You don't want to read this!
But you had to, didn't you?
I'll try not to dwell at too much length on what was a disastrous result for home fans. It is an event that has unfortunately scarred our memories for a long, long time, if not for ever. Virtually all the players, including those recent signings who took part, blotted their copybooks, with what voters perceived as below par performances, failing even to register a mark above the average level of 5. Only goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, substitute Lewis Holtby and Spurs' man of the match Andros Townsend managed better.
In the case of Townsend, he was clearly our best player, but even he has suffered because of the ultra negative feelings of those who assessed the participants, and 6.3 is really a case of least worst rather than best player, isn't it? Kudos to Andros though, who openly apologised for the team's performance on Twitter.
It would seem that Andre Villas-Boas's assessment for team selection was really marred by the choice of Defoe over Soldado, because that was the only clear option for him at the outset to what has been a successful team, wasn't it? It was obviousy fair to criticise the head coach for his apparent inability to deal with Sam Allardyce's 4-6-0 strategy, which paid off handsomely.
For the record, this was clearly Spurs' worst performance under AVB, and it was our worse margin of defeat at home since that 5-1 loss to Manchester City in August 2011.
As for West Ham, these were their first away goals of the season. It was their first away league win since March this year (9 games), and their first away win at White Hart Lane since April, 1999. As I wrote in sunday's match report, you have to go back to 1994 for such a margin of victory for "The Hammers" at The Lane. The last time they managed three away goals in a Premier League game was in February 2011 in a 3-3 draw at West Brom.
You didn't want to read that, did you?
Were the minds of some of our players upon the International break, and what will be crucial qualifying games? Apart from Townsend's tweet, Mousa Dembele has also been quoted in today's Telegraph, admitting that collectively the Tottenham players had lacked passion in Sunday's game. We noticed that!
If Arsenal can recover from an opening day defeat against Aston Villa that was similarly embarrassing, and if Manchester United can recover from a surprise home defeat by West Brom, then Spurs can come back stronger from this set-back too. It's just horrible that we have to wait another 12 days to see them do it at Villa Park!
· Read this week's Spursometer in full
Results 05-06.10.13
Man City 3-1 Everton
Cardiff 1-2 Newcastle
Fulham 1-0 Stoke
Hull 0-0 A. Villa
Liverpool 3-1 C. Palace
S'derland 1-2 Man Utd
Norwich 1-3 Chelsea
S'hampton 2-0 Swansea
Spurs 0-3 West Ham
West Brom 1-1 Arsenal
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Arsenal 7 5 1 1 14-8 6 16
2. Liverpool 7 5 1 1 11-5 6 16
3. Chelsea 7 4 2 1 10-4 6 14
4. S'hampton 7 4 2 1 7-2 5 14
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5. Man City 7 4 1 2 17-8 9 13
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6. Spurs 7 4 1 2 6-5 1 13
7. Everton 7 3 3 1 10-9 1 12
8. Hull 7 3 2 2 6-7 -1 11
9. Man Utd 7 3 1 3 10-9 1 10
10. A. Villa 7 3 1 3 9-8 1 10
11. Newcastle 7 3 1 3 9-12 -3 10
12. West Brom 7 2 3 2 7-6 1 9
13. West Ham 7 2 2 3 7-5 2 8
14. Cardiff 7 2 2 3 7-9 -2 8
15. Swansea 7 2 1 4 8-11 -3 7
16. Stoke 7 2 1 4 4-7 -3 7
17. Fulham 7 2 1 4 5-9 -4 7
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18. Norwich 7 2 1 4 5-9 -4 7
19. C. Palace 7 1 0 6 5-13 -8 3
20. S'derland 7 0 1 6 5-16 -11 1
