Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 6y

Ben Davies and Harry Winks explain Tottenham's Premier League slump

WATFORD -- Ben Davies and Harry Winks were left to rue Tottenham's sloppy defending after they conceded another early goal in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Watford.

For the third consecutive Premier League game, Spurs trailed inside 15 minutes after Christian Kabasele headed home Tom Cleverley's corner to score Watford's first attack of note.

Spurs trailed inside four minutes of last weekend's 1-1 home draw with West Brom, while Leicester scored after 12 minutes in their 2-1 win at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday.

By contrast, Spurs' landmark wins over Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool and Real Madrid all came after they had scored early and left-back Davies believes they are now leaving themselves too much to do in matches.

"Of course it hamstrings you. It's never ideal," Davies said. "At the start of the season, we were in the situation of playing well, getting early goals and it changes games for us, picks us up as a team.

"When you go behind, it's a challenge to have to come back into the game and then try to win it."

Spurs, who had Davinson Sanchez sent-off early in the second half for an elbow on Richarlison, have now won just once in six league games, taking five points from the last 18 available.

Asked to explain Spurs' slump, Davies said: "It's difficult. It's not for a lack of trying, the boys are as disappointed as everybody.

"We're putting every shift in, it just doesn't seem to be clicking for us at the moment. But we're working hard -- we work as hard if not harder than most teams in this league and it's tough when results don't come sometimes.

"It's just a case of taking every game as it comes and not letting the gap to the top four get any bigger.

"Keep working hard, keep putting the performances in. On the training pitch we're there every day giving it our all and hopefully it can translate to games."

Winks, a second-half substitute at Vicarage Road, added: "We need to try to avoid conceding goals in general.

"We've always been solid defensively and not conceded many goals but just lately it's not going well for us. It's important that we unite as a team, stay solid and work hard going forward."

Next up for Spurs' is Apoel Nicosia's visit to Wembley in Wednesday's final Champions League group game.

Spurs have already topped the group after four wins and a draw, including a 3-0 victory in Cyprus in September, but Apoel can still qualify for the Europa League round-of-32 if they better Dortmund's result at Real.

In other circumstances, the match would be an opportunity for Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino to rotate his squad and hand opportunities to young players, but Winks believes they must use the game to turn their form around.

"I certainly wouldn't say the pressure is off," he said. "We've got a lot of pressure on us at the moment to get results, and rightly so.

"We're going to go into that game and try to get another win to get as many points as possible in our Champions League group and hopefully kick start a winning run again."

A source has told ESPN FC that Spurs will not appeal Sanchez's straight red card, leaving them without the centre-back for the matches against Stoke, Brighton and Manchester City.

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