A 'disappointing outcome' ahead of Spurs' first home game of the season

Tottenham are preparing for their weekend clash against Everton at home, their first of the season, following a very ‘disappointing outcome’ at Leicester on Monday.

Spurs exhibited a dominant display during the first half, with Pedro Porro netting Tottenham’s first goal of the season, courtesy of a James Maddison assist. It was a promising performance from Maddison as he controlled the tempo of the game in midfield for the majority of the contest.

image from the Independent

In November last year he picked up an ankle injury at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Chelsea, where Spurs lost 4-1. Maddison returned to the Premier League in late January in a 3-2 victory at home against Brentford. His presence was surely missed as Tottenham won only four of their ten games during Maddison’s absence.

His performances, however, did not match those produced before the Chelsea game. He only managed to accumulate one goal and four assists for the remainder of the season, but previously provided three goals and five assists in the first ten matches. This form encouraged Gareth Southgate’s decision to exclude the 27-year-old from the Euros squad, as the former England manager admitted in June that he thought “other players have had stronger seasons”.

Throughout the contest, the Lilywhites maintained 70.5% possession, while attempting fifteen shots, seven of which were on target in comparison to Leicester’s three. A 57th-minute Jamie Vardy equaliser was a huge shock and had a detrimental impact on the performance of the North London squad.

Image from the Mirror

In his post-match press conference Ange Postecoglou claimed “at 1-0 there’s always an opportunity for the opposition to come back into the game”, and subsequently following Leicester’s goal, “we lost our way”. He referred to the result as a “disappointing outcome” as he felt “we need to turn good performances into outcomes”.

In an interview with Optus Sport, he praised Spurs’ first-half performance as they “controlled the game, and [were] really dominant with our football”. However, he claimed that they were “wasteful in front of goal” and “lost a bit of composure”, adding, on SpursPlay, that Spurs lacked “cutting edge in the front third”.

Image from football.london

Tottenham will host Everton at home on Saturday afternoon for their second match of their 2024/25 Premier League campaign. Last Saturday Everton lost convincingly, 3-0, to Brighton at Goodison Park with Kaoru Mitoma, Danny Welbeck and Simon Adingra contributing to the scoreline.

Ashley Young will not feature in North London as a result of his red card in the sixty-sixth minute. However, it seems neither will Rodrigo Bentancur and Pedro Porro, as both Spurs players exited the field due to injury. Djed Spence will likely replace Porro but it is up for debate who will replace Bentancur. New arrivals Archie Gray or Lucas Bergvall both featured in the later stages of Monday’s contest and could be potential candidates. So could Yves Bissouma following his suspension from the first team after a controversial social media post caught the Mali international inhaling ‘laughing gas’ from a balloon.

Many questions will be answered in the coming days. Will Spurs overcome the struggles experienced in Leicester? Who will replace the injured Spurs duo? And will James Maddison's form continue following his first half performance in Leicester?