Not for the first time this season, watching Spurs labour their way to a damaging result from a disappointing non-performance at their magnificent stadium that has become a favourite for visiting teams up and down the ladn, one was left with the thought: what exactly is the point of Spurs this season?
We’re not being facetious here. We really want to know. What are they trying to achieve? What do the fans want them to achieve? What does a successful season look like for this frequently ridiculous but currently just apparently quite uncertain and directionless club?
We ask, because for a long time now the answers to those questions have been easy. For years it was ‘Qualify for the Champions League’. And then as the trophy-drought became ever more banterous and all-consuming, the answer became ‘Win a trophy’.
But now… we’re not sure. And we don’t think the fans are sure. And we don’t think the club is sure. And we don’t think it’s at all a coincidence that Spurs’ most apathetic and unengaging performances have all come at home, where this collective uncertainty is more immediately apparent.
There is a clear disconnect. The clarity of purpose that was visible even as they plummeted down the league table last season in single-minded pursuit of ending that long wait for silverware has gone.
Spurs have drifted through every one of their home games this season. They beat Burnley comfortably enough on the opening day, but even then they were quite strikingly poor between Richarlison’s opening goal and stunning second. And they have been appallingly bad now for three straight home games in the league, in which their only point was one they didn’t deserve at all against bottom-of-the-table Wolves.
Bournemouth outplayed them completely, and now an Aston Villa team without an away Premier League win this season have turned up, fallen behind within five minutes, and yet still emerged unflustered and deserving winners while most pointedly having to do very, very little across the 90 minutes to take all three points with them back to Birmingham.
Both Villa’s goals had quality within them. Yet both were enormously assisted by Spurs just really not looking that bothered. Morgan Rogers was given every encouragement and acres of space to shoot in the first half, three defenders watching on and Guglielmo Vicario obligingly positioning himself so poorly that the England man’s target was about half a goal wide.
The eventual winner contained three moments of brilliance from Villa players. Matty Cash’s raking pass, Lucas Digne’s instant control, and Emi Buendia’s cutting run and precise finish. All three elements were incredibly difficult, high-tariff pieces of elite skill. But all three made far easier by the total absence of interference or involvement from Spurs. There was just no pressure applied to any of it at any stage.
And then just no answer from Spurs in the nominal pursuit of an equaliser.
It is also feels like there’s no coincidence to the general pattern of the game. Spurs’ best periods – indeed, their only non-sh*t periods of the entire game – came at the start of both halves. There is willing and enterprise and endeavour in those early exchanges, but then gradually control is ceded, interest is lost and their opponents step in.
Spurs got away with the exact same pattern in the 1-0 Champions League win over Villarreal last month. Today they did not.
Far too often, the attacking gameplan appears to entirely revolve around getting the ball to Mohammed Kudus and hoping he does a madness. Don’t get us wrong; it’s a very correct option for them to have within a wider attacking strategy, because this is a man assuredly capable of quite frequent madnesses. But it should not and cannot be the entirety of it.
Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons are all struggling. Any or all of them may eventually come good, because there is talent there, but right now they all appear to be basically the same player trying to do the same things and being not quite good or confident enough to do so.
There is no focal point to the attack, something neither Richarlison nor Randal Kolo Muani were able to remedy here as second-half substitutes.
It’s been a long wait for Kolo Muani’s Premier League debut, and his most memorable moment was a complete air shot inside the penalty area.
Beyond some individual Kudus brilliance, Spurs’ only other viable route to goal appeared to be via Kevin Danso long throws, something that wasn’t even in the original plan for this game with the Austrian a late replacement in the starting line-up for Cristian Romero.
Thomas Frank’s response to Tottenham falling behind in a game they had ample chance to take full control of in the first half was to seemingly throw random footballers at the pitch in the hope something stuck. Brennan Johnson at left-back felt distinctly Angeball, and we all know what everyone thinks of that now.
Spurs’ miserable home form predates Frank by a significant amount – that’s now, absurdly, just three wins from 18 Premier League home games since Ange Postecoglou’s side thrashed today’s opponents 4-1 almost a year ago – and none of the wider problems are particularly his fault.
But his presence as a new manager is another factor in the lack of clarity about what Spurs are or even what they are trying to be right now.
The departure of Son Heung-min in the summer was correct and timely given his diminishing returns at this level, but it also severed one of the last real connections between the team and the supporters.
With Son gone, the last great connection to the Poch teams is lost, and with it also the last real hero for the fans with that kind of deep, special relationship that can only develop over time.
Son wasn’t ‘one of their own’, but he was – perhaps to his own cost in terms of conspicuous career success – fully and entirely COYS. He was and is a Spurs man, arguably more so even than Harry Kane. It was obvious what it meant to Son when he lifted the Europa League trophy, and equally obvious that it meant more to him than any of the other Spurs players.
Kudus is becoming a fan favourite, while others may yet achieve that status, but there’s a real risk that Kudus becomes a kind of David Ginola figure; a hero not because he’s great (though he is) but because he offers the one glimmer of light in a sea of churning shod.
Spurs’ season is not going to be anywhere near as bad as the worst bits of 24/25, but nor does it look like being anywhere near as good as the best bits. There are no echoes of glory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and no clear route to their discovery. Or even what they are supposed to be.
