Tottenham Hotspur’s hopes of a Premier League top-four finish continue to unravel in wake of their third defeat in a row.

Spurs‘ dismal losing run began with a 4-0 hammering at Newcastle United and was followed by a 3-2 derby defeat against Arsenal.

Tottenham’s game in hand on fourth-placed Aston Villa was on Thursday night as Spurs headed to Chelsea.

However, there was no repeat of what the Blues experienced against the other north London team this time, as they ran out 2-0 winners over Tottenham.

Trevoh Chalobah broke the deadlock in the 24th minute of the game at Stamford Bridge with a superb header from Conor Gallagher’s delivery.

Then, on 72 minutes, Cole Palmer’s free kick struck the underside of the Spurs bar and Nicolas Jackson headed home on the rebound.

Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario struggles against set pieces

A worrying statistic about Tottenham emerged from the Premier League website in the latter stages of the game.

Namely, that only Nottingham Forest (26) and Sheffield United (23) have conceded more goals from set pieces (including penalties) than Spurs (22) in the Premier League this season.

As good as Guglielmo Vicario has been for Tottenham for much of the campaign, his physicality when dealing when set pieces has been a problem.

Glenn Hoddle commented on this pre-match, telling Premier League Productions (same link as above): “Vicario needs to take more of a charge and be more physical.

“He reminds me a bit of De Gea when he first came to England, he looked very vulnerable to crosses and corners. Spurs need to make it right.”

Admittedly, Vicario didn’t make any blunders on the night, but he still looked nervy from set pieces.

This is definitely something the £75,000-a-week ace and Spurs need to address in the off-season and pre-season.

The post ‘Very vulnerable’: Glenn Hoddle says £75k-a-week Tottenham player really needs to be more physical appeared first on TBR Football.