even when you’re winning 2-0, 3-0, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the end. 1-0 is not enough, you have to try to kill the game.”
Both of West Ham’s goals came from Spurs defensive errors, with the first seeing Bowen making the most of a double deflection to score.
The second came from Destiny Udogie’s poor pass back to Guglielmo Vicario, with Ward-Prowse netting an open goal just seconds later.
Postecoglou was left far from impressed in the manner in which they conceded and is aware of their inability to hold onto leads.
“It’s another game where we’ve dominated a game of football but we haven’t taken advantage,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“I thought we were poor in both areas with our finishing and also both goals we conceded were terrible.”
He added: “We just lacked conviction in our shooting. It’s not to do with tiredness. People say we’re playing good football but we’re not showing any real conviction in the way we’re playing.
“People say we’re playing nice stuff but that’s not what I’m about. I want to win. We’re right at the beginning of what we’re trying to do and this only gives me further fuel.”
During the opening ten games of the season, Spurs were playing like a side who were favourites win all three points on each occasion.
Their style of play remains impressive to watch but recent failure to hold onto leads has proven to undo their hard work.
