The Virtue of Patience

I said on Friday that if Tottenham Halfspur lost this match that we'd be a very glum group going into the new week. Defeat to Arsenal sees us lose crucial ground for top 4. Fulham away and City twice on the horizon? The picture might look very different in a month's time and not in a good way. The FA Cup is a winnable prize, so long as our betters are too engrossed in their fight at the top of the table. And February provides us with a chance to pad our wallets in Milan. Arsenal have avenged their heartbreak in May; they've resigned us to near-apathy. Let's skip the wallowing (and try not to kick Aaron Ramsdale in the head too many times) and get straight into it.

We're a side notoriously wretched from kick off. Second Half FC we're called. In truth, some of Tottenham's best moments across the whole 90 came inside the first 10 minutes simply because we could pass the ball to team-mates and had the look of a team that belonged on the pitch at the very least. They were a Tottenham team on a tight-rope, whom started out their walk okay, stayed fine for about 10 minutes and then fell hard from the safety net and into an abyss. The safety net's name is Hugo Lloris and has actually captained France to World Cup glory.

Has anyone ever seen such a portent of doom as the loose touch from Lloris that resulted in the Nketiah's pinball opportunism? It should have been 1-0 there and then. Lloris in truth atoned for his error with an important save. But any Spurs fan who's witnessed this near-trademark capitulation before knew well enough that the next opportunity was right around the corner. Saka's shot was hit with venom, Sessegnon can do more to prevent him the sight on goal, it was arguably deflected... say whatever you like. It should never find the net. Not if you have a goalkeeper on your team.

In truth, this is nothing new with Lloris. Today's performance, today's match-surrendering blunders (he did the same at the Emirates if you dare recall), do not raise questions over our goalkeeper; they provide answers. He needs to be replaced if Tottenham are to have any hope of kicking on as a club. He's been a marvelous servant and still performs to a high standard on the international scene. He is worshiped in France, but if anyone needs to know why Hugo has been kept on rolling one-year contracts, there's your reason. At this level, week-in, week-out, is at the very best unreliable and a problem area of the squad.

The next half an hour was one of customary incapability from Tottenham. We are used to seeing Spurs unable to assert themselves before their half-time snacks. But in fairness I think today might be more about awarding Arsenal credit than assigning blame to Tottenham. They were overrun, overwhelmed and thoroughly schooled by Arteta's men. Every tackle Tottenham made fell to an Arsenal foot. Everywhere their players went, with or without the ball, they found space and found each other. They broke our lines, they broke our plan and within 40 minutes they'd totally broken the spirit of the home crowd. Here's what we've known for months summed up in an afternoon; Arsenal are a team reading from the same page, a machine with every cog spinning to perfection and a force much greater than ours. At times Tottenham could hardly keep the ball within those white lines they call 'the pitch'.

Their dominance was rewarded with a second goal on the 35 minute mark. Lloris can easily be blamed again for a sloppy and rather hopeful kick up-field. But then, not kicking the ball long was getting him into trouble anyway - he wasn't exactly spoiled for options with our attackers moving like the procession at a turtle's funeral, but more on them later. It is not the fault of Hugo Lloris that Saka had got in behind Sessegnon again to drive Arsenal up the pitch. It is not the fault of Hugo Lloris that Saka found Odegaard with more time and space than Doctor Who. It is not even the fault of Hugo Lloris that the Norwegian's eventual shot found its way into the goal. It was a sublime strike, a goal of enabled quality, and one reminiscent to the efforts of another Scandinavian midfielder who used to wear the famous white shirt. Tottenham no longer have Christian Eriksen. In fact, Tottenham no longer have any footballers who play in attacking midfield at all.

I imagine plenty of lilywhites will brandish those first 45 minutes as the absolute worst thing they've been subjected to all season long. The truth is, that half disappears into an ocean of redundancy we have conjured up since opening day, but is merely elevated in prominence by the nature of the fixture and the significance of our opponents. We were being deservedly beaten by a vastly superior outfit; a serious team that's serious about how it wants to play and what it wants to win and has been for three years. It was undoubtedly a miserable first half, but the fact that it might not have even cracked our top 5 worst halves of the season was a more saddening reality than the scoreline. If anything was giving me any hope for the second half it was that going 2-0 down wasn't just how Tottenham Hotspur lose matches, it also seems to be how we win them too. But the luck had finally run out.

We enjoyed a half-decent 10 minutes after the break. We created the odd chance and looked like we had woken up traditionally and unfashionably late. But anything mustered by our attacking trio of Kane, Son and Deki was thwarted in equal measure by Aaron Ramsdale, who did everything on the night correctly and inspired absolutely no anxiety among the defenders in front of him. It is a goalkeeper of his ilk we will need to find by August (get Everton on the phone pronto for all four of Pickford's very capable limbs). Deki was the most dangerous, but lacked the desperately needed clinical finishing the situation required. I cannot remember Kane taking part in the match, but Son was much worse and an active inhibitor to our play.

The golden-boot Son of May is simply gone. There was a moment, around the hour mark, where Kulusevski charged up the pitch in a 3 vs 2. He had both Kane and Son in front of him. As Arsenal scrambled back, the best option became to shoot and the chance came to nothing. A year ago, Son would have worked the space and capped it off with a devastating finish. It is to his previous high standards I must hold him to and a standard he is failing woefully to meet. later, with Ivan Perisic on the pitch, nothing was any different. Son had the chance to play Perisic into the box on the overlap but he thumped the ball out of play with no white shirt near it. Son's form cannot be chalked down to the presence of the Croat. People say Perisic invades the spaces Son likes to utilise or that Son isn't on the same wavelength. I say he's not on anybody's. He moves too slowly. He thinks even slower. Even the seemingly endless spring of Kane-Son link-up play contributions has dried up.

Sarr was able to avoid any of the mistakes that plagued our defence, but offered little going forwards. Hojbjerg was arguably worse. Realistically a midfield four of Doherty, Hojbjerg, Sarr and Sessegnon can only get you so far and wouldn't look out of place in the lower-half of the table. While I appreciated Sessegnon's constant running, his deliveries into the box were appalling. Conte's system is so heavily reliant on quality service from the flanks that it is of consistent bafflement to me that our wing-backs are our most neglected area. Play anyone registered with the club at right-back and it will all blur into the one visage of crosses going straight out of play or straight down the throat of a 'keeper. I'm not even sure if Doherty attempted a cross during the whole game. Our best ball into the box came from the middle of the park. We knew Bentancur would be a big loss and he was. There aren't many surprises in this defeat.

It is a huge year ahead for the club. January might not always be the easiest window to navigate, but Summer must bring about change. Tottenham, in the past, has been far too sentimental. We gave Dele too many chances, we let Eriksen go for free when his head had been gone for months. Spurs cannot operate this way any further. They must be ruthless. If Son can't get his act together, don't just keep him because he's Son, find a buyer, find a replacement and pull the trigger. The same goes for Lloris, though I'm certain he will be joining the cast of Last of the Summer Wine. How many of our starting eleven make it on to Arsenal's bench? If you are not prepared to move forward, don't be surprised if you end up standing still. Tottenham, for far too long, have been stagnant, doing pieces here and there, putting out one fire at a time. It isn't enough. Not even for top 4. Newcastle are here to stay and are just yet another institution to join the club of teams with more resources than us.

Arsenal just provided the whole club with a footballing lesson and I'm not even referring to the match. They have founded their project on two key foundations; patience and recruitment. Antonio Conte dragged Tottenham into the Champions League with Royal and Sessegnon playing nearly every week. If we want things to get better we must provide him with better. And for God's sake - be patient. Arsenal were patient. Now look at them.