Lacking the killer instinct against the Foxes

Europa League football here we come

I hear you shout, “you’ve got to be joking,” and joking I am (and I hope that joke doesn’t become real). Granted two defeats doesn’t mean the house is on fire and everybody should abandon the property. At the moment there is mild smoke coming from one of the saucepans, but plenty of time to throw a cloth over the pan. But if we continue to ignore the puffs of smoke then it could quickly turn into a full-blown calamity.

Like last season, we are witnessing Chelsea and United falling over themselves in giving us a leg up. So looking at it from that perspective it doesn’t look that bad. Looking at it from the top down, not a very good picture. Liverpool are the kingpins, on their tail is City, followed by Leicester, who did us over, Arsenal, West Ham and Bournemouth.

Again, like our last games, the atmosphere was positive. The players felt secure and we were ready for the Leicester game.

Mauricio Pochettino accused his players of “lacking fight” after we surrendered a two-goal lead to draw with Olympiakos in the Champions League midweek (Guardian). He didn’t want the same again, and to be honest, didn’t get the same as we lost against Leicester (not the right way around, granted).

So, because of the Olympiakos game, Pochettino made six changes to the team that started in Greece, with Hugo Lloris unavailable due to his wife giving birth and Dele Alli left out of the squad altogether. Christian Eriksen, Lucas Moura and Eric Dier all had to settle for places on the bench.

Perhaps as a result, we looked disjointed in the early stages and were fortunate not to fall behind when Ndidi’s effort was chalked off. Thirteen minutes later Kane scored, and having most of the possession we thought we were in for a good result. Kane managed to latch on to Son’s back-heel and despite losing his balance under Soyuncu’s challenge, he somehow managed to knock the ball past Jonny Evans before lifting it over Schmeichel into the far corner.

When the second goal went in we thought we had doubled our lead when Aurier drilled a powerful drive into the far corner, but Son was adjudged to have been marginally offside in the build-up and the goal was disallowed (thanks to VAR).

After that decision, Leicester threw bodies forward and restored parity through Pereira, before Maddison struck with five minutes remaining to extend our winless league run away from home to nine games.

The final whistle went, and Leicester were catapulted into third, while we ended up (or down) below Arsenal, in seventh.

I may have joked about Europa, but sometimes jokes can quickly turn into reality. Like the joke that the Titanic was unsinkable and it ended up sinking on its voyage. And a lot more money was spent on the Titanic than the Spurs team (allowing for inflation).

We had 56% of possession, but only four shots on target to their seven.

We are still in the warm period of the year, but once we hit October, followed by November and then Christmas starts raising its head, then that is the time to begin to panic and think of getting out the life rafts, not for the passengers (read supporters) of the Titanic, but for the crew to make a hasty exit, in the process allowing the paying members to drown along with the rest of the ship. A the moment we still in dry dock.

So, on that positive note, I’ll leave you dear Spurs supporters to think positive and remember what Roy T Bennett said (who’s he, precisely!) “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” I am always led by the dreams in my heart, that is why I am Spurs through and through. There is only one tomorrow, and that is marked with a Cockerel on it. A Spurs Cockerel.