New year, new dawn? As it turned out, not quite. For a long time, this had threatened to be a first clean sheet for Watford under Claudio Ranieri, but Davinson Sánchez’s injury-time header ensured it was not. Watford have gone through five managers since they last kept a Premier clean sheet and it is that fact that may relegate them.
So this was not a moment in history, and without that there will be very little to keep the memory of the game alive. It seems unlikely that misty-eyed fans of either side will ever give a nonentity of a game a second thought. If this is ever shown on a nostalgia channel in three decades time, it can only be because some apocalyptic event has created a cultural desert of previously unimagined barrenness.
For Watford, six points in 11 games since Ranieri took over is not a hugely optimistic stat. For the Italian, pretty much all that can be said is that his win percentage is higher than it was during his disastrous stint in charge of Fulham – although anything but a win at Newcastle in a fortnight would change that. While there have been the remarkable victories over Everton and Manchester United, it’s very hard to argue that there has been an improvement since Ranieri replaced Xisco Muñoz at the beginning of October.
From a clean sheet, though, could perhaps have grown belief – and there had not been much of that at kick-off. Rather there was a sense for much of the first half of an acceptance of fate, something encapsulated by the sight of Harry the Hornet forlornly banging a drum in the corner to general indifference. Perhaps the hundreds of empty seats were down primarily to Covid, the complications of festive travel and new year hangovers, but it can’t help that this Watford offer so little incentive to make an effort.
Perhaps that is unfair. Watford’s attacking ventures were limited, but there was at least resistance, even if that consisted largely in simply being, existing in a relatively organised 4-4-2. But again and again possession was wasted. Clearance after clearance went to a Spurs player or out of play. Pass after pass was misplaced. Only after half-time, after the introduction of João Pedro and his direct running was there a sense that Watford might trouble Spurs. And the result was that Spurs kept coming in wave after wave. Perhaps this was defiance but it was the defiance if an unremarkable sandstone cliff against the sea: eventually erosion was always going to take its course.
Not that Tottenham offered a huge amount. There were a couple of long-range efforts, from Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Sergio Reguilon, and Harry Kane fired just wide after Imran Louza had slipped, but for the most part there was huffing and puffing and passes fired just too far in front of Emerson Royal.
Tottenham, like so many high-pressing teams, are at their best against sides who come out at them, which Watford, with their two banks of four dropped deep, simply didn’t do. This was the same as the Southampton game, as Spurs lacked the creative spark to break through against increasingly dogged opponents. Forced to try to play their way through an opponent, Tottenham looked a little one-paced and lacking in imagination. There was the odd twist from Son Heung-min but this was a game of very little subtlety or quality.
And that perhaps suggests the limits of this squad. For all Tottenham have improved under Antonio Conte, for all they have a purpose and a drive, for all they look better organised and more motivated, they remain the same group of players, and they are a group that, since the departure of Christian Eriksen, has lacked much in the way of magic or unpredictability. Tanguy Ndombele has at times perhaps suggested he could provide it, but Conte made fairly clear this week that he is no fan: Ndombele’s unpredictability is the wrong kind of unpredictability.
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If there was improvement after half-time, it was modest, although a smart Kane turn and shot did at least draw a save from Daniel Bachmann, who then reacted sharply to push away a close-range Son effort. But a delay while a fan received medical treatment perhaps allowed Spurs to regroup. Certainly they seemed sharper after the restart and when Son was tripped wide on the left, he whipped in the free-kick for Sánchez to touch home.