Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas has carried himself well since taking over at Spurs at the beginning of last season, his earnest, temperate behaviour earning the respect of supporters and the football community alike. No doubt he still bears the scars of a media mauling while he was at Chelsea but he’s hidden them well, preferring to get on with his job and ensuring that attention remains on his team rather than on his merits as an individual.

Until now that is. The headlines after our last two matches have all been about the manager. After a squeaky win over Hull, he blamed the poor performance on the home crowd for allowing their anxiety to transmit through to the players. Yesterday he railed against anyone prepared to denounce the decision to keep Hugo Lloris on the field last Sunday after he inadvertently head-butted Lukaku’s knee. It’s a sudden and marked change in his approach. He’s come out to battle but the problem is, I’m not sure who he is fighting and frankly, whether AVB himself knows the answer.

After the Hull match, my concern was not so much what he said about the fans but more why someone so singleminded had allowed something beyond his control to intrude upon his decision-taking and distract from his focus on the team. This was nothing compared with his sustained, aggressive rebuttal of widespread accusations of negligence over the Lloris incident. The Frenchman took a heavy blow to the head and appeared dazed and disoriented for several minutes. Any player who is concussed or appears to be concussed should receive treatment and not carry on. This is the case in other contact sports like rugby or American football.

Villas-Boas was having none of it. Described as ‘angry’ in most papers, Villas-Boas was adamant that he stood by his decision to allow our brave keeper to play on. “I have registered the fact that a couple of people have taken this opportunity to find the chance to get themselves publicised. They have no experience on the pitch whatever in these situations.”

More than mere commenting on a controversial decision, Villas-Boas upped the stakes by suggesting people are using him and the club to criticise and make something of their own position. presumably he means the media or pundits. He denied that he takes this personally, saying enigmatically that, “After my Chelsea experience I took a vaccine that makes me immune to a couple of things.” He must be referring to the media here, yet has chosen to add remarks to his discussion of the incident itself that amount to an attack on that media, or at least sections of it. It’s clearly got under his skin. I hope my flu-jab is more effective than that vaccine.

The Lloris incident is a classic example of the clash between the old values of gutsy football hardmen, playing on regardless (think blooded bandaged Terry Butcher) and the modern application of science, where sports medicine has moved on from smelling salts and a cold sponge. There’s not a Spurs fan reading this who could deny admiring Lloris hugely for carrying on, and the same can be said for Townsend after his tumble into the stands the Sunday before. It showed committment and emotional investment in the club. Unfortunately, his bravery could have put his long-term health at risk and the decision was not his to make.

If Villas-Boas is searching for an issue where he wants to take a stand, this was a poor choice. Eminent experts in sports medicine queued up to explain the risks and condemn the decision. His denial of the value of comparisons with other incidents leaves him flailing wildly, his adversaries the best people in the medical field, not the media.

He’s also inconsistent regarding the key attribute of a good leader, accountability. On TV it looked clear that Spurs’ medics wanted him to come off. After the game, AVB implied he had overruled them, whereas yesterday he still took ultimate responsiblity for the decision but added that the doctors agreed.

We will never know the full truth but it is a shame, as AVB pointed out, that the team who saved the life of Fabrice Muamba are now under fire.

It’s hard to recall now the way sections of the tabloid media gleefully lined up to wait for what they saw as Villas-Boas’ imminent and inevitable downfall. His appointment was derided. Couldn’t handle the big boys of the Premier League. This coaching dossiers malarkey counted for nothing. Reports of disruption in the camp. Lloris was unhappy because he was not in the team. Now look at him – just one example of how Villas-Boas proved them wrong. So why start having a go now?

Perhaps he has had enough. Feeling secure, it’s time to fight back. Connected with this, it could also be that he is adopting the favourite managerial ploy of creating an ‘us against the world’ mood in the squad. We’re under bombardment, everyone is against us so we will stay strong. If this is the case, his public comments over the fans and the Lloris incident were in fact intended more for the private consumption of the team.

It’s perfectly possible that he believes this is a worthy cause, that he is defending his honour and that of the medical staff. He undoubtedly feels aggrieved but if that were the whole story, I suspect he would not have gone on the offensive against mysterious forces of evil with such determination.

I’m left to conclude that this is an outburst of underlying anxiety about the current situation at Spurs that he has projected onto other events. We all know in life that when people lose their rag, often the incident that provoked it was not in proportion to the level of expressed anger and irritation. It’s the tip of the iceberg, a trigger for deeper meanings.

Our Andre knows things are not going as well as he hoped. For the first time, attention is turning to the way he has set his team up. His chosen tactics and personnel do not enable us to score goals. He is more ambitious than any of us, a burning, overwhelming desire to prove himself through his methods and his team, to receive validation through the medium of his side. While many of us are counselling patience, AVB is rattled.

He has plenty of options and it’s wrong to characterise him as rigid in his thinking. However, he needs to keep his mind firmly on the job. Having a rattled manager is not good for the club. Never mind the crowd, it’s his anxiety transmitting itself to the players that we should be concerned about. Frankly he’s not handled this well. Going public is not helping Andre Villas-Boas and not helping the team.

I didn’t get to see my old yiddisher aunt very often but when I did, at some point in the conversation she always gave me the same advice. “Boychick, listen to an old woman. You need a good basis in life. Make sure you have a good basis.”

Turns out basis could mean, well, anything she wanted it to mean. If I should be a doctor, lawyer or accountant, so much the better but get a job that made money and lasted a lifetime. Qualifications, a very good basis. A good woman, and steer clear of shikses. Or a couple of lamb chops in the freezer, just in case.

Sound advice, though, that’s stood me in good stead and applicable in any situation, although I confess I’ve not followed it too closely. Social worker – feh! What’s with those people? I guess the footballing equivalent is an uncompromising defence. Can’t do without it. No point having these fancy-dan flighty forwards, as I’m sure auntie would have said if she didn’t reject football as a worthwhile activity so comprehensively, if you let them in at the other end.

Spurs have conceded one goal in five away league games, five all season and three of those in one match. So why kvetsch? Surely everything is just fine, the perfect basis in fact for a great season. Tottenham Hotspur not giving goals away. Hard to believe and hard to believe there’s a ‘but’ floating around here somewhere. I don’t know which is more bizarre. A good point away from home but the prospect of more still tantalises.

Yesterday’s first half against was the season so far in microcosm. By far the superior side, we failed to score, our fluent, neat approach play producing a few chances and a few more shots from range but no goals. It’s a good season so far but it won’t get better until we turn dominance into chances and chances into goals.

I won’t dwell on problems that have come to rule recent match reports. Playing two inverted wingers creates more bother than they are worth. We’re lucky to have two wide men as good as Lennon and Townsend – I like them both. However, their pace and ability to cut to the byline or into the box is largely nullified when they come inside. As they cut across, they slow down. If they pass, it’s more likely to be sideways not forwards, and usually they face a packed defence relieved to find safety in numbers rather than being isolated and exposed out wide. I’d willingly trade a couple of long-range pearlers for a ready supply of crosses or through-balls.

TV and the feeling that actually we weren’t going to concede every time the ball went into our half gave me the luxury of studying Soldado’s movement off the ball. As the wingers get the ball, he moves into space but then often stops as he watches them wriggle across the box. He doesn’t know what to expect or where to go. He likes to meet the ball in front of him and slide off the defender’s shoulder into the channels. In fact, everyone stops. The momentum that kept Everton on the back foot for the first 30 minutes disappeared each time.

The same thing happened to Spurs when Ginola played, which is why I’ll never put him up there in my modern Spurs greats. All eyes on him, the reality is that he often slowed everything down. If he didn’t know what he was going to do, then his team-mates certainly didn’t. Pass and move – it shifts the ball quickly and draws defenders out of position.

Soldado needs help in the box. Lennon and Townsend are not the best players for that. Twice Lenny got the ball in the box on his left foot, once to cross from near the byline, once to shot. Both times he turned inwards to get the ball on his right foot, both times the opportunity was lost.

Bobby the soldier did not have a good one. He missed the two opportunities, neither straightforward, that came his way and could not keep hold of the ball. More worryingly, at times he followed the poor example of his team-mates by hanging back when he should have been bombing towards the 6 yard box at full pelt. Too many of the forwards opted for the comfort zone at the edge of the box. Too many providers, not enough finishers. Siggy made a noticeable difference towards the end, lifting the whole side who had appeared weary until his arrival.

Sandro efficiently protected the back four where Daws and Chiriches handled Lukaku well enough. Vertonghen had a good game, undeniably, but odd what the commentators see. Provan gave him man of the match saying he hadn’t put a foot wrong, but just before he was way out of position when the Everton sub waltzed his way through the defence only for Lloris, ever alert, to deal with it. Also, he could have lost the match with a missed tackle on Coleman that looked as sure a penalty as the same player’s foul on the Belgian in the first half. Still, he and Walker linked well with the wingers, which is the way to go and should have brought more reward in the first half.

Back to the penalties: one each but ours was more crucial. A goal up when we were playing so well but struggling to score could have altered the course of the whole match. However, the game was poorly refereed throughout.

Lloris proved he has the head of a battering ram and the heart of a lion, refusing to come off when Lukaku accidentally crashed his knee into the Frenchman’s head. For the second week running, the spirit and motivation of the squad was demonstrated by players refusing to quit after an injury. It was the first time I’ve seen player and club doctor arguing over whether to stay or leave the field. Hugo has gone up even more in my estimation – he was fearless and impeccable after the bump – but he should have gone off and AVB should not have given him the option.

As an aside linked to my last piece about the crowd and impatience, note that the Everton fans were straight on to their players when they missed two easy passes with less than ten minutes gone.

This is all becoming a bit samey. Patience is still the watchword but I need a change and so does Villas-Boas.