Arsenal vs Tottenham: In papering over the cracks, Spurs will always remain at risk of being exposed

Tottenham's recent impressive wins have covered up the worrying realities behind this squad

Compare this defeat to Spurs’ last two wins. In the 3-1 destruction of Chelsea at Wembley they should have scored six or seven, and they looked for the first time this year like the Spurs team of the last few years. Or the 1-0 defeat of Inter on Wednesday night, when they managed to keep their Champions League campaign on the road with a late winner.

This was a huge drop from those two games in Spurs’ performance. They could barely get any grip on possession, they were desperately open at the back, and they should have lost the game long before they actually did. Even their brief spell of superiority, when they scored two goals, relied on defensive errors for Eric Dier’s equalising header and Mike Dean’s incorrectly awarded penalty kick. If Arsenal had taken their early chances they would have been out of sight long before then.

So why the drop off? Pochettino pointed to the physical cost of the Chelsea and Inter games, and said that his players had little in the tank when Arsenal came back at them in the second half. “It was very tough for the team,” he said. “We started to pay for the effort from the games against Inter and Chelsea. We started to suffer. It was difficult for the team to show that energy that normally we show. It is mental and physical too.”

But the reality of those good performances Spurs produced is that they could cover up the reality of Tottenham’s squad. At their best recently they have been inspired by Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, a front line built on top of a solid defence, all well put together by Pochettino. But there are obvious problems with the squad, ones that can be covered up by Spurs’ best players some of the time, but not all the time.

And this was a day when those issues, at full-back and in central midfield, came back to bite the side.

Ever since Kyle Walker left for Manchester City in 2017 and Danny Rose had a lengthy lay-off with a knee injury, the drop in quality in Spurs’ full-backs has been obvious. Mauricio Pochettino wants to play an expansive, aggressive style of play and that needs quality and pace in wide areas. But the reality of the last 18 months is that Spurs do not have that in the same way anymore.

With Kieran Trippier still injured Spurs had Serge Aurier at right-back today, and he gave a comprehensive demonstration of all the reasons why Pochettino is reluctant to play him more often. He never came to terms with Sead Kolasinac overlapping down the left and almost every time Arsenal attacked down his side they looked like scoring.

On the other side was Ben Davies, who has looked devoid of confidence all season, both defensively shaky and also blunt at the back. For the narrow diamond midfield that Pochettino wanted to play, he should be reliant on his two full-backs for attacking width. But the wide areas completely belonged to Arsenal, with Davies repeatedly losing out to Hector Bellerin.

Tottenham’s midfield men failed to get a foothold in the game (Getty Images)

Imagine how much stronger this Spurs team would have been with two top level full-backs in the team, or with Walker on one side and the Rose of two years ago on the other.

And in midfield it was just as apparent that some parts of this Spurs team are being carried by others. Pochettino decided to pick Dier and Moussa Sissoko along with Eriksen, and in truth Spurs’ midfield barely ever got a foothold in the game. Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka were first to everything and even Eriksen struggled to exert his normal influence.

Tottenham were found out in their clash with London rivals Arsenal (Getty Images)

But what would you expect? Dier is a utility player who looks at least as comfortable in centre-back, where he was moved to, as he does in midfield. Sissoko has only been moved into the middle recently because Spurs needed an extra body there. He is not exactly a specialist either. With Mousa Dembele injured and coming to the end of his time at Spurs, they miss presence and authority in the middle of the pitch. Harry Winks would have improved their control in the middle but he was introduced far too late, with Spurs already 4-2 down and desperately chasing the game. Pochettino was made to look ponderous by Unai Emery’s proactive substitutions.

There are some serious holes in this squad, holes that were not fixed in the transfer window because of the stadium build and because Spurs could not sell any squad players. These holes are usually covered by just how good Pochettino and Spurs’ top players are. But that is not always the solution and on Sunday afternoon, those holes were there to see. Until the issues at full-back and in midfield are fixed, Spurs will still always be at risk of being shown up like this.