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A below-par Tottenham Hotspur were handed their second defeat of the week today, falling 0-2 to Leicester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
A Jamie Vardy penalty and an own goal from Toby Alderweireld were enough to hand the Foxes a win, moving Brendan Rodgers’ side into second in the Premier League table.
Tottenham looked largely out of ideas throughout the game and failed to really test Kasper Schmeichel. And while Leicester didn’t show that much more attacking intent, they did make the most of their chances.
Here are five talking points from Leicester’s win over Tottenham.
#1 Aurier’s rush of blood costs Tottenham dearly
Much has been made during the current campaign of the improvement in Tottenham right-back Serge Aurier. When Tottenham brought in Matt Doherty from Wolves in the summer, it appeared that Aurier’s days in the starting XI were numbered.
However, his performances have improved dramatically, and he’s largely kept Doherty out of the side.
Today, though, was a flashback to his former self, as he gave away a first half penalty with a rash challenge on Leicester’s Wesley Fofana.
The incident occurred on the verge of half-time. A James Maddison free-kick was poorly cleared by Moussa Sissoko, and when the ball fell to Fofana on the edge of the box, Aurier barged into him from behind, sending him sprawling.
Play continued momentarily, but a VAR check confirmed the foul, and unsurprisingly, Jamie Vardy netted from the subsequent spot-kick.
It was a ridiculous and unnecessary challenge from Aurier, whose only defense was perhaps that referee Craig Pawson should’ve blown for half-time before the incident even happened. The second half saw the Ivorian withdrawn from the match, with Harry Winks replacing him. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Doherty now start Tottenham’s next Premier League match.
#2 When will the offside rules be looked at when it comes to VAR?
For Leicester today, it was a case of whatever VAR gives, it can also take away. The Foxes appeared to have doubled their lead early in the second half, with James Maddison latching onto a long pass to run clean through and neatly finish past Hugo Lloris.
However, a VAR check decided that the England international was offside, with at worst, his elbow ahead of Toby Alderweireld. Simply put, this was a ludicrous offside call in a long list of them during the current campaign.
Surely the offside law's idea is to prevent an unfair advantage for a goal-hanging attacker – not to chalk off perfectly acceptable goals by what appears to be a matter of millimeters.
Thankfully for Leicester fans, the disallowed goal didn’t matter today, as the Foxes ended up with a comfortable win anyway. But had Tottenham come back and won 2-1, Brendan Rodgers and his team could definitely have felt aggrieved.
At this point, it’s time that the rules surrounding offsides are reviewed, just as the rules around handball were earlier in the season. They’re simply chalking off too many acceptable goals to be allowed to remain as they are now.
#3 Tottenham given a taste of their own medicine for Leicester’s second goal
Tottenham could probably claim they were unlucky for Leicester’s second goal today. After all, Jamie Vardy’s header wasn’t going in and only ended up in the net when it flicked off the leg of Toby Alderweireld.
However, the move that led to said goal was straight out of Tottenham’s playbook this season. It was a quick counter-attack that saw Marc Albrighton sprinting into a good position before finding Vardy with a nicely aimed cross.
Sure, Moussa Sissoko should probably have prevented Vardy’s header in the first place, but it was still fascinating to see Tottenham’s defense caught out like this. Based on how counter-heavy Jose Mourinho’s gameplans have been this season, you’d have thought his players would be more capable of defending such an attack.
As it was, Alderweireld’s own goal essentially killed the game. Judging by today’s performance, it may well be Leicester rather than Tottenham, who are the Premier League’s most dangerous counter-attacking side, and that’s interesting indeed.
#4 Is Tottenham’s title challenge dead in the water?
Following last week’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, plenty of questions were asked about Tottenham and a potential Premier League title challenge. Jose Mourinho’s side had been on a fantastic run, defeating Manchester City and Arsenal and drawing with Chelsea. But the draw with Palace brought into question how Spurs would do against sides who wouldn’t fall into their counter-attacking trap.
The loss to Liverpool didn’t really answer any questions either way. Tottenham were desperately unlucky to lose – but today’s defeat should be much more concerning for Mourinho and for fans of his side.
Tottenham looked completely bereft of ideas from the start of the game, and many of Mourinho’s starters looked exhausted. Moussa Sissoko, Sergio Reguilon, Son Heung-min, and Harry Kane all had their worst games in a long time, while Tanguy Ndombele was substituted at half-time.
Worse for Mourinho, Giovani Lo Celso then suffered an injury, and substitutes Lucas Moura and Gareth Bale were equally ineffective. Really, none of Tottenham’s players should emerge with any credit today.
So was it simply a case of Leicester catching Tottenham on a bad day? Was it the fact that all of that early-season football is finally catching up with Mourinho’s men? Or, more worryingly, was this result – as well as the Palace draw – a sign that Tottenham have been found out?
We’ll probably discover the answer when Tottenham head to Wolves next weekend. Lose that one, and any talk of a title challenge likely goes up in smoke.
#5 Can Leicester put together a title challenge instead?
Incredibly, despite losing five matches this season – including their most recent one to Everton on Wednesday – Leicester now find themselves behind only Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table following today’s victory.
So with that in mind, can Brendan Rodgers’ side now launch a real title challenge? It’s a fair question to ask.
On one hand, they dealt with a very tricky test in the form of Tottenham today and were able to open up what was the Premier League’s tightest defense on multiple occasions. And more to the point, they kept a clean sheet despite being faced with the attacking talents of Kane, Son, Bale, et al.
On the other hand, though, they were terrible in their recent loss to Everton. And their home form has been desperately poor this season, with four losses in seven games, including a really poor defeat to Fulham.
Consistency is probably the key. If Brendan Rodgers can get his side playing as well as they did today for a longer stretch, then they could definitely make some noise at the top of the table. With their next game being a tricky one against Manchester United, we should find out quickly.
