Tottenham's dire 2019 form cause for concern as Arsenal clash looms

A long ball over the top, dismal defending and the ball in the back of the net. It was a result that few expected, but when Joelinton fired past Hugo Lloris to send Newcastle to a 1-0 win over Tottenham on Sunday, the nerves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium kicked in. The summer afforded Spurs plenty of optimism. Deadwood was shipped out, the club broke their transfer record to sign Tanguy Ndombele and, on deadline day, added Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon to the ranks. 

It may have taken until late on for the club to break Aston Villa down on the opening weekend of the campaign, but having followed that up with a 2-2 draw at Manchester City, supporters were confident that they’d make it seven points from nine available when they welcomed Newcastle to the capital over the weekend. It felt like a same-old, same-old performance as the fans departed for home before the full time whistle on Sunday. 

Indeed, 2019 hasn’t been the best for Spurs. The Champions League run to the final, one tinged with luck and last gasp winners, masked an underlying issue at the club. Spurs have now won just four of their last 15 Premier League matches. That’s relegation form, not one for a team with title aspirations. 

“Things happened behind the scenes at Tottenham, which I don’t really want to go into, but I needed to move on from that,” Kieran Trippier said following his move to Atletico Madrid last month. While the right-back is rightly reluctant to divulge further, issues off the pitch may be starting to affect Spurs’ performances on it. 

While we’re only three games into the new season, meaning it is too quick to jump to immediate conclusions, defeat to Arsenal on Sunday will only add to the growing concerns among the fanbase. Win, of course, and everything will be forgotten, but Spurs have failed to win their last seven away league matches, while Arsenal have lost only one of their last 19 Premier League outings at the Emirates. All signs point to a home win in the North London Derby. 

Unfortunately for the club and head coach Mauricio Pochettino, he doesn’t have the fatigue that came with the World Cup to fall back on this season. The Argentine worked wonders to guide Spurs to a top four finish, even accounting for a cataclysmic downturn in form from mid-February onwards. However, it also coincided with both Mousa Dembele’s departure and an injury crisis in midfield that forced Christian Eriksen to operate deeper and robbed the club of their key creator in an area of the pitch he can do most damage. 

Take the weekend’s defeat to Newcastle, for example. In previous years, Spurs would have brushed aside opponents that sat deep to soak up pressure and hit them on the counter attack. Some of their best performances came against these sides, particularly in the season leading up to the demolition of White Hart Lane, as Spurs dropped just four points at home having battered the likes of Bournemouth, Watford, West Brom and Stoke. 

This, of course, was due to both Dembele playing at his prime and Eriksen operating in the final third behind Harry Kane and alongside Dele Alli and Son Heung-Min. The former’s departure and Eriksen's ongoing transfer speculation meant Spurs having been struggling to unlock staunch defences as they previously did so at a canter. 

Part of the reason they at long last did so against Aston Villa on the opening weekend of the campaign was due to Eriksen’s second half introduction and Ndombele. The Frenchman joined in an effort to finally replace Dembele in the middle of the park and while the youngster doesn’t boast the same dribbling capabilities of the Belgian - to be honest, which central midfielder does? - Ndombele is the closest Spurs will come to moving on from the former Fulham man. 

However, Eriksen’s prolonged contract issues and long-term links with a move to Spain, coupled with Jan Vertonghen’s expulsion from the starting XI despite Davinson Sanchez’s current shortcomings, means Spurs have looked far from solid at both ends of the pitch. Pochettino has admitted the squad is unsettled and it clearly shows with Spurs disjointed in attack and cumbersome at the back. 

It’s also a case that ‘Levynomics’ is beginning to catch up on the squad. The Spurs chairman always looks for the best deal at the club, but six senior players’ contracts expire over the next two years. Those include Eriksen and Vertonghen, along with Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko and Eric Dier and it’s possible that the harmony within the squad has taken a hit as the players seek clarification over the futures. 

With the European window yet to close, it’s possible that four of those six players could yet leave for pastures new, in what would a huge blow for Spurs. With that in mind, Pochettino’s comments on the squad being unsettled carries weight. He, along with supporters, can’t wait for the European transfer window to close on Monday and with it, find out who is to remain with the squad until January, at the very least. 

It’ll result in a more cohesive unit and one that supporters have become accustomed to, but herein lies another issue. Much of the same personnel working under the same manager since 2014 means Pochettino’s messages don’t carry the same weight as they once did. The players used to work hard in every area of the pitch, hounding opponents to force errors and win back possession, but that same drive looks to have departed the squad. Whereas Spurs would once approach games at full throttle, they’re struggling to push out of third gear. 

The summer arrivals of Ndombele, Lo Celso and Sessegnon will eventually reinvigorate the squad, and the trio will take time to settle, but in a cut throat business of football where results are of the utmost importance, the former duo especially will need to adjust to the rigours of English football quickly, particularly if Eriksen does leave for pastures new over the coming days. 

The trip to Arsenal, then, couldn’t have come at a worse time for Spurs and Pochettino. Yes, Arsenal too lost at the weekend, falling to a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool, but the possibility of seeing the Gunners’ front three of Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in action is one that should terrify their north London rivals. That said, with the odds against them, Sunday presents Spurs with the ideal moment to bounce back from a disappointing defeat to Newcastle, yet a second successive loss will only add to the woes engulfing the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at present.