Tottenham Hotspur had a tough week as their top-four chances took a significant hit following the losses to Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The north London club finds itself in eighth place, and although they sit five points out of fourth place, there are other clubs they have to leap over to secure Champions League football for next season.
Furthermore, despite turning their season around, manager Antonio Conte is beginning to see some criticism regarding how his squad plays. Pundits such as talkSPORT’s Jamie O’Hara slammed Conte’s squad over their “criminal” inability to press and close down their opponents.
“Ben Davies has been good since he’s come in, I think he’s done okay with Conte, and he’s not a left-sided center-half; we should have bought one, but we didn’t,” O’Hara said on talkSPORT (via Mirror).
“He had a really bad game. He was shambolic yesterday. He gave the ball away, trying to turn it inside to try and find a Tottenham player. Sometimes you have just got to get rid of your lines. Turn the ball down the line, get rid of it, get up the pitch, squeeze, and no-nonsense. Like what Wolves do.”
O’Hara continued to focus on how Davies played and Tottenham’s inability to press enough for his liking following these last two results, leading to these two disappointing losses.
“The one thing that annoyed me and it annoys me with every football that does it, especially center-halves, and Ben Davies done it four or five times yesterday and it was criminal – he turns his back when he is going out to press the ball,” O’Hara added.
“Spurs don’t press the ball anywhere near enough anyway, we give away too many crosses and too many shots on target, but if you are going to go and press and you’re going to go out and turn your back on the ball, that is unacceptable. I can’t believe he wasn’t getting pulled up on it.”
Tottenham will have a much tougher challenge when they face off against Manchester City, who’s coming off a 4-0 thrashing of Norwich City. Spurs will hope to leave the Etihad Stadium with any points.