Tottenham Hotspur made it three straight defeats in the Premier League this evening with a trip to the Emirates, conceding three in all three matches.
Let’s take a look at the five painful lessons we learned:
No real game plan – There was no game plan at the start of the match. A ball-playing midfield three, yet they had clearly been told to sit. Son, Kane and Moura up front, yet all we did was pump hopeless long balls into the Arsenal half. We didn’t even make an effort to win the knockdowns. And the defending, well let’s just leave it at a lack of a game plan. Shocking and heartbreaking to watch.
Kane needs a Premier League goal – Harry Kane has the ability to claw you back into games, or at least put you ahead. Today isn’t the best example, but the chance he had early in the second half would have made things interesting. The run was perfect, the touch was perfect, all he had to do was lift it into the net and he put it wide. He looks like he used to in the first month of the season where he couldn’t buy a goal.
Time for Cristian Romero – I completely understood the logic in keeping Dier and Sanchez together after their three consecutive clean sheets at the start of the season. That made sense to me. I was happy to ride that wave until it came crashing down, then make the change. That time has now come. Cristian Romero and Eric Dier has to be the partnership next week.
Nuno under pressure – While I do not like to lump pressure on a manager so early into his tenure, there is no denying the verdict on social media. A lot of people are already calling for his head and he will not shake that easily, especially if he continues to play rather defensive and uninspiring football. Nuno needs to change things up or risk going past the point of no return.
Honourable mentions – While the vast majority were disgraceful today, I want to at least highlight the ones who played well. I thought Hugo Lloris could do no more, he made a fair number of saves and stood no chance with the goals. Oliver Skipp and Bryan Gil were superb after coming on. Lucas Moura at least tried to make stuff happen. I suppose Son and Reguilon deserve a very brief nod for the goal, but they were also part of the problem in the first half.
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