Tottenham’s football has become so joyless that even Harry Kane and Son Heung-min have stopped working

Is this it? Is this what it was all building towards, the investment and the appointment of Antonio Conte? A team that occasionally functions in spurts – usually when Harry Kane and Son Heung-min both click – but more often labours its way through matches.

The league position is acceptable, for now, albeit only because results masked performances for a while. The overachievement of Newcastle and Arsenal mean that finishing in the top four will be harder than ever. But this felt very Nuno-ey, a 2-0 home loss to Aston Villa in which there was barely a twitch of resolve. And as for Newcastle and Arsenal, the obvious question is: if they could do it this season, why not us?

There are three clanging problems here, all of which constitute individual emergency situations:

1) The repeated pattern of conceding first, which has now extended to 10 league games. Even if Tottenham have proven themselves fairly adept at pulling themselves back into matches under Conte, that’s no defence. A team with these players should not have to keep pulling itself up off the ground because everyone is so passive during the first half. It suggests that either Conte has lost control of the situation or is proving himself incapable of controlling his players.

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2) The blunting of Kane and Son as a combination. Kane has been excellent this season, in extremely trying circumstances. Like most strikers, he thrives upon scoring goals. He is also eminently capable and willing to create chances, but would never want that to be at the expense of scoring the goals that drive Tottenham forward. He had three touches of the ball in the penalty area against Villa; Son had one. Kane waited almost 20 minutes for his first touch of the ball.

You can blame the players when they perform badly if you want, but the manager (and the manager’s tactics) set the tone. Kane and Son are two of Tottenham’s five best players, and arguably the top two (certainly the most valuable two). If they are going to be enthused to stay around, it has to be worth moving to a system that enables them to be involved in play.

3) The football is awful to watch. Conte was given the benefit of the doubt earlier this season when results were good because, well, results were good. But that patience and goodwill quickly ebbs away when the results decline and the aesthetic misery stays roughly as a flat line.

Conte is a winner – fine. Conte has got results elsewhere – fine. But he hasn’t won anything at Tottenham and he might well not this season; they are not a club with that same recent history, as Juventus, Inter and Chelsea were. In that context, you have to at least try and keep supporters enthused or they will pine for a former manager who is still out of work. Mauricio Pochettino allowed supporters to dream outside their reality. Conte is reinforcing that reality and it’s about as much fun as that sounds.

This is an extract of The Score, Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up to receive the free newsletter on Monday mornings here

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