That Erik Lamela, seems like a nice boychick. Needs to fill out a bit but a lovely touch, easy on the eye with the ball at his feet and a flowing stride that whets the appetite. More please, but I’m not sure when, not in the League at least.

So how about our Andros then? Our policy of loaning out young players to gain experience has paid dividends, although using England as our feeder club is a little cheeky. Hearty congratulations to him on two fine, eye-catching performances for the national side. Particularly impressive was the way he mixed it up, going outside to cross right-footed as well as cutting in, knocking the ball short to keep possession if he could not make any headway (rather than trying a futile dribble) and his link-up play with Rooney and others up front.

I don’t want to rain on his parade or pee on his bonfire when I add that for us, it’s not worked as well. Against West Ham he ran into brick walls and blind alleys, unwilling or unable to go wide and cross with his right foot, while Chelsea turned the match in their favour by targeting our right-hand side. In the end, Townsend was substituted.

It’s stating the bleedin’ obvious to say that the Premier League is different. Lamela and Townsend have different styles and are at different stages of their development but both face the same issue. They have little to space in which to operate and any defensive shortcomings will be ruthlessly exploited. Also, the Wham game will become a template for how to play against us.

As Villas-Boas struggles to create the best blend from the riches at his disposal, he has to get that balance right, not just for these two young men but for the team as a whole. More bleedin’ obvious: the side needs time to bed in. It takes a while before players can settle. Most of the new signings are young, although Eriksen and Lamela have already played for years outside their home countries. The singular demands of the Premier League are by no means insurmountable but they exert considerable physical and mental pressure. Add to that the fact that Villas-Boas has yet to decide his best side and the question becomes not whether they need time but how much time is reasonable?

Hardly part of the Spurs pantheon but Steve Hodge always sticks in my mind. Signed from Forest, he made an immediate impact when he arrived only to fade into obscurity as his influence dwindled away to nothing. I mention this only because his experience was unusual. The vast majority of players give of their best after many months or typically in their second year. I’m including most of the best here: Ardiles, Mabbutt, Waddle, Sheringham, Bale. Not everyone fits the bill – Gough and Lineker hit the ground running – but although it is an obvious point, it tends to get lost in these days of media hype and inflated expectation. Players need time and fans need to be patient.

So maybe a year is reasonable, not to peak but to significantly raise the level of influence a player has. We probably haven’t got that but our buying policy is based around playing the long game, with developing talent able to take us to the level of contenders but, crucially, with room to improve still further. Holtby, Lamela, Paulinho, Sandro, Chadli, Eriksen, these are the imports who fit the bill, with Townsend and Rose as home-grown talent. Lloris, Dembele and Vertonghen have their best years ahead of them.

Sounds good but there is frustration in store. The media will severely scrutinise any weakness as a sign of failure. Having built us up to title contenders after our good start to the season, anything less than that will be deemed by them as failure. The narrative has been created even though it was false in the first place – I would be amazed if we got near the league title this year.

The issue for supporters is different. For us, we can see the potential and desperately want the success we crave after so many years of loyalty and unfulfilled dreams. It’s the what-might-be that gets us, every time and there is so much to look forward to here.

So what to do? In this next phase of the season, Villas-Boas has to let loose the skill and creativity he has invested in. I follow the tactics discussions a little and like to think I can grasp most of it. Basically however, in the Premier League you need to get enough players back to defend and enough to get forward. Easy, huh? You need quick, flexible and versatile players. Check – we have that in abundance. The formation itself is less significant than players having an awareness what’s going on around them, to know when to get forward and when to hold back. Check – we should be able to do that.

Back to Lamela and Townsend – either they (and Chadli, Siggy or Lennon) learn to work harder and track back or you sort out the rest of the team to give them some cover. We have played most of the season in a 4-2-3-1 with one of the DMs getting forward to support an attack if there is room, the wide players in the three cutting in and width coming from the full-backs. Who would have thought the return of Danny Rose would ever be so anticipated? One of the key elements of our balance disappears without him.

At home I’m inclined to have one DM to enable another in a further advanced position to ensure we dominate that area and support Soldado in the box. Attacking full-backs should be extras – they can join the attack later, the second phase so to speak, or break from deep on the counter with others staying back to cover. With their first thought a defensive one, hanging back gives the midfield more freedom to get forward. Siggy has done well but I would give others a go. Holtby in particular looks raring to go. Townsend will have more freedom and Lennon is waiting in the wings. Soldado needs crosses – I think he tends too far towards the near post and should remain more central in the box. This positioning is even more important if we have left-footers on the right and right-footers on the left. The near post is less profitable for strikers in this set-up as crosses curl to the back post or the centre.

At centre-back, Kaboul’s absence worries me. if fit, he should replace Dawson. In reality, I am worried that he will never recover his pace and strength that was so formidable. Chiriches needs game time, and the upcoming round of the Europa League and League Cup is perfect. We must rotate. So far playing a strong team has put us in a good position and allowed the team to play together. Before Christmas, many need a rest.

So far this season Spurs have been all feline grace and power, leaving the fans purring with delight. Yesterday all we could do was retch and heave, coughing up a giant spittle-ridden fur-ball that covered north London. We were heavily defeated and deserved it.

The Hammers completely dominated this match, not in terms of possession or territory – they were pinned back in their own half for extended periods – but the manner in which their tactics dictated the game’s shape and pattern. Spurs spent 90 minutes trying to catch up. Like some sadistic episode of the Crystal Maze, the boleyn boys set us a series of puzzles to which we could never find the answer.

Big Sam is fond of his equally large centre forwards. Poor man, he’s never quite got over the fact that Kevin Davies has got older as the years passed. As the Hammers struggle for form and goals, I swear he wakes at night in a cold sweat screaming, ‘Just give it to Kevin…’ before sheepishly realising he’s had to make do with Carlton Cole. Maybe he’s discovered the way out of this recurring nightmare. How about passing the ball? Worked a treat yesterday. Bereft of centre forwards, he packed his midfield and told the front men, or rather the least defensively minded midfielders, to close down in our half. We couldn’t play out from the back and could never settle on the ball. They seldom allowed Vertonghen to hold the ball so it ended up at Dawson’s feet, which in turn meant it was only a matter of time before they got the ball back again.

Elsewhere they closed down ferociously and funnelled our wide men into the middle where they were gobbled up by hungry defenders. We spent most of the time trying to thread the ball through non-existent gaps before giving up the ghost and just cut out the middle man by passing it directly to them. Eleven men back within 35 yards of goal is hard enough to overcome even on a good day, which this most certainly wasn’t. However, the hammers made it more difficult by playing the ball out of defence and then in the second half becoming increasingly adept on the counter. They certainly have a better grasp of the offside law than the Chel**a players demonstrated last week.

From Spurs’ perspective, this performance was devoid of any redeeming features. Lloris did all he could, Dembele was the best of the outfield players, a dubious honour, and Townsend at least occasionally took the game to our opponents although without end-product. Tottenham are a work in progress and there will be bad days. As I said recently, the surprise has been how well the squad has settled down. What concerns me most is how easily we forgot the lessons that apparently we have learned so far. They showed little movement and less patience. To break down defences like this, you have to move them around, stretch them with a bit of width and break that up with some direct running. Against Cardiff we scored in the last minute with our 29th goal attempt, yesterday we ran out of ideas or invention well before half-time.

Also, a few of the niggles that had been around, things that needed more work, became ruthlessly exposed as major faults. In response to the pressure, Villas-Boas rightly pushed up another midfielder but it should have been Dembele not Paulinho. I understand why the manager wants some passing from the back and the Moose did well enough but his shooting, ability to pick out a pass and above all his strength with the ball at his feet surely could have been better employed around the edge of the W Ham box.

There was no leadership or direction. Eriksen, lofty and aloof, played the game at his pace, oblivious of the fact that the game left him way behind. Sigurdsson and Townsend provided little width. Siggy failed to take up dangerous positions in the box to support lone striker Defoe while Townsend’s reluctance to cross with his right foot meant he was running inside and across the back four, where he was less dangerous. We get width from our full-backs. The lacklustre Walker did not exploit the space out wide while Naughton, a right-footer, also comes inside by instinct.

At the back, Dawson was exposed on three occasions, two around the half-way line and was furiously backpedalling for Morrison’s third but although every goal links to a greater or lesser extent to defensive failure, this blog will stick by its rule and praise good play when it happens. It was a shame the talented but dissolute Morrison should come good against us but that was a fine goal, weaving into the space left by Vertonghen as he rightly tried to do something different further up the pitch.

After a dull first half, we upped the tempo at the start of the second. This was our best spell, but when the chance came, Defoe, one on one, failed to lift the ball over the keeper’s legs. One further chance was cleanly hit and well-saved but straight at the keeper. And that was that. A corner at the other end, not for the first time in his Spurs career Vertonghen was drawn underneath a set-piece cross and Reid headed goalward. The ball rebounded to him from a team-mate and he slotted home. Then Lloris saved Vaz Te’s shot but the rebound hit the W Ham man as he fell. He knew little about it but in it went as Hugo threw his hands heavenwards. Morrison finished it off.

Good fortune in the first two goals – MOTD replay also showed Vertonghen being pushed in the back as he leapt, two hands but not picked up on in the analysis because it did not fit the chosen MOTD  narrative of tough West Ham – but a win that was completely and utterly deserved. Time for reflection during the international break but I suspect AVB would like play again tomorrow, just to get this out of our system.

If Sandro is fit, he has to return to offer much-need strength and drive in centre midfield. Rose could find his prospects improved by his absence – there’s been nothing down that left. Of the rest, Soldado, Paulinho and Eriksen need more time to get used to what’s being asked of them. I would rotate the squad for at least three cup games – some are being overplayed. The biggest question is this: Villas-Boas does not yet know his best eleven. He thought he did and he’s allowed this side time to gel, but the balance is not right yet. Plenty of time to ponder in the next fortnight.

The Y word debate overshadowed the build-up to this game. Fans responded in typical fashion – they ignored everything and did what they wanted. Plenty of chants with the Y word, although I can’t vouch for the suggestion that 10,000 voices shouted, “Pid” or “Mid” in unison. I could not hear any abuse from the opposition, although I read some reports of this on twitter and I’m not sure that the chant of ‘Paulo Di Canio’ late on was purely a vote of sympathy for the ex-Sunderland manager.

I’ve written about this before and so I’ve not repeated myself recently. I am probably in a minority of one as a Spurs fan who takes Baddiel seriously, it’s just that I don’t agree with him. I was around in the mid/late seventies when Spurs fans embraced the abuse they received in most away grounds and thus neutralised the hate. As a jew myself I understand better than most just how complex an issue this is. Instinctively I never use the word – not a thought-out position, I merely noticed last season that I’ve never used it to describe myself as a Spurs fan. Context is everything and in our hands it is not a term of abuse.

 

Billed as the clash between master and apprentice, this game transcended the hype.  In place of Mourinho’s knockabout pantomime villain schtick, we saw raw, compelling drama, a riveting spectacle in technicolour, 3D and surroundsound.  

This is what top class football looks like and Spurs were worthy contenders with every right to be there. There wasn’t a moment’s respite to be had as fortunes ebbed and flowed. It was tight and tense with a series of confrontations in every area of the field, the outcome of any one of which could decide the final result. At the finish, the relief that infused the pleasure indicated what more has to be accomplished to keep us up there as the season unfolds.   

Over the course of 90 minutes, we ran through the entire gamut of emotions. At kick-off it was hope and expectation. The media framed this as a battle between the managers but that fades to grey compared with the genuine edge surrounding this fixture. While early afternoon start-times never feel right, come the whistle the aggravation, the desperation to win against a side where we have a poor record, generated a powerful roar that drove on the early frantic exchanges. Make no mistake – the significance of this match went way beyond league position or London bragging rights. This was the real test of our credentials as a rising force and of the new Tottenham team. 

At Spurs, we know what follows expectation – disappointment. But these days there’s something different in the air. We had the better of a cagey first half hour. For much of the time the two formations matched up precisely, basically a 4-2-3-1, with Spurs making more of our possession. Dembele was busy, Eriksen the focal point and Townsend confident enough to take the attack to Chelsea down their left.  

Then the goal, a carbon-copy of the move that created the opener against Norwich. The same players, Soldado a touch to Eriksen who then slid the ball through to the onrushing Sigurdsson coming into the box on the diagonal, covering the same blades of grass. Instead of the far corner, Siggy drove on after a half-tackle to stroke it home at the near post. Part improvisation, part training ground and in the stands, pure joy. 

This was our best spell. Townsend became more prominent, his runs troubling Chelsea’s left hand side. His time at QPR has given him a confidence and determination to take the opportunity of first team football presented to him this season. He’s stronger and while Cole was unimpressed by his exaggerated stepovers, he’s overcome his main problem, a lack of awareness of what’s around him and is now a better judge of when to hold it and when to pass. He helped set up the move that enabled Paulinho to shoot inches wide at the near post. 

In these narrow margins games are won and lost. Our justified optimism was tempered by niggling doubts. As that ball slipped by the post, we knew chances would be few and far between. Whatever the pressure, they needed to go in. 

Sure enough, Chelsea came back into it towards the end of the half. They did not take the couple of chances that came their way and on one occasion Vertonghen tackled heroically to thwart another good opportunity.   

At Loftus Road, Redknapp may have taught Townsend how to become a Premier League winger but he also left him with some bad habits. Wide men have to get back to cover but too often he was drifting in no man’s land. Mourinho targeted our wings as the weakness from the beginning. In the first half, it was long balls from defence. During one injury break, Luiz and Ramirez were animatedly discussing how to float curling passes into the gap down our left. Naughton and the diligent, hard-working Siggy put paid to that apart from one move.  

Not so on the other side. A change in tactics with Ramirez moving to the middle and Mata coming on decisively shifted the balance of power. They pressed hard and were first to every loose ball. We began to be caught in possession. We looked up and no one was available as Chelsea flooded the midfield. Repeatedly exposed down the right and unable to get hold of the ball, Townsend came off to be replaced by Chadli as Villas-Boas desperately tried to catch up before the Blues ran away with the game. 

Pleasure turned to pain as our opponents took over. There is nothing more anxiety-provoking than the fine margins of an offside trap. With Torres running the channels and a midfield apparently perfectly adapted to defeat the trap, this was a stomach-churning time. Demeble worked tirelessly but Eriksen disappeared, Soldado could not hold the ball and contributed little and Chadli despite his imposing build melted away shortly after he appeared.  

Lloris was outstanding, several sprawling saves with body and feet at the onrushing forwards and fearlessly coming far from the comfort of his line to punch away the growing number of free-kicks curling into our box. Last week I noted that one of the factors behind our defensive security this season was that we were giving away fewer unnecessary free-kicks in our half. However, under pressure we gave away one too many, Terry equalising, too much room in the box.  

These were anxious times. AVB kept adjusting – Holtby for the fading Eriksen – but Chelsea dominated, at least until Torres was sent off. I have not seen any replays of this game so I’ll leave it to the comments section to judge what did and did not happen. I saw him go for the man not the ball as he and Vertonghen challenged but didn’t see an elbow. Already booked, the ref gave a second yellow.  

What I can be certain of is that this once fine footballer spent the entire match enveloped in a red mist of bitter frustration. Fine by me – he’s less effective that way – but if he spent half the energy expended in niggles, pettiness and feeling hard-done by on actually playing football, he could be great again.

His dismissal was the final shift in the game’s equilibrium. Full circle – the match ended in hope and expectation as Spurs came forward purposefully and with patience, shifting the ball from side to side to stretch the ten men. At one point Dawson, 30 yards from their goal, was our mst withdrawn outfield player. It nearly worked. Defoe was on for Soldado, a bold substitution from AVB to take the game to Chelsea despite the pressure we were under. He found space but missed the two chances that came his way. Fine margins again. 

Going home – relief to be honest. A point in a game we could have lost. We competed well but were overwhelmed too easily at the start of the second half. Eriksen and Soldado contributed little. Eriksen seemed unsure about his positioning when Chelsea had the ball and was aimlessly too far forward. Wingers have to track back. Chadli appeared lost.  

Siggy worked very hard all game. Naughton at left back did OK defensively but because he is not as comfortable on the ball as most of his team-mates, he gets caught in possession. Also, full-backs are important in our attacks, pushing up allowing our wide-men to come inside and get into the box, in turn vital if we have only one up front. Naughton is also right footed, so he comes inside too, denying us the options.

And what about the managers? A first-half match up with Our Andre getting more from his men than Jose the ugly sister but Mourinho ran the second period with Villas-Boas on the catch-up with considered substitutions to shift a balance that tipped finally only with the red card.