Tottenham disappoint in Wolverhampton loss

Tottenham seriously damaged their recently founded title challenge with a shameful loss to Wolves at Wembley on Saturday.

It was only a matter of days ago that the rest of the English media joined me in suggesting that Tottenham had a legitimate chance to win the title this season.  The only thing that they had to do was remain consistent and at times hammer out results with professional if tired performances.  The match against Wolves should have been one of those exactly.

With their title rivals Liverpool in a tough match against Arsenal on the same day and Manchester City taking on a newly revitalized Southampton on Sunday this was a great opportunity for Tottenham to take their challenge straight to the top.  They could have put some distance between themselves and City and legitimized their challenge.

Instead what happened in the second half was one of the most shameful examples of Premier League defending that most people are going to see for many years to come.

Having been out in front with a beautiful goal from Harry Kane the only thing that this match required was concentration and professionalism.  People will shudder at the suggestion but it required exactly the sort of match management that Chelsea displayed under Jose Mourinho in his first stint.  Raw, powerful and exactly what is necessary to win.

The second half though was ridiculous.  Davinson Sanchez lost his man and allowed one of the easiest free headers that will probably be seen this season.  Then where Spurs are normally excellent in the open field they were clumsy and sent passes to all the exact wrong places and allowed Wolves to cut through them with vigor.

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That then coupled with some incredibly clumsy and lazy defending eventually had Wolves up 3-1 in less than 20 minutes of play.

Pochettino will have to arrest this sort of thing before the critics begin to circle him as well.  In a week in which Spurs had the opportunity to bury the haters and prove their credentials to the masses this performance was nothing short of a complete embarrassment and the sort of thing that they should not let happen.  Champions do not allow this sort of thing to happen.