A worrying stat for Tottenham fans emerged during their last-gasp win over West Brom this afternoon.Indeed, while Jose Mourinho has masterminded a decent start to the season and even seen his side touted as potential Premier League champions, they remain fairly inconsistent in terms of performances. Big wins over Manchester United and Southampton have seen Spurs flex their attacking muscles but the first-half at the Hawthorns spoke to a worrying wider trend. After an opening 45 minutes described as the 'worst possible advert' for PPV football by Alasdair Gold, another worry emerged. According to Opta, Tottenham were only able to manage one shot during that period against the struggling Baggies and that is the third time they've done so in the first-half under Mourinho's watch. For context, that happened only four times during Mauricio Pochettino's 202-game league tenure in charge, highlighting a key difference between the two.
While a trophy-laden individual, the self-proclaimed 'Special One' has been labelled a defensive coach and a man behind the times, while Pochettino was noted for his high-energy style of play.
Obviously, it remains to be seen if Mourinho's approach is more successful by way of winning the club a long-awaited trophy, but there does at least appear to be a trend in terms of first-half struggles.