Tottenham fell to a miserable defeat as Antonio Conte returned to the dugout
(Picture: PA)From the high of beating Manchester City last weekend, Tottenham sunk to a mood-killing low with a 4-1 defeat at Leicester.
An abject performance was full of depressingly familiar themes for Spurs, who failed to build on the win over the champions and blew an opportunity to move into the top four.
In common with so many other matches this season, Spurs crumbled at the first setback, in this case Nampalys Mendy’s brilliant 23rd-minute equaliser which cancelled out Rodrigo Bentancur’s opening goal.
Within two minutes, James Maddison put the Foxes in front before Kelechi Iheanacho added a third in first-half stoppage-time. Harvey Barnes capped off a fine win for Brendan Rodgers’ side in the second-half -- having already had a goal ruled out for a fractional offside.
Coming into the game, Spurs had kept five clean sheets in seven matches, suggesting they were rebuilding the solid foundation which was key to their run to fourth place in the second-half of last season.
Leicester’s last three goals, though, were all the result of dreadful defending, with debutant Pedro Porro struggling and Eric Dier particularly off the pace.
Antonio Conte, who was back on the touchline after a week spent recuperating from surgery, could point to the absence of the injured Hugo Lloris and suspended Cristian Romero as part of the reason for his side’s troubles -- and their starting back three of Japhet Tanganga, Dier and Ben Davies have rarely looked consistent enough to be considered top-level defenders.
Their display, though, felt as much about intangibles as personnel.
After such a committed effort against City, Spurs were sloppy and disorganised to a man, and the manner of the defeat raises uncomfortable questions for Conte, given how well his players performed in his absence last weekend.
The decision to start Porro looked, with hindsight, strange given how badly the £40million deadline day signing struggled to adjust to the pace of the game and how well Emerson Royal performed against City.
Conte was also slow to make changes again, with Richarlison and Arnaut Danjuma given no more than 15 minutes each even as Spurs struggled to get back into the game at the start of the second-half.
Their shaky back three notwithstanding, Spurs had more than enough quality in attack to get at a porous Leicester defence, but Dejan Kulusevski and Heung-min Son were sloppy and on a different wavelength to Harry Kane, who never got going against his favourite opponent.
The loss of Bentancur to a serious-looking knee injury midway through the second half is another headache for the head coach.
The Uruguayan was able to walk off after jarring his knee but the injury was considered grave enough to offer him oxygen and bring out the stretcher.
Conte is already facing a sustained spell without Yves Bissouma, who underwent knee surgery on Friday and the loss of Bentancur, too, would leave him with just one experienced midfielder in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
In the short-term, Hojbjerg is suspended for Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg against AC Milan, so Pape Matar Sarr and Oliver Skipp are likely to start in midfield at the San Siro.
In the space of a few days, Spurs’ failure to further strengthen their squad in January suddenly appears costly, even if the winter window is always a difficult time to do business.
If there is a positive for Spurs, last season they beat City magnificently at the Etihad in late February before promptly losing the next game to Burnley. From there, their form picked up and they surged past Arsenal into fourth place.
Conte now needs a similar reaction from his squad, starting in Milan mid-week.
