The days when Tottenham were capable of ending this fixture with nine men trying to execute a high line against Nicolas Jackson are over, but on current evidence the decision to replace the excesses of Angeball with something more restrained and grown-up has merely invited soul-searching of a different nature.
The loud, sustained blast of booing that broke out when the final whistle arrived at the end of this sorry defeat to Chelsea said much about the identity crisis gripping Thomas Frank’s side. Of all the ways to lose a derby this was surely one of the worst ones. It was not that Spurs were bad, more that they were scared to play. There was an unambitious lineup from Frank, who started with six attacking players on the bench, and it led to his team finishing with a staggering expected goals of 0.05 as their losing run against Chelsea trundled into a fifth game.
