The memories of last season’s 6-0 defeat at Manchester City are hard to erase. The goals themselves, one conceded after 13 seconds, were bad enough but it was the manner of the capitulation that can still bring out a cold sweat in the middle of the night. In particular an image revealed by the TV of four or five Spurs players otherwise engaged as the whistle blew. Thinking more about the first train home than the game. Kaboul tying his shoelaces.

A section of the media, Neil Ashton and Martin Samuels in the vanguard, saw that their victim was vulnerable and pounced on Villas-Boas, unleashing a torrent of criticism stored up from days at Chelsea, not Spurs’ fault but we suffered most. ‘We’ meant ‘them’ but soon enough AVB had to refer to Tottenham as ‘them’ not ‘us’ because he was gone.  Two managers later, it feels like several seasons have passed but in fact it’s under a year. Time flies when you’re not having fun.

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The match ebbed and flowed in timelapse, half a season’s worth of incidents speeded up and packed into 90 minutes. 4 penalties, sublime skill, pathetic defending (form both teams), end-to-end football in an open, exciting match that for neutrals could have been the best game of the season so far. How dare they enjoy that?

39 goal attempts and almost as many turning points but Soldado’s missed penalty after an hour did for us. The time for ifs and buts, could-haves and should-haves was past. In the middle of a spell in the second half where we took the game to City and found their defence was almost as porous as ours, Bobby stepped up, waited for the keeper to move and as usual put the ball low towards the corner, tried a tested routine, reliable….except this time something in the wiring of a brain that has seen him score goals for a lifetime fused. It compelled him to put the ball in the direction Hart was diving. It sucked all the strength from his leg muscles.

Hart saved the feeble effort. Shortly afterwards the keeper blocked Soldado’s fine effort from Rose’s cross. The game was gone and with it what remained of the Spaniard’s fragile confidence. Until then it had been his best game for Spurs for a long while. The link-up play with Eriksen in particular was delightful at times and one first-half pass sliced apart the City defence only for Mason to hit Hart’s legs with an outside-of-the-foot prod when something more substantial was required to put Spurs one up.

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So: goals and penalties, let’s go. Preface: in my view Aguero is the best in the world in the box and this was an outstanding day even for him.

First goal: Lamela gave the ball away and had a lousy match. City overloaded on our left in the first half, seeing Dier and Lamela as our weak spot and how right they were. Aguero does this thing: in the box most strikers take a touch forward before shooting. He shifts the ball a yard diagonally away from the goal and therefore from the defender in front of him then shoots. It’s impossible for the defender to tackle because he’s now two yards from the ball with Aguero in between. This also opens up the angle for the far post. The real problem here for Spurs was not so much Kaboul even though he gave him too much room but that Aguero needs two men to block and cut down that angle and space. We never did that.

And Lampard was in an offside position in the keeper’s line of sight. Questionable to say the least. not according to Alan Shearer on MOTD. Lampard couldn’t be offside ‘because Lloris wouldn’t have saved it anyway.” Rewrite the laws if it suits why don’t you. Or use your brain, which is why you get paid a 7 figure sum for a torrent of smug drivel.

Penalty: down goes Lampard who as all English football knows is a fine upstanding top hole pip pip decent chap. Except he wasn’t upstanding this time. he never dives so it must have been a penalty. He did and it wasn’t.

Second penalty: Kaboul ploughs in on the trickiest player in the league David Silva. Blatant pen, Kaboul reckless in the extreme and as captain no example to the rest of his side. Lloris saves with his legs. Lloris always dives to his left, you know.

Third pen: ours, Soldado was tripped outside the box. You know the rest. The ref’s having a mare, you may have gathered by now.

Fourth pen: Fazio who had until watched the penalty box mayhem without contributing much, pulled Aguero down as he ran in the box towards a cross. Might have got away with that in Spain. Sent off: was the ref certain Aguero would get on the end of that ball? I don’t think he could be. No red.

Fourth City goal: long ball, Aguero did that thing again. The free kick was taken quickly, three yards in front of where it should have been. Should therefore have been brought back. Did I mention the ref wasn’t having a good game?

Returning to the problems posed at the top of this piece, what’s important to me is whether or not we have moved on since then. That match was an example, albeit stark and extreme, of our problems in recent years against the top four. I used to say, ‘our rivals for the top four’ but there’s no chance of that, long gone. Spurs have a long-standing fatal problem of team deficiencies in attitude and togetherness coupled with failures of individuals at key moments. It’s a toxic combination.

Leave the ref out of it, yesterday showed familiar flaws. There were signs of better team play, especially coming forward. In the week Eriksen’s international manager criticised him for not dominating games. It’s something I’ve pointed out here too. Without putting undue pressure on a player who is still quite young, he has the talent to do much more. Goodness knows we need it. Yesterday he scored our equaliser with a fine right-footer, could have had another in the fist half when he passed unaccountably instead of shooting with his left and for the first hour was always a threat. Maybe he responded. It may be more to do with the extra room we have when we go away. City are the most attacking and therefore open of the top four and give others room.

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Without the ball we didn’t press so much as fall back, staying narrow, compressing the space and forcing City down the flanks, which worked well versus Arsenal and defending a lead against Southampton. Mason was delightfully energetic and combative, robbing the City midfielder to set up the first and generally being a right old nuisance. He moves the ball on quickly and his determined to take his chance. He’s waited a long time. Perhaps in the modern game 23 is the new 19. Players have to learn their trade elsewhere before coming into first team contention, more fully formed as footballers than in past generations.

On the bad days we’ve tended to fade. Fade – say what you mean man: give up. The late goals plus Milner hitting the post is a sign that problem hasn’t gone away but some mitigating circumstances, I reckon. 2-1 down, we had to push up and had a real chance until missed chances and the sending-off. Pochettino’s substitutions hindered rather than helped. The arrival of Townsend and Dembele disrupted the team’s balance. It would have been better to tweak, keeping the central midfield solidity as an attacking base.

However, we’ll get nowhere if we give the ball away with such profligacy. Kaboul and Lamela were the worst culprits in the first half, losing the ball close to our box. These errors led directly to at least two goals. Also, our progress was hampered by individual errors. Kaboul’s tackle for the penalty was inexcusable and even allowing for Aguero’s brilliance in the box there were other unnecessary, totally avoidable mistakes. The faults of key players are there too often, especially when we don’t have the ball.  Never mind the ref, we simply can’t play like this. It’s our fault, no one else to blame.

Lloris was great, I love him. End on a positive.

On Friday my granddaughter asked me who my favourite Spurs player was. I had to think for a moment, then told her it was Hugo Lloris. She persisted. “Not a goalkeeper granddad.” I guess keepers aren’t the men to spark the imagination of a 9 year old these days, whereas when I was her age Pat Jennings was a superhero to me, with gravity-defying leaps and brave deeds, saving the team when all else had failed, week after week. She’ll learn.

I paused. To be honest, I could not think of an answer. It’s telling that while I see the positives in almost all of our players, no one stands out. Eriksen has the potential but has not kicked on this season and is not yet able to make a midfield sing to his own tune and has not kicked on so far this season. Lamela is the hero we crave but has not found a way past the posse of opponents who descend on him the instant he gets the ball at his feet. The rest are much of a muchness, although I have the utmost respect for Kaboul’s Kaptain Kourageous efforts recently. No point in looking to any of our strikers for inspiration.

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Yesterday’s narrow win against Southampton was well-crafted and decidedly unspectacular. Right now, seems we can’t have both and yesterday the full spectrum of positives and negatives were on display. Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham will be organised and hard-working rather than relying on inspiration and we did well enough against a team who are themselves disciplined and solid. Yet it’s the star men, the favourites, who will provide those moments of inspiration that turn solid into solid gold. Eriksen played in fits and starts again, good touches without taking over for periods. Yet he has the ability to win the game, seizing on one of our few chances and finding the bottom corner of the net from just outside the box. Well set up by Adebayor and Chadli, this was a rare example of quick passing matched by good positional sense running movement off the ball.

Pochettino knows this. He’s known for press and run rather than push and run but he’s consistently picked attack-minded players like Lamela, Eriksen and Chadli. Many are grumbling that Spurs are not exciting to watch. That’s less about tactics or philosophy and more about the growing pains of yet another new side under yet another new manager.

Poch plays attack-minded men and likes to keep the ball moving, in a forward direction if at all possible. Full-backs are encouraged to get forward too, although we didn’t see so much of this yesterday. It’s just that it’s taking time to get the message across. This was what, 11 or 12 games in. There are signs of stability – strength and understanding in the back four, pressing together early on then falling back later for protection, the key there being the word ‘together’.

Indeed, we seem happier falling back and hitting back on the counter. Our best attacks came on the break with men piling forward.

Some individuals are flourishing too. Capoue is proving to be a fine DM, eating up the ground and using fine positional sense to plug the gaps. He’s a natural defensive midfielder. There’s Kaboul as skipper and Danny Rose the revelation. Another excellent game nearly curtailed because he built up a number of fouls after the referee harshly booked him earlier, that warranted a lengthy ‘one more and you’re off’ lecture. Lloris outstanding, pink must be his colour. Faultless on his line and in the air. You’d think he could a ball after all these years, but no. You’d think somebody at the club wouldn’t need a UEFA ‘A’ license to teach him how to do it. Mason good yesterday too. As I said last week, he’s young so I forgive him his mistakes if he keeps working and trying to get things going, as he did yesterday. On several occasions he and he alone instigated a bit of pass and move. Others take note.

Further forward there are problems turning defence into attack. For Eriksen and Lamela, see above. Townsend and Lennon when deployed on the ‘wrong’ side get swallowed up too easily.

Lots of criticism of Adebayor focusses on his workrate but what’s missing is goals. That’s what strikers do, I thought. Sure, these days they have to do more. Yesterday towards the end of the game he was tired but won applause, rightly so, for single-handedly worrying the Saints back four as they attempted to play the ball out. He began the move that led to the goal, significantly from wide left where he can drift away for markers and open up space in the middle. All good. He failed either to hold up the ball or link with the midfield, poor overall in that respect.

However, he was no danger to anybody in the box and neither for that matter was anyone else, apart from one Chadli effort where he hit the inside of the post. With his current form you expected him to score and certainly he looks much more useful to the team if he’s released from at least some of his covering duties.

This lack of punch in the box is the biggest single issue Pochettino has to ponder over during the international break. Defensively we look stronger. Kaboul and Vertonghen were solid and determined throughout and we defended a series of set-pieces, usually coming from free-kicks unnecessarily conceded, pretty well. Also, as per last week, we drop back to four in midfield as he second half progressed. That worked well too, especially with Mason and Capoue’s hard work and intelligent positional sense.

We’re not making enough chances. We don’t get the ball from midfield to the feet or head of men in the box, whether it’s by through-ball or cross. He has little to work with, another infuriating legacy of the botched transfer policy that leaves us little alternative but to play Manu every week.

Early days. It is, I’m afraid, and we will have to put up with many more tension-filled endings like yesterday’s where despite a decent performance the lack of spark meant we never got away from our opponents. Saints missed a golden chance to equalise near the end.

Without big performances from the few with star quality, we will have to rely on teamwork. Slowly the message is getting over. Not to everyone. Yesterday Jason Burt in the Telegraph reported that ‘senior players’ were unhappy with Pochettino’s regime. Then again ‘senior players’ un-named of course, have supposedly been unhappy at the club under the last four managers.

More likely it’s a sign Pochettino does not have the players he really wants. Younger men respond to him because they are more willing to do his bidding, hence Mason embracing the opportunity presented to him. Otherwise, we have too many widemen in a side that gets width from the full-backs and a number of hard-running but not overly creative midfielders. And too few striking options.

I was too busy to write about the Besiktas match, or perhaps in the end I just couldn’t be bothered. So here it is: Spurs reserves aren’t very good. Who knew?

Pochettino rested his first choice team because before most of us he realised the full significance of the match against Southampton, for him and more importantly for Spurs. To me, another game along the road, to the media the benchmark of Tottenham’s progress. That we became a footnote on the back pages as Wenger and Mourinho slugged it out proves how important that win was. It eases the pressure as he works to develop the squad and the system. Something to build on, plenty to do, but better we do it away from the unflattering bright lights of the full media glare.

Finally, sad for Kyle Naughton. In the team on merit, handling the stick with admirable phlegmatic calm, now out for some time. Get well soon.

It’s said that sport doesn’t build character, it reveals it. Whoever coined that expression could have had the North London Derby in mind. For Spurs fans, it demonstrated the application and sheer bloody-mindedness that many of us believed our team crucially lacked. It was a point won, hard won indeed as Arsenal pressed for a winner for what felt like hours but was only the final fifteen minutes. With a level of composure to match our effort, Tottenham could have won all three.

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Hat-tip to two Spurs defenders, Younes Kaboul and Danny Rose, both of whom I have wondered about recently. Kaboul in particular appeared to have gradually succumbed to a series of injuries that left him stiff and wooden where once he was supple, creaking where once he was the quickest in the side. When he was recently made Spurs captain, many doubted his place in the starting line-up never mind as skipper but yesterday he proved manager Pochettino is a shrewd judge of character. He scored the winner when we last won at the Spacedome but the man of that match was William Gallas, and Kaboul followed his compatriot’s example with a similarly ferocious, driven performance.

As the crosses came in, Kaboul was solid and brave. One time, facing his goal and deep inside the area, he hooked a shoulder high ball away with his foot. His commitment quickly spread to the rest of the back four. Vertonghen was excellent in the second half, intercepting, blocking and tackling. A late improbable break could have pinched us a winner. We’d been pushed back so far, you felt as if the Belgian was just grateful to get out of our area,  but after a great run his choice of final ball was poor, something that described many of our attacks throughout the afternoon. Suddenly his absence at the back put us in danger but we scrambled it away.

Naughton also did well, his place in this side a reward for a good display in the week against Forest. On the other flank, his full back partner Danny Rose did us and himself proud with his finest game for the club so far. Character, you want character? This is the man with fear in his eyes, or at least he was last season after a series of blunders including an horrendous error in the Cup NLD last season. Written off by many, replaced by new signing Ben Davies – not so. His determination to keep his place has improved his game no end and he was excellent throughout, especially in the first half when many of the Arsenal attacks came down our left and despite the pace and power of Oxlade Chamberlain.

Arsenal had the better of the early exchanges in an opening that was brisk rather than derby-style helter skelter. We started with a 4-2-3-1 with Mason in alongside Capoue for his debut. If Pochettino was preaching high tempo and pressing, his pleas went unheard. We were sluggish so the manager switched to four across the middle with Adebayor working the line up front and Chadli wandering around aimlessly. It looked as if we were conceding ground around the halfway, drawing up a defensive line 40 yards out in a departure from our usual approach.

It worked for the most part. Arsenal were less able to initiate their passing and movement in centrefield. In the second half particularly they were forced out wide, still dangerous but those crosses are easier to handle than the bewildering passing patterns they are capable of. In the second half Sanchez and Welbeck did not have a chance. Also, the back four dropped deeper, making it hard for the Gunners to get round the back.

Arsenal had most of the ball but we had some of the best opportunities in the game. On several occasions we were on the break but the man on the ball chose the wrong option. Lamela and Eriksen were both guilty. However we made three good chances, Manu just failing with two and Chadli totally fluffing the third, the best of the lot.

Lamela was fully involved but his vain appeals for fouls that never were became tiresome, especially as he himself was in danger of totting up two bookings as the referee’s patience became thin. Mason’s character was tested but never in doubt. A fine, brave effort, I’m not interested in passing percentage or over-enthusiastic tackles, I’m looking long term and he showed he has the talent and attitude to match.

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In the second half we relieved the early Arsenal pressure by scoring. Eriksen’s challenge fell at Lamela’s feet and for the second time in three days his instant left-foot pass opened up the opposition. To Chadli, one touch and perfectly slotted in across the keeper. The Belgian may be our answer to our lack of strikers. In midfield he allows the game to pass him by but further forward that’s four he’s scored now.

Arsenal cranked it up and despite our best efforts equilised when Oxlade Chamberlain banged in a loose ball after some loose defending. In the past we might have caved in but Kaboul drove us on.

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During matches Hugo Lloris has the ashen, hollowed-eyed look of a man who has survived a serious accident but remains haunted by the trauma. I guess that’s what playing behind the Spurs defence does to you. Look deeper. It’s the mask of concentration of a player totally focussed on doing his level best for his team and that admirable attitude enveloped his back four in a reassuring certainty. Penned into his 6 yard box – Spurs for the most part defended deep so Arsenal could not get behind us – he was impeccable in the air and just fabulous on the ground. On several occasions he dropped low to smother and block. His second half save to a Mertesaker header was outstanding. The centre half hurled his considerable weight towards the ball and met it smack bang on the middle of his forehead. It was heading low into the corner but Lloris plummeted to his left and kept it out with the strength of a single giant hand. For an agonising moment it looked as if the force of the header was unstoppable and it had crept over but the Frenchman rose triumphant, vindicated by goal line technology. It won us a point.

Pochettino defended from the front as he did against W Ham keeping two up and bringing on Lennon on the left to match Oxlade Chamberlain’s pace. Adebayor kept working. Drifting wide meant he was seldom a threat in the box but it opened up space for others. I had hoped Eriksen would have made more of that than he did, indeed had hoped for more full stop.

After our recent league performances I felt like watching this one from behind the sofa. As it was, I made it onto the cushions and spent the majority of the time writhing in anxious contortions – normal for the NLD in other words so that’s Ok then. Thank goodness that after all these years it still matters. Age is irrelevent – you’re old when you don’t feel it any more.

There is something different about the derby these days, though. It’s something that is hard to admit but it’s this: we are the automatic underdogs. When I was younger, the most significant derby stat was that the win-lose-draw record for both teams was identical, even after all those years and despite periods of Arsenal dominance, most notably in the thirties and their Double. Now, regardless of the figures, they are the dominant force. Hard to stomach and hard to type but that is in the air for every NLD now.

Not saying we should accept it, certainly not drop our heads, as fans I mean, not the players. We are Spurs, we are N17, we are proud and we are so, so devoted and faithful. We the loyal supporters have more to be proud of because we have been tested and not found wanting. This performance and point was some reward.

However, we have much to do to get back to those heady days only two years ago where the 2-1 win at White Hart Lane seemed for a tantalising moment to be the tipping point. We were a young side on the up, Wenger’s methods were failing him at last. Yet we fell back and they retrenched. That story has been told in this blog – Levy failing to capitalise on success on by signing a couple of players at the right time (and there were several opportunities) good players not being replaced, the revolving door for managers. Arsenal had their financial problems. Now they earn £1m per home game more than Spurs in match revenue. Their wage bill is higher than Chelsea’s and they won’t fall foul of FFP because of that income. One manager in 18 years, we’ve had 11 or 12, i forget exactly, under Levy. We could fall further behind.

To play with fearsome effort and commitment yesterday was a fine achievement for Spurs. Let’s use it as a foundation to build another team and aim high. After all, we proved Arsenal aren’t as good as they think they are and we were better than I expected.

Still plenty of time to vote for Tottenham On My Mind in the Football Blogging Awards. Thanks to the many who have already done so, like them just click on the button at the top of the page. Much appreciated – as ever, couldn’t do it without you. Regards, Alan