Spurs v Gent: The moment you just knew

You knew it. You just bloody knew Thursday would go that way. The focus just wasn't there. 

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino might have spotted it within his much-publicised 50-second rule. But for the rest of us it was made painstakingly clear at a Spurs corner in the 29th minute.

Harry Kane's own goal might have left us needing to score two more in the right end but you still felt Gent were there for the taking, such was the space and license we were being given to play in the final third. 

But when you have just conceded - and are desperate for a quick route back into the match - you expect your players to be switched on. 

Christian Eriksen whipped his corner across the box and totally wrong-footed the Gent defence. 

Dele Alli hurdled the ball, getting the slightest of touches to steer it right across the six-yard box. 

But it wasn't just the Belgian side caught napping as any Spurs players within any sort of reach were oblivious the set-piece had even been taken.

This looked like a training-ground routine gone wrong - executed perfectly by Eriksen - and should have been seized upon and easily turned into the net, even if the move wasn't intentional. 

But Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama were so slow to react the ball was nearly out of play before they saw it.

What's more, if it was a set-piece routine, it is now worthless. Everyone has seen it on national television and Mark Hughes will be preparing Stoke to deal with it on Sunday. As will every other Premier League manager we are left to face this season.

This was not the only instance where Spurs' focus deserted them: Mousa Dembele doing the hard work and beating his man from a short corner, only to turn back into him and commit a foul. 

Kyle Walker, admittedly one of our best players on the night, bombing past the full-back then slicing a near-post effort high into the Wembley gods.

Jan Vertonghen attempting a one-two in an advanced position, only to clatter into the ref. 

Obviously there were far bigger flashpoints that had a more damning effect on the game's outcome. Dele doesn't need any more criticism. Everyone already knows the situation.

But this lack of concentration - which Poch had warned the players about in the build-up to the match - gave the game away that Tottenham were just not switched on enough for a big European night. 

Scratch that, they just weren't switched on enough. Full-stop. Because this should never have been a big European night. It should have been a walk in the park. Gent were rubbish. 

We played Gent off the park in the second half despite being a man down - finding space that no Premier League team would have given us and still wasting chance after chance. That is also something that has to change. 

Dier's mind was again wandering before the goal that killed us off with eight minutes left. 

After two thirds of a season spent rebuilding a reputation shattered in the final weeks of last season.Our mentality is now right back under the spotlight. And with good reason.

Pochettino's dramatic change of message

No amount of talk about training-ground summits or crunch meetings can hide the fact for me that Tottenham have dramatically changed the rhetoric. 

Before the Liverpool game Mauricio Pochettino was claiming his players “dream they can be important here and lift trophies". As far as his ambitions went: “A few trophies, that would be perfect."

Even after the 2-0 defeat at Liverpool, Poch turned his attentions to Europe, insisting: “The mentality must be to win the Europa League."

Two bad results later, the FA Cup victory at Fulham brought an entirely new direction. Pochettino said: “It's too early to start to speak about whether we will win some trophies. Now we’re not allowed to speak about the FA Cup - we can see the draw but after that moment we must forget and focus on Thursday and Gent."

Hold on. Not allowed to speak about the FA Cup? After losing at Anfield, Eric Dier was telling the press you can “Never say never" about the title, let alone the Cup.

Quickly and decisively Pochettino has changed the message - from titles, trophies and ambitions to focus and the next game. He is now describing the Europa League second leg with Gent as “another final". 

You just wonder if the Argentine, 44, has realised that - with all the buzz around Tottenham’s big future, impressive setup and new stadium, everyone might just have been getting a bit ahead of themselves.

There is nothing wrong with a bit of belief and all the tub-thumping looks great in black and white, as long as you can back it up on the pitch. 

When the air of invincibility created by an unbeaten run gets washed away with a defeat, the empty promises of silverware and even dynasties do little except pile on the pressure. 

It had seemed almost as if the manager was happy to apply as much heat as possible to his young squad, maybe priming them to work under the spotlight. He has even compared youth prospect Marcus Edwards, 18, to Lionel Messi to make clear the level of his expectation.

But it does not really work like that. 

Nearly every title-winning manager in the history of press conferences has used the "one game at a time" line to lower the intensity and lighten the load on his players. 

Claudio Ranieri was a master of it last season. Leicester were five, six, seven points clear at the top and he still refused to concentrate on the title race - instead reluctantly admitting that the Foxes may just be in line for a top-four spot. 

Even this season, Antonio Conte is adamant that Chelsea are in a six-way fight for the title despite being 12 points ahead of sixth-placed Manchester United. 

You can almost pinpoint the moment Tottenham made the decision to talk up their ambitions. It was the 2-1 win at Manchester City last season, after which Poch declared the fans should be willing to dream.

Since then we have become pretty much self-proclaimed title-challengers, collapsing last season under the weight of our own expectation in a haze of rally cries in the press and pictures of lions on social media. It was all a bit of fun but it was definitely a distraction. 

You can understand that Pochettino wants to instil the mindset that challenging at the top is the club’s minimum requirement. But that mindset can only come with the knowledge that you have what it takes to get through the rough patches, the big games and the cup finals. 

This team does not currently have that and no amount of talking about it will change it. The only thing that will is focusing on the next game. And winning it.

Spurs face long road to follow Dortmund model

IF Dortmund are the blueprint then Tottenham now have a brutal indication of just how far there is to go. 

People can point fingers at the manager, the line-up and the fitness levels all they want but there was nothing that a few changes would have helped in last night's 3-0 drubbing at the Westfalenstadion - this was men versus boys. 

Our lads were outpassed, outpressed and outworked by a slick, efficient and endlessly fit Dortmund side that could have been out of sight by half-time.

It might feel like scant encouragement but this is the side that Spurs aspire to emulate - with possessive-yet-potent attacking football, homegrown talent and even a huge behind-the-goal kop. 

Who knows, maybe even reasonable ticket prices!

A bigger concern has to be the poor reflection it casts on the current status of the English game.

Yes, we are all enjoying a fantastic and unpredictable season in which any one of four, maybe five, teams could still lift the title.

Yes, we've had some incredible stories, upsets and seen some brilliant goals. 

But should a team second in the Premier League really be so comprehensively outclassed by their Bundesliga equivalent?

You certainly wouldn't back Leicester to give German leaders Bayern Munich a run for their money either.

Seeing our big sides flounder makes entertaining viewing but this was the biggest indication yet that those who have replaced them at the top this season are not raising the bar, just making the most of an opportunity.

On the night it was a painful defeat but at least those on the pitch, the bench, sat in the stands and watching on the box now have a yardstick.

This is what can be created if we stick on the path we have started. 

Mauricio Pochettino's squad are 18 months into a philosophy that Dortmund have had drilled into them since 2009. 

Their boss Thomas Tuchel joined last summer and is continuing the hi-octane, high-pressing work introduced by Jurgen Klopp seven years ago.

Interestingly enough, Tuchel also managed Mainz shortly after Klopp, quickly surpassing the now-Liverpool manager's success.

Where Klopp got Mainz promoted, Tuchel took them into the Europa League.

Where Klopp took Dortmund to back-to-back league titles and the 2012-13 Champions League final, Tuchel has them again chasing down Bayern at the top and they must now be favourites for the Europa League.

It all comes together for one nasty bump back down to earth for Spurs but an impressive lesson to go with it. 

The improved fitness levels, the demanding pressing game and the flowing attacks can all go up a notch. Our players now have first hand experience of it. For some, it will be an encouragement, for others a kick up the ass.

If this Dortmund side is a glimpse of where hard work and a well-drilled philosophy can lead you, then we should be very excited about our chosen path.

Tough week could help Spurs hang in there

ONE point from two huge games was not what everyone wanted but bear with me while I argue that it might do us a favour.

Wins over West Ham and Arsenal would have left us top by two points - but can a team that has not won a title in 55 years really be expected to lead from the front with nine games to go?

The pressure, focus and searing hot spotlight that comes from being frontrunners is surely too much for a club stalked by its own shadow of late-season stutters.

We have a history of easing off the gas from good positions, so let Leicester take the weight of responsibility for the time being.

With 27 points left to fight for, a five-point gap at this stage is hardly unassailable and 
there is no sense in making ourselves the team to beat at the start of March. 

We are safer riding Leicester's coat-tails as they attract the limelight and deflect attention. 

Apart from anything else, my blood pressure could do with a rest from the nerve-shredding tension of our last two games. How the players must have felt is anybody's guess.

If the Foxes do win the title from here then they damn well deserve it and we should all stand up and applaud rather than picking apart our own supposed shortcomings.

But to put that feat into perspective, they have never won nine top-flight games in a row in their history.

It's a nervy time of year and everyone is dropping points. City lost to Liverpool, United at West Brom, and Arsenal haven't won in four.

Leicester's final two fixtures are Everton at home and Chelsea away. That's a tough enough finish in itself but in the meantime, if panic does finally strike Claudio Ranieri's squad, then any match becomes a banana skin and five points can disappear very quickly indeed.

Our final two games are home to Southampton and away at struggling Newcastle. Although by then they could well be "relegated Newcastle".

With that in mind, the main aim should be to stay within striking distance of the top, keep your fingers crossed we can hang in there and give ourselves a chance come May.

But many Spurs fans are starting to bite their fingernails not just over whether we will be fighting for the title come May, but whether we will still be in contention for the top four.

In 2011-12 we surrendered a 10-point lead over Arsenal in barely a month, the season before we won just one league game in ten from late February, including a home defeat to Blackpool. 

Both seasons we had put ourselves in the driving seat with regards to a Champions League finish. 

Yet in 2009-10 we got it right and beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City in a run-in that saw us nick fourth. 

The difference being that season we were underdogs right until the penultimate game, where a shock 1-0 win at City sealed it a game early.

And that is why we shouldn't be too disheartened heading into another crucial week on the back of two disappointing results.

On Sunday it's Aston Villa away, followed by Bournemouth at home a week later. 

Both matches present sides fighting for their lives and, given our recent history at this stage of the season, I'm happier to be going into it with a little less expectation on our shoulders.

A welcome return to form - and hopefully not just for Tottenham

Strange things are happening in the Premier League - and the best thing about that is some of them are happening at White Hart Lane.

It’s March. Former title favourites Chelsea are still in the bottom half, former relegation candidates Leicester are top of the tree and English football’s former rulers Manchester United are still lurching weekly between progress and catastrophe.

Manchester City’s mind is already on next season, Arsenal are suffering severe deja vu and Tottenham, well, let’s just say things are looking up.

The maths started to stack up a few weeks ago. Then we beat City and the media - plus the teams around us - took notice. Now, having come from behind to beat Swansea on Sunday, even the fans are starting to believe. Some fans anyway.

That’s where I come in. My last blog post was just over two years ago before a new job sapped my spare time and, regretfully, this website fell onto the dreaded backburner. Now a proud dad of a newborn, I’m even busier than ever.

But with this amazing season taking twist after turn, week after week. And the faintest hope that maybe, just maybe, it might turn into something very, very special indeed, I just had to have my say.

There is a long way to go and a lot of tough games - each one of them our own Cup final. We have to go to Liverpool and Chelsea, not to mention West Ham tomorrow. Then there is what must be one of the biggest North London Derbies in a generation at lunchtime on Saturday.

However unlikely or difficult you see the possibility of us lifting the League Championship come May, Spurs fans would be foolish not to be getting just a little bit excited. 

Many in my generation (born 1983) would have felt that the club’s existence nowadays was purely geared at the top four and that resting on the summit after 38 games was for the real rich kids and oligarchs. To find ourselves in this position at this stage of the season was unthinkable, a pipe dream. But what is the point in football if you can’t dream once in a while? 

This run of form, this focus on the Academy, this brand of football has all come together to shake even the most miserly of fans from their slumbers and, as for me, well I wasn’t going to let it pass me by without getting my thoughts down. 

I will endeavour to keep the blog up do date from here on in and see where that takes me. Whether you savour it, snub it, comment on it, condemn it, rave about it, rant or even recommend it, I’m not concerned. I suppose feedback is always nice but as long as I've got something on record to show another little Spurs fan sometime down the line, then that will do for me. 

Although a Premier League title would be nice as well.

Tbilisi was Boom Town for Dinamo man Andros

OUR away support may have witnessed a goal rush in Tbilisi on Thursday but one Spurs fan who really struck gold was Andros Townsend.

Anyone who plays down our wings in the coming weeks will be saddled with the pressure of filling you-know-who's boots.

Yet it is not overplaying it to say that Townsend's performance in the Europa League qualifying first leg has altered the landscape of his whole career.

Prior to the game the winger, 22, was considering his options having been turfed out on loan a whopping NINE times.

The most recent of those was a successful stint at QPR in the second half of last season.

His performances reportedly impressed  a host of Premier League clubs and, with Tottenham's recent exodus of British players, Townsend looked next on our homegrown scrapheap.

The player himself admitted this week that if first-team football was not an option at White Hart Lane then he would have to move on, which put Swansea, Everton and West Brom on red alert.

But then came the Dinamo game - a goal, two assists and a man of the match display that will have thrust him to the forefront of Andre Villas-Boas' thinking.

It was exactly the sort of reaction that boss AVB would have been looking for. Townsend grabbed his chance by the scruff of the neck and shook it till its pockets were empty.

Certain recently departed Spurs players - without pointing fingers - have rarely taken opportunities in such devastating fashion.

And if, as seems to be the case, AVB is replacing some of his restrictive, two-dimensional players with more agile and adaptable alternatives, then Townsend could hardly have better proven the flexibility of his own game. 

His goal in Tbilisi was basically a foot race - explosive pace with a great finish from distance. 

It was skill, rather than speed, to beat the defender before crossing for Paulinho then a cutback with his wrong foot to feed Roberto Soldado for 3-0.

Townsend's performance ticked every box and, if he can make a habit of it against better opposition, then he'll soon find himself on every team sheet.