Tottenham must now answer the challenge

Midway through the first half at the Emirates Stadium, just at the point when it seemed Arsenal were facing humiliation, the atmosphere turned decidedly nasty.

The home support had enough. When they weren’t howling with rage at every misplaced Theo Walcott pass, they directed their vitriol at Harry Redknapp and his assistant, Joe Jordan. Both men were clearly riled by the abuse with Redknapp apparently pointing out one of his critics to stewards and Jordan inviting another to discuss matters more intimately.

Yet as unpleasant as it may have been, the manager might reflect that it was preferable to the taunts that followed later on in the game.

In the space of 28 minutes Redknapp’s side were transformed from nailed on winners to training ground stooges and in the environment of an intense local derby, that makes the difference between being targets of hate to figures of fun.

And with a 5-2 scoreline emblazoned across the stadium scoreboard, there was plenty for the Arsenal fans to mock.

Coming into this game, Tottenham could claim, for the first time in years, to be the dominant power in north London.

Arsenal, meanwhile, had gone from the neighbours who had everything — shiny new stadium, a seat at the high table of European football, league titles within living memory — to a club that has failed to maintain the most important part of the business; the playing squad.

Yet for 50 minutes, the established order was restored.

And the manner of Tottenham’s capitulation raised fears they may yet surrender their grip on third place and find themselves trailing Arsenal or Chelsea. Or both.

One shocking collapse does not undermine a season of impressive progress but after looking flawless beating Newcastle 5-0 in their last Premier League game, they looked deeply flawed this time out.

Instead of reducing the gap on leaders Manchester City to seven points and retaining the possibility of moving to within two points of second-placed Manchester United when Alex Ferguson’s team visit White Hart Lane next Sunday, Redknapp’s side are just seven points ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea.

“It’s going to be tight, but we’re in a great position,” insisted the manager. “We’re still seven points clear of Arsenal and Chelsea. If we finish third, that’s a great season for us.”

A test of character now lies ahead for Redknapp’s players and the manager must hope he has no cause to further lament his players’ lack of resilience over the coming weeks.

It was striking how easily Spurs folded and began to display the kind of defensive frailty that has been their opponents’ speciality this season. Then again, nobody should be surprised when any of the top teams begin to ship goals, given the rash of high-scoring games this season.

The art of defending, it seems, is in danger of being lost and anyone looking for further evidence of the trend need only look at the record of the Premier League clubs in this season’s Champions League.

Like Arsenal, Tottenham’s back four seemed to lose their bearings operating too often as individuals and not as part of a unit. Ledley King was clearly having one of his injured days and Redknapp admitted it had been a risk to play the defender but, most debilitating of all was to start with two strikers, Louis Saha and Emmanuel Adebayor.

The pair were outstanding against Newcastle and again here in the opening period, but once Arsenal steadied themselves and began to apply pressure, the two forwards were merely spectators as the home side took advantage of the extra man in midfield and began to dominate.

Redknapp reacted, introducing Sandro for Niko Kranjcar and Rafael van der Vaart for Saha but the change had little impact.

“I just thought we were getting overrun, really,” said the manager. “They were bossing the game. So we tried to thicken us up a little bit. I brought Sandro on in the middle, and Van der Vaart on to play like we did against Norwich and at Chelsea. Play 4-3-3 and match them up.”

It was too late. Arsenal’s tails were up and nothing could stop them. A familiar pattern unfolded and home attention shifted from the opposition bench to pitch leaving Redknapp to contemplate his tactical error.

The seven-point gap means Redknapp and Spurs have some margin for further errors, but with trips to Everton and Chelsea following the visit of United, their claims to be the best team outside of Manchester are about to be tested.