Why we should not let Tottenham’s sluggish display against Watford mask so many silver linings

What more could Mauricio Pochettino have asked for than a functional if uninspiring victory that all but guarantees Champions League qualification?

After starting well but finding a way to lose against Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur started dismally here against Watford Fc, but found a way to win.

In so many ways this was not an impressive or enjoyable evening for Spurs. They did not play well, defend well or entertain well, and they did so in front of a cold Wembley that was half-full at the start and almost empty at the end.

But then this was their first game since the heart-break of the semi-final here, the painful throwing away of their biggest game in four years. Of course they looked affected by it, as anyone would be. It has been a very long nine days since, nine days to mull over the fact that they are going to have to wait another year for a trophy, nine days to worry about who exactly will be part of the Spurs team in the new stadium next year. And whether they will ever be able to beat the biggest teams to the real prizes, whoever their manager, wherever their stadium.

So taking all of that into account, that sad background to this evening’s game, there are plenty of worse ways this could have gone than a 2-0 win.

Because this win gives them a five-point cushion over Chelsea in fifth. Five points from Spurs’ last three games – West Brom away, Newcastle and Leicester at home – will be enough and four will probably do it. The nightmare scenario of chucking Champions League qualification away has receded further away thanks to this evening. What more could Mauricio Pochettino have asked for than that?

Maybe some might have hoped that Spurs might have started furiously here, desperate to make up for the pain of the semi-final and take their frustrations out on Watford. But the reality is that this was the 52nd game of another tiring season in which this small squad has punched above its weight. The players have given everything, they are going to get one of their targets – top four – but not the other – a trophy. And of course now at the end of April they are crawling over the line.

It has been a long and gruelling season for Tottenham (Getty)

Spurs’ whole ethos is about intensity and pressure, defending well by never having to defend. But it requires plenty work and here in the first half Spurs simply failed to do it, as if they could not quite bring themselves to squeeze out whatever remains in their tank. But when you try to defend on the half-way line but fail to press properly you are asking for trouble.

It gave us the unusual spectacle of Watford – one point and two goals in their last nine away games – slicing through Tottenham, one of the safest home teams in the league. It is rare to see Spurs give away this many chances, but then it is rare to see Spurs this under-par. Richarlison and Kiko Femenia caused Spurs problems with their delivery, and when Andre Gray raced onto a through ball he should have put Watford ahead.

Spurs skipper Hugo Lloris led by example (Getty)

Even in the second half, when Spurs stepped it up and scored their second, they continued to leave themselves casually open at the back. Hugo Lloris has had his critics recently but he did far more good work here than anyone would have expected, keeping out one of the Premier League’s bluntest front lines and saving Spurs from embarrassment.

But Spurs did enough here to get their noses in front, even if they never looked like the expansive team that on their day can put four or five past a team like Watford for fun. They needed Orestis Karnezis to spill a cross in his own box for Dele Alli to score the first, a crucial goal in helping to settle a tense Spurs. In the second half Harry Kane slipped in front of goal but got up in time to tap in from a Kieran Trippier cross. Once Spurs had that two goal lead it looked likelier to become more, with Kane and Moussa Sissoko missing good chances.

By the end the ground was emptying, the game had slowed to walking pace even as Spurs ground out a win that takes them closer to sealing fourth, and confirming Champions League group stage football for next season. And if there is a lingering sense of disappointment after last Saturday, that only shows the quandary Pochettino’s Spurs are in.