To Tottenham and Beyond

It was Boxing Day 2019 and, just a matter of weeks after appointing Jose Mourinho as the new manager, Spurs had just beaten Brighton 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Brighton had taken the lead with a first half goal before Harry Kane equalised and Dele Alli completed the comeback. Fast forward to 28th December 2021 and there was a strange sense of deja vu at the St Mary’s stadium. Just a matter of weeks in to Antonio Conte’s tenure, another south coast team take an early lead against Spurs only to be pegged back by a Kane equaliser. On this occasion Spurs were unable to find the winning goal. This was in part due to a controversial VAR offside decision (in a spooky twist the game against Brighton also featured a VAR intervention after Kane scored from a clipped ball over the top by…you guessed it, Harry Winks). However, the bigger issue was Spurs lack of creativity in the final third, as alluded to by Conte afterwards - “To find space it wasn't easy, but at the same time I th...

Tottenham’s recent winning streak in the Premier League came to a frustrating end against a resolute Southampton side at St Mary’s. It will be viewed as a missed opportunity for Spurs who struggled to break down Southampton after they were reduced to ten men in the 40 th minute. Despite Spurs impressive form since the arrival of Antonio Conte, this game highlighted a few areas that the manager will be keen to address: Beating the Press Part of Spurs recent good form can be attributed to their collective team press and winning the ball back high up the pitch - a stark difference between Conte’s Spurs and Spurs under both Jose and Nuno. However, it was evident from the majority of the first half against Southampton, up until the Salisu sending off, that Spurs were struggling to cope when pressed themselves. This often led to Spurs either losing possession – Winks losing the ball on the edge of his own box being one notable example – or resorting to playing longer which would inv...