Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League hopes took a significant blow on Sunday after they fell to a poor 2-0 defeat at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Antonio Conte’s men were on the backfoot almost immediately as strikes from Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker put the hosts firmly in control.
A reaction was somewhat less than forthcoming for Tottenham as they slipped to a third consecutive Premier League defeat and now sit five points off of the top four - albeit their saving grace being the fact that they have three games in-hand on West Ham United.
With that being said, football.london has taken a glance at the morning papers and websites to see how the defeat has been recounted.
SKY SPORTS
Wolves made it three Premier League defeats on the spin for Tottenham after two first-half goals punished Antonio Conte’s sloppy side in a 2-0 win.
In a game where Tottenham fans defied a plea from the club by continuing to chant the Y-word, their side fell behind on six minutes where a calamity spell of goalkeeping from Hugo Lloris allowed Raul Jimenez to volley home in splendid fashion. Spurs were totally culpable in their own downfall and could not have been any more generous in helping Wolves to a two-goal lead.
Things got significantly worse in the Tottenham backline when a poor pass out by Ben Davies started a Wolves attack and after Daniel Podence's effort came back off the post Leandro Dendoncker was on hand to double the lead.
Conte, who has lost three games in a row for the first time since 2009, decided to change Ryan Sessegnon with Dejan Kulusevski after 27 minutes but Spurs remained flat and lacking in ideas against the Wolves defence that has now kept nine clean sheets this season.
DAILY MAIL
At half-time, the cameras panned to a young Tottenham fan who could hold back the tears no longer. Antonio Conte knew exactly how the lad was feeling.
If the Italian thought Wednesday night's first-half versus Southampton was bad, then God knows what he thought about his team's deplorable showing during the opening 45 minutes here.
They improved, marginally, in the second half - but that was all too little too late.
Tottenham got exactly what they deserved: a depressing defeat - one that raises serious questions of their top-four credentials.
THE SUN
You would have thought the G-word had also been banned - goalkeeping.
In the first game since Tottenham asked their fans to refrain from certain chants, blundering Hugo Lloris ensured they did not have much to shout about.
The Spurs keeper and captain left their supporters open-mouthed as his uncharacteristic gaffes gifted goals to Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker in a nightmare opening 18 minutes.
It condemned the North Londoners to a third straight Prem defeat - the first time Antonio Conte has suffered a hat-trick of League losses since he was in charge of Atalanta back in November 2009.
THE TELEGRAPH
The boos that had already rung out around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at half-time were only slightly amplified come the final whistle for one simple, damning, reason. Having left for home, a large portion of the crowd had already silently delivered their judgment on a performance that had not just lacked quality, but also confidence and character.
They had seen Wolverhampton Wanderers surge into a 2-0 lead inside 18 minutes and, for all the sporadic signs of a reaction by Tottenham, the predominant sense over the ensuing 72 minutes was of inevitability.
It has been one step forward and two back throughout much of Antonio Conte’s tenure already as Spurs manager but, after a third straight Premier League defeat, the inquest will be as much about the new manager’s powers of motivation as the obvious deficiencies in the squad that he has inherited.
