Tottenham Hotspur interim head coach Igor Tudor was given a brutal introduction to life in the Premier League on Sunday. Spurs lost 4-1 to their bitter rivals Arsenal, for the second time this season, in Tudor’s first game in charge.
After an encouraging first-half performance which saw Randal Kolo Muani equalise 122 seconds after Eberechi Eze had given Arsenal the lead, Spurs struggled to keep up. Viktor Gyokeres scored in the 47th minute and, apart from a goal from Kolo Muani which was contentiously disallowed for a foul on Gabriel, Spurs never looked like mounting a serious comeback.
The same problems which plagued Thomas Frank’s eight-month reign still exist under Tudor.
In his post-match press conference, Tudor said that the teams were in “two totally different worlds” on a “psychological and physical” level. The Croatian then mentioned in an interview that his side displayed a lot of “bad habits”.
Here, The Athletic breaks down what the 47-year-old could have been referring to.
Poor communication
Frank used a back three for most of Tottenham’s games in 2026. It is a system which Tudor had success with at Juventus, Udinese and Lazio and he stuck to it on Sunday.
Bukayo Saka did not score for Arsenal but he was one of the game’s most influential players. The England international capitalised on the uncertainty between left-sided centre-back Micky van de Ven and left wing-back Djed Spence over who was supposed to be marking him. When Van de Ven followed Saka high up the pitch, he vacated a huge pocket of space. If Spence pursued Saka, Jurrien Timber had more time on the ball which is what happened in the build-up to Gyokeres’ first goal.
Saka had an opportunity to score in the first half, which came from a simple through ball from Arsenal’s full-back, Piero Hincapie. Just before Hincapie strikes the ball, you can see Spence point at Saka but he is behind Van de Ven. Spence should take control of the situation because he can see everything. Saka sneaks in between the pair and Guglielmo Vicario makes a drastic save.
The exact same failings happened on the opposite side of the pitch. Joao Palhinha jumps up from his position as the right-sided centre-back to challenge Hincapie. Gyokeres drifts into the space he left, receives the ball and drives at an isolated Radu Dragusin before whipping a shot which flies just past the post. There is no need for Palhinha to step out and overcommit.
It is remarkable that Spurs have played Arsenal twice this season and lined up with a back three on both occasions but conceded eight goals on aggregate.
Sloppiness in possession
Xavi Simons has been one of Tottenham’s best players over the last couple of months but he was anonymous against Arsenal. The Netherlands international was dispossessed seven times — the most of any player in a Premier League game this season.
There were lots of sloppy passes and he was lucky not to be punished in the first half when he gave the ball away to Leandro Trossard on the edge of the box. Simons often found himself crowded out by Arsenal’s defenders because nobody was supporting him.
This was a common theme throughout. Spurs made bad decisions on the ball or lost it cheaply due to a lack of options. Spence was given a warning sign in the 59th minute when he lost the ball to Cristhian Mosquera deep in his own half and the move led to Vicario denying Saka. Spence was surrounded by Mosquera, Saka and Eze and should have passed the ball to Van de Ven but he was put into that difficult situation by a poor pass from Palhinha. Spence found himself in a similar position and lost the ball in the build-up to Arsenal’s fourth goal.
Dragusin’s bizarre header towards Yves Bissouma that led to Eze’s second goal was another scenario where Spurs showed a lack of composure in possession.
Arguably the worst example came just before half-time. Bissouma and Spence stole the ball from Saka, found Xavi and he popped it off to Conor Gallagher. Martin Zubimendi is cutting off a return pass to Simons and no one else is prepared to help Gallagher out. A backwards pass to Pape Matar Sarr is laced with risk because of Timber’s presence. Gallagher ends up spinning in a circle before he is surrounded by Trossard, Saka and Timber. Bissouma and Spence are occupying the same space.
It is no wonder that Tudor said: “Even with the ball, a lack of confidence is very evident in the team,” after the game.
Inability to take control
Tottenham have struggled all season to find a natural rhythm to their Premier League matches. Compared to their Champions League performances, where Spurs have shown levels of control throughout the league phase, against admittedly inferior opposition, Tottenham have inexplicably wavered between turgid and chaotic. Despite the managerial change, the north London derby defeat was another example — adding to a list that includes both fixtures against Newcastle United, defeats by Bournemouth and Fulham, and a home draw against Manchester City — of a heart-in-mouth affair from the first whistle.
Granted, Arsenal are the league leaders, and not every team will be as adept at picking apart Tottenham’s defence, but there were alarming signs in the opening minutes that a lack of structure was there to be exploited. Tudor may have been pleased with the man-to-man approach, with the Croatian detailing his desire to see the team be aggressive and front-footed in his early interviews as Spurs boss, but Arsenal rotated around Spurs’ defence to great effect, with Saka’s running in behind giving David Raya an attractive option to play long.
Vicario rushing out to prevent Saka from breaking through on a one-v-one and heading the ball towards Trossard, causing a scramble in the box, signalled yet another game where Spurs seemed frazzled from the start.
In Tudor’s defence, he’s working with a severely injury-depleted side. Competing against a near-full-strength Arsenal without three-quarters of what you might expect to be his ideal starting line-up is a mountainous challenge for any coach, never mind one taking his first game in charge. Those conditions perhaps lend themselves to chaos, and there were moments in the first half, notably Kolo Muani’s goal and Gabriel’s pull on the French striker on the edge of the box, which was waved away by the referee, where Spurs’ chaotic approach in forward areas granted potential goalscoring opportunities.
Whether it was a tactical decision by Frank or not, Spurs’ willingness to throw players forward late in games has rescued results on several occasions — and it goes some way toward explaining why Cristian Romero has five goals and four assists in the league and the Champions League this term. But while “control” for Premier League clubs is perhaps more difficult to attain now than ever, Spurs must do a better job at limiting their habit of inviting chaos in matches.
Lack of tactical and emotional discipline
Few will dispute Van de Ven’s world-class ability to recover, but occasionally his electric pace cannot compensate for positioning errors or broader structural issues. On the other side, Palhinha’s tackling ability can result in unlikely turnovers, allowing for fast break opportunities — but it can also leave him out of position, with quick forwards running in behind. That’s why a habit of tactical indiscipline, which plagued the latter months of Ange Postecoglou’s tenure in the league and became more prominent from November onwards under Frank, must be ironed out by Tudor.
In the build-up to Arsenal’s first goal, Spurs had an identifiable defensive shape, with all three of the opposition’s attacking bodies in the box accounted for.
Then, when Saka beat Sarr on the right wing and approached the box to cross, Kolo Muani left Eze to drift into danger, with the ball finding the England international to score. If Tottenham are to improve defensively under the new coach, they cannot afford players to take their eye off their assignments.
There is also the wider issue of discipline as a whole, with Spurs leading the league in discipline points (75), 10 more than Brighton & Hove Albion in second. Tottenham added to their total with three yellow cards against Arsenal, slightly above their league-worst average of 2.44 per game. Tudor will no doubt be keen to ensure Spurs do not lose any more players to suspension, with Romero still serving a four-match ban having received his second red card of the season in the 2-0 defeat by Manchester United.
Failure to prevent shots from the edge of the box
Just when we thought long-distance shooting was a thing of the past, shots from outside the box have spiked this season, with a notable increase in their overperformance compared to xG.