Tottenham Hotspur knew heading into their match against Brentford they needed a win to maintain their occupation of fourth place. Arsenal had defeated Manchester 3-1, allowing for The Gunners to put the pressure on their north London rival.
In 90 minutes of action, the Spurs were again unable to score, leading to a 0-0 tie against The Bees. Tottenham’s result led to Arsenal regaining fourth place that they had conceded a couple of weeks ago.
During a postgame segment, former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp discussed on Sky Sports why the north London club struggled against Brentford and last week against Brighton & Hove Albion, where they have failed to score a goal in 180 minutes.
“I think as a player; sometimes you go, okay, ‘maybe let’s change the system. Let’s try, let’s get, let’s give them a problem. Maybe if we’re playing a three, everyone knows.’ And he made the one substitution he brought on Sanchez, and he put Ben Davies as a left wing-back. And it’s like, well, that’s not really an inspiring substitution. Maybe you just bring someone, maybe go to a flatback four, four, two, get Kane and Son closer together. Just give them a different problem,” Redknapp said.
“Because in two games, to be so poor after playing so well, before that, they looked it was a master class every week. And attacking football, Kane and Son, Kulusevski didn’t do a lot today. Bentancur didn’t really struggle getting any movement. So I think as a coach, that’s when you’ve got to go right; let’s try something different because it was too predictable today.”
Tottenham sits in fifth place with 58 points while Arsenal has 60 points in fourth place. Spurs will hope to bounce back next week at home against Leicester City. Meanwhile, Arsenal heads on the road to London Stadium to face West Ham United.
What is more worrying is the last 2 games we had (0) shots on target, whatever you say about the system etc you cannot expect to have any hope of winning a game or games with 0 shots on target so the question is how are we gonna compete to finish top 4 if we can’t hit the target let alone score.
You have to say the last two performances have been desperately poor, but it shouldn’t come as a complete shock considering the way we play under Conte. Teams have now cottoned on to this and as I have said previously it was a matter of time before they stopped our counter style, what is surprising from a coach as experienced as Conte is that he doesn’t have an alternative, as has been proved in those two recent games.
He is limited we know, but you can try something different to try and create chances when things are not working, maybe it’s his Italian mentality of not losing games that prevents him from taking that opportunity, or, he has little faith in those on the bench, Bergwijn for one.
What is clear is that we are not good enough to qualify for CL, which is hugely concerning for the futures of the manager and top players at this club, it’s all so disappointing.
Also I maintain the United game should have been a draw at worst based on performance level (and probably a lot of the stats), very unlucky result.
A bit too harsh, I mean any team outside the top 2 has form that reads like that – you can’t say we didn’t play some excellent stuff in those wins and I’m sorry those games weren’t all gimmes against Norwich.
We have big issues, the squad has been mismanaged sure – but really we have to try and not fall in the trap of just getting upset because we aren’t at the level of Man City or Liverpool this season.
We started the season knowing that wasn’t going to happen unless we got sprinkled by some ‘Leicester winning the league’ fairy dust. We’ve done about as well as anyone, including well paid and researched (sometimes) pundits, would have predicted.
Things need to improve but still a bit of perspective.
This lot should be playing in an empty stadium. The won vs WH only because they were depleted due to Thursday football. Vs Aston villa luck was on our side and vs Newcastle it was a good win but really who are we kidding. No clue at the club. Look at what shambles United are in, yet they still wiped the floor with Spurs!