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Football London
Football London
Sport
Lee Wilmot

The shocking stat that highlights Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Tottenham's struggles

There is no getting away from it, Tottenham have had a poor start to the season.

After reaching the Champions League final last year, thanks to an incredible run through the knockout stages, there was a real hope that Tottenham could kick on and win that elusive piece of silverware.

But it has not happened. At least not yet anyway.

Eight games into the Premier League season and Spurs are ninth, with three wins, two draws and three defeats - the most recent of which being that 3-0 reverse at the hands of Brighton.

Things have not been any better in the Champions League.

Spurs played poorly in their first group game away at Olympiacos and threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2. What followed was even more galling - a 7-2 thrashing by German giants Bayern Munich at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Defensively, Spurs have been all over the place, with the usually reliable pairing of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen stuggling.

Both are out of contract at the end of this season, and there were suggestions that both could have left in the summer, but both remained in N17.

Davinson Sanchez has had a few problems, at centre-back and right-back too, while Serge Aurier and Danny Rose at full-back - two other players that were free to leave in the summer, but stayed, have also been poor.

Is it any wonder, given the players that could and perhaps should have left the club, that Spurs are struggling at the back?

And the stats show up the issues that are clearly at the heart of Tottenham's woes.

When analysing Wyscout data, you can see that Tottenham are well down the order for one particular defensive statistic - defensive duels.

In all, Spurs have been involved in 579 defensive duels this season, which works out at 66.64 per 90 minutes - more than all but six other Premier League sides.

The issue comes in how often Spurs get the better of these defensive duels.

Tottenham have a 58.7% success rate in those defensive duels this season, which is the third worst in the Premier League. Second-bottom Norwich have the worst, while Spurs can comfort themselves with the knowledge that fierce north London rivals Arsenal are slightly worse in the defensive duels too.

It is something that needs to change, and quickly, if Spurs are to start putting results together.

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