Another game, another lead earned and another failure to win. In five consecutive Premier League matches Tottenham have gone ahead and on every occasion they have thrown it away.
It is not that they are playing badly. For much of this encounter against West Ham there was a sense of when, or how many, they would score.
But, barring Cristian Romero’s early header, they did not. And when Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse struck in the second half for the visitors, they paid the ultimate price. Three home league defeats in succession for the first time since 2008 and more questions to answer.
For the first time during his reign, Ange Postecoglou had found himself on the receiving end of some criticism of late – albeit from afar rather than those who actually spend their money to attend games in north London.
A 10-game unbeaten run to kick off the season had given way to a winless streak of four prior to this and, in spite of a lengthy list of absentees, questions from some quarters around the wisdom of his relentless, but thrilling, attacking approach.
Not that he, nor the vast majority of the club’s fans, were in the slightest bit concerned. Romero’s return from a three-match ban meant Postecoglou was at least able to bring in one of those missing faces, with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg the only other addition to the side that gallantly earned a 3-3 draw at Manchester City last weekend.
The woes of West Ham’s supporters have stemmed less from results and more from the approach under David Moyes. At best it might be described as pragmatic – earning progression to the Europa League knockout stage and a place in the top half of the Premier League; at worst it is difficult to deny the sense that it is just dull.
Loud boos had greeted Moyes’s side at the end of their lifeless 1-1 draw at home to Crystal Palace and there is a growing section of the support base that can no longer stomach the lack of spark on show, regardless of the points it might earn.
The visitors welcomed back their captain, Kurt Zouma, after his family’s horrific burglary ordeal, while Lukasz Fabianski made his first league start of the season in place of the injured Alphonse Areola.
Having endeared himself to the home fans with an early slip in sheeting rain, one of Fabianski’s first tasks was to watch Romero’s looping header arc its way into the top corner. Just 11 minutes had gone when the Argentinian muscled his way between West Ham defenders to nod home Pedro Porro’s corner.
That West Ham survived until half-time without conceding further betrayed the total dominance of Postecoglou’s side, whose slick interplay and rapid progression up the pitch rendered West Ham’s attacking players obsolete for large swathes.
It was all the visitors could do to boot the ball into opposition territory for a momentary breather before weathering the next wave. Possession? Not on the basis of this first half.
Yet for all that the hosts were able to dictate proceedings, Fabianski was largely untroubled again before half-time, beyond beating away a strong long-range drive from Giovani Lo Celso and punching another cross from the Argentinian to safety as Ben Davies lay in wait. The closest Spurs came to doubling their lead came courtesy of a Zouma interception which ricocheted against the outside of the post.
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In West Ham’s only notable chance of the half, minutes before the break, Lucas Paquetá wasted a pinpoint Mohammed Kudus cross to head meekly wide when unmarked.
That the visitors were level within seven minutes of the restart owed much to a huge dose of good fortune. A speculative Kudus crack from range ricocheted first off Romero and then Davies straight into the path of the unwitting Bowen, who could not believe his luck, presented the ball with the goal at his mercy. He duly smashed it past Guglielmo Vicario to give West Ham unlikely cheer.
For Tottenham fans there was a sense of deja vu at watching yet another lead fade. Things were starting to feel all too familiar to their last home game against Aston Villa where they were made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal and ended up losing 2-1.
That feeling only grew when Richarlison’s first act after coming off the substitutes’ bench was to head a Porro cross wide from six yards with the goal gaping.
Then it happened; the type of moment that encourages opposition supporters to use that yawningly dull phrase “Spursy”, which has no real place under the Postecoglou regime.
Under minimal pressure, Destiny Udogie self-imploded by playing a woefully underhit back pass to Vicario, whose only option was to hare out and push the ball clear with Bowen bearing down on him.
Presented with the opportunity to shoot as the goalkeeper lay on the floor, Ward-Prowse’s initial effort hit the post, only to rebound straight back for him to pass into an empty net.
Despite increasingly urgent pleas from the home supporters, Spurs could find no way back to salvage even a point.
