I think I’ve calmed down sufficiently from my Tourette’s-esque attack in the pub on Saturday lunchtime to objectively view what went wrong and see where (if anywhere) this Spurs squad can go now. Apologies to those who will shout out the usual kneejerk put downs and “but we’re successful, we finished fifth last year” platitudes. For my response to those go see the From The Lane messageboard, I’m sure I’ve had my say as has everyone else in that regard.

I’ll get Graham Poll out of the way first. Shockingly (well, it should be shocking) inept performance from England’s supposed top referee yet again. I laughed when the Chelsea fans went mad a few weeks ago after he “helped” Spurs turn them over at the Lane but the smile was wiped right off my face three times on Saturday. Admittedly the assistant referee is mainly to blame for the first goal when he failed to see Chimbonda step out just in time to catch Adebayor offside but that’s the chance you take with a tight offside system and we were caught out.

No such excuses for the first penalty. Chimbonda executed a perfect sliding, last gasp tackle and played the ball, Rosicky hardly drew breath before collapsing in a heap and an unsighted Poll pointed straight to the spot as if his life depended on it. Chimbonda’s reaction told the whole story both post-penalty award and in harassing Rosicky as they walked off at halftime. I’d like to think Rosicky’s disappearance afterwards was due to embarrassment but I doubt it.

The second penalty saw Van Persie blatantly control the ball with his hand as he pushed into the box but again Poll missed that and couldn’t wait to point to the spot. Deja vu? I was nearly apoplectic. Either way the referee did Spurs no favours but you do get used to it. I’m just getting onto what I never want to get used to.

I may have seen three dodgy decisions that gifted a bright but toothless Arsenal side three goals but I also saw the epitome of lazy Premiership footballing prima donna behaviour in the passionless performances of pretty much every Spurs player.

Assou-Ekotto was inept rather than soulless, Zokora was so uninterested I doubted that he came back out after halftime and Berbatov might as well not have. Steed Malbranque showed some early signs of invention in the first half but was inexplicably hauled off at halftime while the non-existent Zokora was left on. Explain it for me please Martin.

Arguably worst of all was Aaron Lennon. The England squad callup has seriously blown up this boy’s views of his self worth but it’s about time he started living up to it. The essence of bad attitude runs throughout the squad. I was astounded to hear that the players felt they had played ok on Saturday but were let down by the referee and by all accounts so were the coaching staff. Was I watching the right game?

They basically couldn’t give a shit. You could have picked 11 bodies out of the Spurs supporters’ end and they’d have put up much more of a fight for the simple reason that they cared. If the Spurs players can’t get themselves up for a North London derby then they might as well hang up their boots. The fact that an Henry-less Goon squad was there for the taking makes it even harder to bear.

Martin Jol played the usual good PR card and cained the players for their lack of desire and passion but we’ve heard it all before and the excuses are wearing thin. As one poster on FTL said (and I paraphrase): I want a successful football manager not Max Clifford. Nail on head. Jol’s tactics offer us nothing and we are the boring hoofball equivalent of “no Plan B” Arsenal. At least they’ve got a Plan A that works the majority of the time, we play long ball to a set of players wholly unsuited to it and it’s nuances.

Berbatov is wasted, Keane is wasted, Defoe is wasted, the list goes on. I’m tired of watching rubbish and being told we’re progressing. Jol has admitted that we have taken a backwards step this season but seems unable to admit that it’s mainly his doing and if he can’t find the answers to get us going in the right direction and playing better football then we can ignore the Defoe and Keane transfer rumours and get busy looking for a new coach who has read more than the hump it long chapter of the Dutch coaching manual.

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