Tottenham suffered a shock loss to Brighton on Saturday, damaging their top-four hopes in the process.
The defeat allowed Manchester United to move within three points of Spurs and pundit Ian Wright was confused by Antonio Conte's tactics during the contest. Tottenham failed to get a shot on target and conceded a last-gasp goal to Leandro Trossard.
Part of the reason Tottenham looked far from their best was the absence of Matt Doherty, who was out with an injury. Conte used the post-match Brighton press conference to ask for better protection for his players.
Here are Mirror Football's latest Tottenham headlines.
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Hargreaves' top-four prediction
Tottenham started Saturday sitting comfortably in fourth place, three points clear of Arsenal in fifth place and six ahead of Manchester United.
But defeat by Brighton, and a United win, meant at the close of play on Saturday night Spurs were only three points clear of both clubs. Arsenal have a game in hand and could draw level on points with Tottenham but that hasn't stopped pundit Owen Hargreaves from picking the Lillywhites to qualify for the Champions League.
"We've seen that Tottenham are capable of going on a run and I expect them to do that. It's still in Spurs' hands because Arsenal and United are so inconsistent," Hargreaves told Premier League Productions.
Wright slams Spurs performance
Pundit Wright couldn't work out what he was watching during Brighton's win over Tottenham.
Spurs headed into Saturday's early kick-off in red-hot form but lacked aggression going forward and failed to trouble the Seagulls goal. Trossard grabbed the winner at the death as Spurs were condemned to a 1-0 defeat and Wright said that the performance was far from what the team had displayed in previous weeks.
"I can't understand the tactics today, they played like an away side," Wright said when speaking to Premier League Productions.
Read the full story at football.london here.
Conte makes player protection plea
Tottenham were missing Doherty on Saturday due to injury and won't have him back for the remainder of the season.
Doherty picked up the season-ending injury against Aston Villa last week when he was on the end of a Matty Cash tackle, a challenge that was not deemed a red-card offence. A week later, Conte was still discussing the injury and called for better protection from Premier League referees.
"I think that sometimes the referee has to pay more attention and protect players," Conte said after the defeat to Brighton on Saturday.
