Tottenham Hotspur Must Fight to Keep Underdog Title Duel with Leicester Alive

The Premier League's equivalent of Crufts is taking place, and it is underdogs Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur getting most of the attention. Each is striving to earn the recognition of "best in show" and prove winners come in all shapes and sizes.

On Saturday, Tottenham had a chance to show their underdog tale is as stirring and charming as Leicester's (rightly) much-lauded title-challenge story, to come out of the international break making a considerable statement of intent.

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Instead, the unexpected claim of Mauricio Pochettino's youth-centric team on the overall prize suffered a possibly sizable hitch in the form of a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

Now, this writer has never watched Crufts but suspects they not do not have challenges in which competitors have to take on traditionally troublesome adversaries—a face-your-fears duel versus a bigger or fancier dog regularly giving them grief.

Liverpool were that for Spurs, the Reds tormenting the Lilywhites at Anfield over the last few seasons—winning the previous three meetings in galling fashion—and traditionally for the majority of their shared top-flight history.

The ending of a losing sequence on Merseyside could be interpreted as a test partially passed. But in the context of Spurs' grander ambitions, the effort felt underwhelming. Like any concept of progression was achieved via a technicality at best.

Spurs did better than Leicester, who lost at Liverpool in December. Should the Foxes suffer further defeat against Southampton on Sunday, then Spurs' preceding point could be a decent one gained (albeit the gap between them and Arsenal in third shortened to four points).

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But given Liverpool's inconsistency this season and the importance of the occasion, this felt more like points dropped.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Pochettino made sure to outline the difficulty of the challenges Spurs must overcome.

"I think seven games is a lot of games, is a lot of points, and you never know what will happen in football," the head coach said, having just declared the title race open for everyone down to Southampton in seventh. His cautious reasoning was based on it still being mathematically possible for all involved.

Much praise was given to the league leaders. "Leicester today is on the top because they deserve to be on the top," he said. He also expected "a very tough game against Liverpool...a very good team with very good players."

For all that, Pochettino was also clearly relishing the task at hand.

"We need to fight," he continued. "We have seven games, and it’s important for us to try to fight to the end of the season with the possibility maybe to achieve big things. Because one is the possibility to win the title, another to be in the top four."

The post-match media responses of the Argentinian and his players reflected their disappointment at the setback to their title hopes. Yet they also suggest contentment with their efforts, a belief they had indeed fought their hardest (below).

Pochettino had been praised as a budding politician following his aforementioned answer about the title race still being open to the whole top seven. Arguably, the best bit of spin in the whole week came from the football club's social media team:

"Spirit," "fight," and "character"—such rhetoric is understandably often utilised in attempts to find positivity in frustrating results. Such words might stray perilously close to cliches, but when an effort warrants it, they are as apt as any.

The problem with attempting to affix them to Tottenham's latest performance is only a few players can claim to have shown any "fight." And the only "character" was of the questionable kind. "Spirit?" Spirit-sapping, more like.

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This was huff and puff and headless running masquerading as endeavour. Focused looks of intent and busy work masking an unwillingness to take responsibility.

Spurs' defensive display was particularly disconcerting here.

Severely disorganised, the rearguard (in)action felt individually driven rather than cohesive like it mostly has this season. Disconnect gave way to disorienting shifts between ball-watching and frantic chasing around.

Kevin Wimmer was repeatedly guilty of the former, too easily allowing Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge notable chances either side of half-time. Well crafted as Countinho's opening goal was, his intent in exchanging passes with Sturridge was so obvious it made Eric Dier's inability to anticipate, track and interfere shocking.

In possession, Spurs' all-round lack of readiness for Liverpool's hunting style was just as baffling.

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At the back, they persistently passed around dangerously, oblivious to the clear-as-day ease with which the Reds were reading them. When they got forward, their idle complacency receiving the ball was exacerbated by woeful control (Heung-Min Son was particularly guilty here) and sloppy, telegraphed passing (just about everyone was culpable).

After a briefly encouraging spell saw Spurs get back into the game through Harry Kane's equaliser, their unease reemerged. The final half hour was as timid as what preceded the goal.

"The mentality of the team is perfect and after the way we played today we can feel proud," Pochettino told Tottenham's official website.

You would not expect otherwise from him. But where there has been some truth in similar post-match statements following previous disappointing results, his words here were mostly bluster.

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This assessment of a game Spurs did not lose may seem harsh. Yet anyone involved in genuinely characterising this Anfield showing as one to be proud of is setting the bar worryingly low.

March's north London derby draw was untidy and reckless, but there was a real team-wide spirit about that display.

The result was not what Spurs wanted. But in the circumstances of a real back-and-forth contest, they could take pride in the way they survived and recovered from the setback of Aaron Ramsey's opener.

That was a display in keeping with the best of a title-challenging campaign. If Pochettino and his players' idea of fighting was what they delivered on Saturday, though, they may as well concede to Leicester now.

The exceptions in this outing provided some hope for what follows. If Spurs bounce back with the determination a select few managed to show and get some luck with results elsewhere, they could still play their part in the enthralling underdog duel with Leicester.

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Hugo Lloris was immense in goal, the captain making a series of vital saves that ensured his defence's poorness did not cause more damage.

Dele Alli was not at his most effective but competed with typical fearlessness while the recently inconsistent Nacer Chadli showed some welcome motivation off the bench. Christian Eriksen and Kane combined to make amends for the latter's earlier indecisiveness with a superb goal.

Pochettino needs to finds ways to channel these glimpses of ambition and hunger back into the whole team. Manchester United are up next at White Hart Lane, and Spurs will need to get back to their best if they are going to at least push Leicester in this race and also stay ahead of Arsenal.

Up until now, Tottenham have done their part in proving that famous Mark Twain saying "it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog" accurate. But more performances such as this Liverpool one, and the best they can hope for from this underdog show would be the comparative participation award of a UEFA Champions League place (if that).

An achievement for sure but scant consolation after getting so close to the biggest prize.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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