The days of Tottenham Hotspur being near the top of the league in goals scored are long gone. In the past four matches, Spurs have scored just twice, failing to exceed 1.0 xG in any contest. While the defense has recorded consecutive clean sheets, one has to wonder if it is worth the cost — which, yes, is a little ironic given the cries from the past two seasons, but still fully justified after watching this squad’s complete attacking ineptitude.
Sunderland is the final Premier League side for Tottenham to face this season. After a surprise surge up the table, the newly promoted Black Cats have only one win in six and are back down to seventh. A -10.1 xGD (17th) suggests that regression is long overdue, and indeed their scoring output is even worse than Spurs’. Both sides come into this one fresh off 0-0 draws on Thursday…
Date: Sunday, January 4
Time: 10:00 am ET, 3:00 pm UK
Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
TV: NBCSN/Peacock (US)
Table: Spurs (t-12th, 26 pts), Sunderland (7th, 29 pts)
It has been nearly a decade since these clubs last met. The home fixture was won 1-0 by Tottenham thanks to Harry Kane in the final season at White Hart Lane. Back at the Stadium of Light, the visitors dominated possession and shot volume, but both sides failed to find the net, resulting in — how fitting — a 0-0 draw that is scarily becoming a theme here.
Thomas Frank’s side has never really looked like a well-oiled scoring machine, but there was a stretch when the goals were coming more often. Much of that had more to do with efficiency than quantity of opportunities, and the squad is still first in goals per shot on target (0.43) and second in goals per shot (0.14). However, with those numbers falling to 0.18 and 0.05, respectively, over the past four matches despite shot and SOT volume staying similar, the frailty of that reliance starts to appear.
The reason why is obvious. Spurs lack any sort of lethal scoring threat, with Richarlison the only attacker so show these levels of efficiency. Unfortunately, his finishing does not inspire tons of confidence, and when he is not getting shots off there is no one else who is doing much of anything. A healthy Dominic Solanke should bring some lift here, but that is not enough to solve the drought alone.
Perhaps the more difficult solve is even getting into position for high-quality shots. Spurs showed little interest in scoring on Thursday (and probably would not have scored even if they had tried to do so) and now face the third-toughest defense in the league. Sunderland has surrendered one total goal in its past four matches, which sets up for another frustrating effort from Frank’s side.
The bright spot would be that both City and Leeds had plenty of chances to score in Sunderland’s previous two outings, and the Black Cats’ xGA is much closer to league average than their actual number of goals allowed. But this defense has been hard to break down and is surely going to be well structured away from home, which is a recipe for disaster for Tottenham in North London. As much as supporters would like to see more scoring, the manager seems uninterested in setting up his team to do so.
