Moura struggles to explain damning stat pointing to drastic Spurs rot

Lucas Moura, Arijan Ademi

Tottenham forward Lucas Moura has admitted that it is “hard to say” why his side have not beaten a top-half Premier League team since November.

The 2-0 win over Manchester City has proved to the be the last time Spurs did so. However, the fortunes of the two clubs have drastically changed since then.

City are now closing in on another title, while Tottenham‘s season hangs by a thread after Thursday’s Europa League exit.

Spurs sat top of the league in December but have dropped to eighth, with no wins against top-half teams a major cause of their downturn.

However, Brazilian forward Moura says that he cannot explain the statistic.

“It’s hard to say why we haven’t beaten a top-half side since November,” the 28-year-old told the Daily Mirror.

“What I can say is that the three games we played before Arsenal, we did really well — nine points and played very well.

“don’t know what happened against Arsenal, that we decided to change. We didn’t play at our level and there is no excuse, there are no words to explain.

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“But we are capable of beating these kind of teams. We are much better than what we did against Arsenal.”

Nevertheless, Tottenham have a chance of ending their recent run by beating ninth-placed Aston Villa on Sunday.

Villa themselves have suffered a slip in form following injury to captain Jack Grealish.

“Now we need to do differently against Aston Villa, Moura added. “We need to go there and show that we are capable of fighting for the Champions League.”

No time to cry for Spurs says Moura

Spurs’ only chance at a trophy remains the Carabao Cup. They will contest the final in April against Man City, who have won the competition three seasons in a row.

Heading into Thursday’s Europa League clash, Tottenham had a two-goal advantage from their first leg against Zagreb.

However, they capitulated with a 3-0 defeat and have had a miserable week so far after also losing 2-1 to Arsenal in last weekend’s north London derby.

Asked about that result, Moura called on his fellow stars to perform much better.


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“Of course we are all disappointed about the game and frustrated because we could have done much much better,” he said.

“We didn’t play at our level. We were too passive in the game — no intensity, no aggression.

“We are aware that we can do much better. But now that’s in the past, we don’t have time to cry, we need to look forward.”

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