Tottenham vs. Leicester: Winners and Losers from Premier League
Tottenham have suffered their third Premier League defeat of the season after Leicester City came to White Hart Lane and did what Leicester City do.
The softest of winning goals gave three points to the visitors, and the home fans will be left to rue a return of no goals from 21 shots.
This was a fixture with a huge bearing on Tottenham's ambitions of finishing in the top four and was ultimately a test they needed to pass.
Leicester are not overburdened with talent, but they work extraordinarily hard for each other and follow their game plan to the letter.
Spurs have themselves a bogey team.
Winner: Claudio Ranieri
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Claudio Ranieri is already a virtual certainty to be named manager of the season later in the year, and performances like this one from his team are the reason why.
Leicester are remarkably well-drilled, disciplined and possessed of a fantastic team ethic.
Spurs were the equal third-most prolific team in the division before this round of fixtures, and while they had many chances to score, the tireless Leicester defence kept them at bay.
Only Newcastle had beaten Spurs at White Hart Lane before this match, and few teams have given them so much trouble.
Ranieri can take much pleasure from a job so well done.
Loser: Mauricio Pochettino
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When Tottenham win, Mauricio Pochettino gets a huge slice of the credit. He has built this team and has them playing his particular brand of football.
That means when they fail, Pochettino deserves criticism.
Spurs have now played Leicester five times in 12 months and have beaten them just once.
Of course, they dominated this match, as they did much of Sunday's FA Cup draw, but that dominance is worthless when it amounts to a defeat.
Spurs had taken 20 shots before Leicester took the lead, but so many of those were from distance or unlikely angles.
Pochettino has still not found a way to penetrate packed defences.
This is now the third consecutive match in which Spurs have utterly dominated their opponent for upwards of 60 minutes and failed to put the game away.
This defeat is hugely costly to Tottenham's Champions League hopes, and Pochettino, a former defender himself, will be furious with the nature of Leicester's winning goal.
Winner: Tom Carroll
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Tottenham's diminutive central midfielder has rewarded the faith shown in him by Pochettino with a string of solid and improving performances in recent weeks.
There have never been doubts over Carroll's quality with the ball at his feet. His playing style was regularly compared with Luka Modric before the Croatian left for Real Madrid.
Always looking for a forward option, constantly in motion and always capable of playing the required pass, Carroll is an excellent foil for Christian Eriksen's creativity.
The pair appear to be developing a neat combination either side of defensive foundation Eric Dier.
Carroll's biggest weakness will always be his size. At just 5'7", he is two inches shorter than even Modric.
However, where he struggled with the pace and physicality in Spurs' 1-1 draw with Everton, he looked up for the fight against Leicester.
Within the first minute, he threw himself into two robust challenges.
He pressed aggressively and both won possession and intercepted opposition passes.
Ultimately, he was unable to deliver a result, but he was one of Spurs' best performers on the night.
Loser: Riyad Mahrez
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Riyad Mahrez has been arguably Leicester's finest player in their finest-ever Premier League campaign.
Seven goals and 13 assists before this match marked him out as one of the players likely to influence the outcome.
As it was, the Algerian wizard had a quiet night in north London and will have done little to impress rumoured suitors around Europe.
Winner: Kasper Schmeichel
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Kasper Schmeichel was very much at fault for Tottenham's opening goal in the FA Cup draw on Sunday, but in the following 172 minutes of this doubleheader, he has been immense.
Spurs peppered the Dane with shots throughout this match, but he was equal to everything they could conjure.
He was strong when needed, claimed the ball well in the air and took no chances in tricky situations.
Tottenham sent a total of 21 direct efforts and made countless other attempts to find a way past Schmeichel, but they were denied by an excellent goalkeeper in top form.
