Spurs suffered a humiliating loss on the backs of a shambolic performance going down 6-0 to fellow title hopefuls Man City. The afternoon got a off to a bad start for Spurs, with them conceding a goal within 20 seconds after a Hugo Loris error. They early goal foreshadowed the rest of the afternoon as the worst was yet to come. Up to this point, Spurs had built there season on being solid defensively. But on this occasion they looked woefully short.

Spurs boss Andreas Villas Boas despondent, while Manuel Pellegrini delights in his sides win

For much the the afternoon Spurs showed poor defensive shape and poor organization magnified by a lack of intensity. They looked porous in midfield with big summer signing Paulinho often getting caught too high up the field leaving his fellow Brazilian Sandro stranded. At the back Spurs didn’t look much better with fullbacks Carl Walker and Jan Vertonghen spending more time attacking than defending.

City took advantage of the space playing and creating on the counter- attack. Yaya Toure was dominant in midfield while Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo were dominant up front, giving the Spurs back four fits all afternoon.

Andre Villas Boas will feel the pressure beginning to mount as in the face of this humiliating defeat. The result comes on the back of several less than stellar performances where Spurs have failed to score in the last 3 games and have only scored 9 on the season so far. Spurs brought in a lot of high price signings with the money made the Gareth Bale sale to Madrid, and the squad shows very little resemblance to the squad inherited from Harry Redknapp just over 2 years ago. With up to 7 new players in the starting line-up, it was expected that Spurs would need a certain amount of time for the team to gel and get on the same page.

However, Spurs now 12 games into the season still seem to play as a group of individuals who are trying to figure their team mates out. There still appears to be no offensive system or strategy which the team is built upon.

Spurs have shown their attacking deficiencies, often having lots of possession in non dangerous areas, but no real creativity and penetration in the final third.