Following Saturday's disappointing 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa, Tottenham now have two games of the 2022/23 season remaining to secure a European spot. Brentford are Spurs' first opponents on Saturday lunchtime before they then take on relegation-threatened Leeds United on the final day of the campaign.
Going on the defeat at Villa Park, with the team extremely poor in the first half as the hosts dominated proceedings, acting head coach Ryan Mason may want to shuffle his pack in his quest to get the team back to winning ways. Naming the same side in the Midlands that beat Crystal Palace a week earlier, the 31-year-old introduced Yves Bissouma, Dejan Kulusevski, Arnaut Danjuma and Ivan Perisic in the closing stages as they looked for a way back into the contest.
The last of those changes saw Perisic replace Ben Davies on 90 minutes, leaving him with the six minutes of stoppage time to try and force an equaliser after Harry Kane's late penalty. That is the only football that has come the Croat's way in the past two games as Mason has preferred Davies ahead of him.
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Perhaps understandable due to the tactics used against Palace as the Welshman operated in a back four when they were out of possession before switching to left wing-back when they were on the ball, Perisic, due to his attacking nature, cannot perform both the roles that his rival can. The experienced player is much better going forward than Davies, though, and his quality in the final third was a big miss in the game at Villa Park.
Given the extremely limited time to have a say on the game, the 34-year-old did see a bit of the ball in his six minutes on the pitch as his teammates looked for him and he was accurate with one of his two crosses. Tottenham really could have done with Perisic on the pitch sooner, especially as he would have asked Villa a number of questions due to his crossing ability and, most importantly, offered the team another attacking outlet and more quality on the ball.
Perisic can feel hard done by in the past two matches after producing his best football in a Tottenham shirt in the games beforehand. Always going to take time for him to hit the heights in the Premier League after making the move to England towards the end of his career, Tottenham fans have expected more from their players this season due to his attacking qualities and his experience in the game.
Contributing 12 assists and one goal in his 43 appearances for Tottenham so far, the number of assists the player has racked up has perhaps masked what he has offered on the pitch due to his struggles but his performances have certainly picked up over the past month or so. Excellent in the 3-2 defeat against Bournemouth and linking up well with Son Heung-min amid previous question marks over their partnership, the ex-Inter Milan ace wasn't helped in his next appearance at Newcastle after playing as a left-back but he again caught the eye four days later in the draw with Manchester United.
Getting an assist to his name in the 4-3 defeat against Liverpool after picking out Kane with a superb cross as his good run of form continued, Perisic was extremely unlucky to miss out on the Tottenham side against Crystal Palace going on his previous showings. He again had a watching brief for the most part at Villa Park but that could potentially change this weekend when Brentford visit Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Mason needs to find a winning formula due to the real threat of missing out on Europe altogether hanging over Tottenham and that could possibly work in Perisic, Kulusevski and Bissouma's favour for the visit of the Bees. Perisic adding a couple more assists to his tally of 12 for the campaign could potentially be a deciding factor in whether Tottenham qualify for Europe or not.
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