Premier League: Sterile Spurs give Pochettino a puzzle

Mauricio Pochettino may have a bigger job on his hands than he thought

After an abject performance from the north Londoners on Sunday, Andy Brassell runs the rule over Tottenham's season and wonders if they might struggle to finish in the top six...

It was a film that Tottenham fans had seen too many times before in recent seasons. Sunday's defeat at home to West Bromwich Albion ticked all the boxes of one of those trademark, unexpected but not totally shocking home losses to inferior opposition that Spurs have come to specialise in. Plus a change at White Hart Lane, it seems. 

Mauricio Pochettino's post-match lament said it all, with his gripe that his team had "played very slow at the beginning of the game" no doubt eliciting weary nods. It didn't pick up too much afterwards, with Spurs mustering a miserable tally of a single effort on target against one of the Premier League's very weakest teams. For a club steeped in a tradition of attacking - To Dare Is To Do, and all that - enduring a flat, lifeless spectacle has been far too common in the past few years.

Never mind scoring goals, Tottenham struggle to create chances on many occasions. Pochettino may well turn out to be a very good manager indeed for the club, but he is by no means the instant cure for every ill that had been mooted. A smash-and-grab win at West Ham on the opening day, followed by the comprehensive dismissal of an unbelievably poor Queens Park Rangers, seem to have been overvalued. It reminds us that far from having a magic wand, Pochettino has a lot of work to do. 

Perhaps it seems trite to still be discussing the loss of Gareth Bale thirteen months on, but Tottenham's lack of pace and tempo in forward areas prevents us from looking too far elsewhere. His final season at the Lane, when he conjured moments from thin air on a regular basis as he was propelled to new heights by Andr Villas-Boas' use of him (one of the Portuguese's few areas of outright success during his spell in charge) papered over myriad cracks. His 21 Premier League goals contained several rescue acts, which circumvented the need to create goalscoring opportunities in the traditional fashion. 

It's an especially pertinent puzzle ahead of Saturday evening's visit to Arsenal. Arsne Wenger's side have, after all, been there and come out the other side. They were as dependent on Robin van Persie in the Dutchman's last season at the Emirates as Spurs ever were on Bale. Without his 30 Premier League goals (37 in all competitions), Arsenal would have missed the Champions League altogether - they finished third, a point ahead of Tottenham, in a season that Chelsea's Champions League win meant that fourth wasn't sufficient to get there, of course.

Whatever your opinions of Arsenal's - and Wenger's - direction since, and their enduring shortcomings in certain areas, they have never left themselves as reliant on one individual since then. In 2012-13 Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski all hit double figures in the Premier League alone. When Walcott suffered serious injury last season, Giroud, Aaron Ramsey (10 in the league, 16 overall) and even Podolski (8 Premier League goals in just 14 starts) did their best to pick up the slack. 

That summer spree of last year with the Bale money cannot yet be fully judged - Erik Lamela is slowly but surely proving his worth, for example - but dynamism is still in short supply, which leaves the summer signing of Benjamin Stambouli (excellent player as he is) looking a strange one for such an overstocked area. It is little wonder that Spurs are priced at 3.953/1 to even avoid defeat and get a draw on Saturday. Laying them to finish in the top six (1.84/5) might be a better bet, especially if Pochettino decides the Europa League is a more likely route to the Champions League.