Three worrying signs for Tottenham after third straight league loss

1. The return of Tottenham’s inexplicable mistakes

For a while Tottenham had pretty much eradicated costly mistakes from their repertoire. During Jose Mourinho’s reign, Spurs were expected — almost guaranteed — to make at least one error per match that led to an opposition goal. That mistake-prone nature plagued the side and was one of the primary reasons Spurs had to settle on a berth in the inaugural Europa Conference League.

After Nuno Espirito Santo departed north London, the errors ceased, thanks in large part to the galvanizing effect of Antonio Conte. The Italian deserved limitless credit for finding a way to turn a mistake-riddled team into an assured one which rarely, if ever, committed a fatal blunder.

Over the last month or so those dreaded mistakes have, like a devastating tsunami, smothered Spurs once more. The last five goals conceded were caused by inexplicable, unforgivable errors.

Davinson Sanchez, Ben Davies, Harry Winks, Emerson Royal, Matthew Doherty, even Hugo Lloris, have all been culpable for committing hare-brained howlers. Those errors cannot persist.

Otherwise Tottenham will quickly find themselves out of contention for even the Europa League, a thought too painful for many to contemplate.