Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 4-1 defeat to Leicester

Tottenham Hotspur followed up on their impressive 1-0 victory over Man City last weekend with a dismal 4-1 defeat to Leicester City today. Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:

The same old problems – It was the same old issues for Spurs today. Individual errors and poor defending/positioning at the back halted a promising opening 20 minutes and then completely derailed the game entirely. The down side, inconsistency across the season. The upside, surely Spurs have to invest heavily in the centre of defence this summer.

Bentancur injury – When Rodrigo went down holding his left knee, it didn’t look good. The midfielder was clearly in a whole lot of pain until they gave him some adrenaline on the pitch. Fortunately, he was able to hobble off instead of taking the stretcher, and even seemed to want to come back on at one point, but I fear he may be sidelined for a good while.

Skipp and Sarr – A side story of the Bentancur injury is that Tottenham will now likely have to field a midfield duo of Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr against AC Milan in the Champions League this week. Bentancur and Bissouma are both out injured, while Hojbjerg is suspended for the match.

Top four chance wasted – Tottenham had the chance to crack their way back into the top four this afternoon, albeit potentially temporarily. A win would have taken them above Newcastle United for at least a couple of hours, pulling them right back in the top four race. Alas, it feels as if there is still a good amount of ground to make up now.

Pedro Porro debut – It was a debut to forget for Porro today, not just for the score but also his personal performance. The right-wing-back looked a little lost positionally, perhaps because he is now yet used to Conte’s system or the pace of the Premier League. There were a couple of bright spark moments on the ball, but in general he overplayed with the ball at his feet and looked a liability in defence.