Arsenal star Bukayo Saka had 18 touches in the Tottenham box in Sunday’s derby-day win, but a large number of those came after he escaped the close watch of Djed Spence.
Tottenham were shockingly bad against Arsenal. The new manager bounce was not evident in this one, as Igor Tudor succumbed to a truly horrendous maiden outing in the Premier League.
How many points will Tottenham take from their next four Premier League matches?
The result leaves Spurs looking over their shoulder at West Ham, who are now firmly in the mix to climb out of the relegation zone, with Forest and Tudor sweating right now.
Despite the drab performance, Spence has been afforded some sympathy from one pundit after coping well with Arsenal’s star man, Saka.
Rio Ferdinand praises Djed Spence for Bukayo Saka assignment
Ferdinand has been discussing the North London derby on his latest podcast, and the talk was centred largely around Spence from a Spurs perspective.
For the first goal scored by Arsenal, Spence didn’t cover himself in glory by going towards Jurrien Timber, allowing him time and space to play a part in the goal scored by Eberechi Eze.
Tudor was seen telling Spence to ‘lock on’ to Saka during the contest and quite clearly, he appeared to relish the challenge of playing against his England teammate.
The challenge he was given of stifling Saka was one he achieved with relative success, and former Premier League star Ferdinand was impressed.
He said: “Saka’s best moments were when he wasn’t around Spence, if you’d be honest, but that’s part of the game. You’ve got to find ways in which you can influence the game. And his best moments were when he wasn’t around Spence.
“Spence, 1 v 1, looked very confident against Saka. But what I would say is I think that Spurs played into Arsenal’s hands”
Rio Ferdinand believes Tudor’s system failed
New Tottenham head coach Tudor tried to match Arsenal up man-to-man, but that didn’t go according to plan, something which Ferdinand recognised.
Arsenal are simply in a better place on the pitch than Tottenham at the moment, and this derby day proved an absolute disaster for Spurs on home soil.
Spence was one of the better Tottenham performers, but with some huge games on the horizon, Tudor desperately needs to rescue the club and push them away from the relegation zone.
It’s hard to put a finger on what Tudor needs to change to get Tottenham firing once again and with a number of injuries within the squad, it certainly doesn’t feel like it will be a quick fix.
Receive a digest of our best Spurs content each week direct to your mailbox
