Spurs’ flaws exposed by Boro

Middlesbrough 2 Tottenham 1

Around £40million (€50m) has been spent by Spurs – admittedly they recouped over £20m (€25m) of that with the sale of Robbie Keane to Liverpool – but after destroying Roma in their final pre-season friendly last weekend they found a battling Boro side a totally different proposition as they slipped to a 2-1 defeat at the Riverside.

The Tottenham midfield oozed class going forward but Ramos must have winced at the number of times Boro broke quickly and exposed their lack of a true defensive midfielder.