Tottenham were very much their own worst enemy on Wednesday evening as they missed a glorious opportunity to move into second place in the Premier League table. Travelling to Old Trafford full of confidence after registering three wins on the bounce, Antonio Conte's men crashed down to earth with an almighty bang following a 2-0 defeat against Manchester United.
On an evening when even the most optimistic person would find it incredibly tough to come up with a positive or two from the performance, one was perhaps the fact that the Lilywhites only conceded the two goals in Manchester. It really could have been five or six if it was not for the heroics of the superb Hugo Lloris.
The World Cup winner was badly let down by his Tottenham teammates as he made save after save to keep them in the contest. The three points were only heading one way once Fred's deflected effort found the bottom corner seconds after half-time.
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As bad as Spurs were at times as they gifted their opponents possession so easily with their sloppy play in their own half, Erik ten Hag's team were impressive and thoroughly deserved the victory. The fact that they had 28 shots on goal, with 10 of those on target, highlighted just how one-sided the game was as Tottenham barely laid a glove on them.
Tottenham's second league defeat of the campaign did once again shine a light on their dismal record when they take on their top-six rivals away from home. Second best at Chelsea in August but managing to leave with a point after Harry Kane made the Blues pay for a hatful of missed chances, October started with a 3-1 defeat at Arsenal that all connected with Spurs will want to forget about in a hurry.
On Wednesday evening, Spurs once again crumbled away from home and looked far from a side who went into the game knowing that they could leapfrog Man City and up the pressure on Arsenal. The truth is that the Lilywhites really do struggle when they go away and play a "high-level game," something Conte made clear "was not the first time" in his post-match press conference.
"We have to be honest and United deserved to win and deserved to get three points. They started the game very well and created chances to score" he admitted the Italian in his post-match press conference. "In our side we didn’t start the game and it was really difficult also because made a lot of mistakes, simple.
"For sure not a good game for us but I have to be honest and first of all, especially with my players, this was not the first time for us, despite the table being good but every time we played a high-level game we struggle.
"We struggled against Chelsea because we drew after 92 minutes but Chelsea dominated the game and with Arsenal we lost and today against United we lost. For sure when the level is high, we are going to struggle.
"This means we have to continue to work to try to improve, to work on the pitch and to work outside the pitch and I think for sure because some times I listen that we are title contenders and I think we need time, in only 10 or 11 months, you cannot pass from ninth place to become the title contenders a year after, especially when you finish 20 points less than the monsters in England.
"We don’t forget last season United failed the season, otherwise United has to stay for the story always in Champions League. On our side I repeat we need to be disappointed because you can lose, you can lose this time of game but in the same time we have to show much more because I think we can do much better than today."
Going into the contest missing stars such as Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison, Tottenham still had more than enough in their team to get something from the game at Old Trafford. However, Conte's big players didn't perform and they constantly found themselves under pressure with an error-strewn display playing firmly into United's hands.
Just needing a period of five or ten minutes in the first half to get on the ball, slow things down and make life difficult for the hosts, Tottenham couldn't even manage that with the team losing the ball in the build-up in some dangerous areas. The ball just kept coming back at them and Lloris was put under relentless pressure as he was forced into save after save, most notably in the first half.
What makes it incredibly frustrating is that Tottenham have travelled to both Manchester City and Liverpool over the past ten months and recorded four points from a possible six after the most professional of displays. Certainly not pretty at times and far from pleasing on the eye, Tottenham have nullified the Premier League's top two and got exactly what they deserved from the games.
Spurs have been getting exactly what they deserved from the games away at the top six this campaign, however, with the team rather lucky to have just the one point from nine on the board as Chelsea couldn't take their chances. Maybe a free hit for the team at the Etihad and Anfield with them not expected to leave with anything given the big gulf in class, Tottenham really should be offering more when it comes to the fixtures against their top-six rivals who they should be picking points up against.
On a night when Tottenham could have made a real statement, Conte once again needed so much more from his players.
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