Premier League crisis club of the week: Tottenham Hotspur

We're back with another edition of Premier League crisis club of the week after briefly turning our attention towards La Liga.

Rumour has it a furious Xavi printed off last week's edition to stick up in the Barcelona dressing room and light a fire under his players. It worked a treat, too, with back-to-back wins over Villarreal (3-0) and Athletic Club (4-0) as emphatic a rebuttal as you can get after being dragged through the muddy waters of this column.

Let that be a reminder to you, dear reader, that while it is never nice to see your club featured, it may well prove to be the catalyst for change. You never know. Anyway, on to Tottenham Hotspur.

What's the crisis?

A 2-0 loss away at Old Trafford and a 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle aren't terrible results on their own. It was Erik ten Hag's best performance so far as Manchester United manager and the Magpies look the real deal under Eddie Howe, but the manner of both was concerning for Spurs fans.

Essentially, the football is abysmal. The payoff with Antonio Conte has always been that this is the price you pay for winning titles. Sadly for Tottenham, these two defeats do seem to indicate they will fall some way short of challenging for the league this season.

The fact that he brought on Ben Davies and Matt Doherty for the final 10 minutes when chasing the game against Newcastle just about sums it up.

Why are they in crisis?

It's partly due to Conte's attritional tactics but injuries have also played their part. Without Dejan Kulusevski in particular, who remains out with a hamstring injury he picked up away on international duty with Sweden, this Spurs team looks pitifully short of any creativity or attacking spark.

Conte has insisted that he needs "two or three more" transfer windows before this team can compete for the Premier League and Champions League. Those words would probably be more believable if he hadn't spent £150m in the summer. Djed Spence, for example, was brought in for the not-insignificant amount of £20m yet has only made three meaningless substitute appearances for the club so far despite the ongoing struggles of Doherty and Emerson Royal at right wing-back.

Furthermore, spending £50m on Richarlison, also out with injury, as a rotation option for Son Heung-min and Harry Kane seemed ill-advised given the other more pressing needs the team had.

The form of some key players is worrying. Son hasn't looked the same player this season. After making some fine saves against Manchester United, Hugo Lloris was then a complete liability against Newcastle. Emerson, Doherty, Davinson Sanchez and Ben Davies are all some way short of the required standard for a title-challenging team. Eric Dier is Eric Dier and not the man to build an entire defence around.

What can they do to rectify it?

It starts with Conte. The man is wholeheartedly committed to the counter-attacking three-at-the-back system he has utilised for the vast majority of his coaching career. The problem it's starting to become a bit predictable. Kane will score goals in any team but you can't rely on him alone to poach his way to a title.

While some of the names mentioned above do need replacing and have done for some time, lending credence to Conte's claims he needs more transfer windows, it's also clear that he is not getting anywhere near enough out of the talent he has currently available to him.

Conte isn't suddenly going to rip up his tactical approach to the game and start playing attacking football. This is him. Spurs can either back him with more money and renew his contract that's set to expire in the summer - although Tottenham do have the option to extend it for one further season - or cut their ties and find someone else.

Sadly, there is no quick fix. Things should improve when Kulusevski returns, while another player in that mould in January would certainly help improve things for the second half of the season.

Time to bring Marcus Edwards home, anyone?