In a technical and tactical sense this was a poor contest between two unconvincing, tentative sides.

Chris Hughton and Tim Sherwood used similar systems featuring a lone striker, two wide players moving inside and three solid, physical midfielders. The teams appeared to cancel each other out, with a frustrating lack of genuine creativity on show.

Tottenham Hotspur started with Aaron Lennon on the left and Mousa Dembélé right, which encouraged both to move inside and offer support to Emmanuel Adebayor, despite the lack of goalscoring ability being the major shortcoming of both. Nevertheless, a combination between the duo almost proved effective in the sixth minute, when Lennon cut inside and sent a clever through-ball towards Dembélé, who could not bring the ball under control as he sprinted in behind.

The injury suffered by the holding midfielder Étienne Capoue changed things. Nacer Chadli replaced him and played on the left, with Lennon switched to the right and Dembélé brought back into his central role. Lennon was less involved, while Chadli is a wide forward who needs others to provide incisive passes – something that simply was not forthcoming from Spurs' midfield.

Lennon's and Chadli's attacking qualities were also nullified by the advances of Norwich's full-backs, who pushed the Spurs pair back into defensive positions. Hughton's team built moves down the right, with the full-back Russell Martin and the winger Robert Snodgrass combining frequently, before switching the play left, where Martin Olsson attempted to sprint forward untracked.

Norwich rarely looked dangerous when crossing the ball, however, because Ricky van Wolfswinkel offers extremely little goal threat. Here he failed to attempt a shot or create a chance for a team-mate, although he did dispossess Nabil Bentaleb in the build-up to Snodgrass's winner. The game's only goal neatly summed up Hughton's approach – to win possession and immediately attack down the flanks, and it also justified his continued use of Snodgrass and Nathan Redmond on the "wrong" wings, giving them freedom to cut inside and shoot.

It was highly surprising Sherwood waited until the 65th minute to make a change, although it almost worked instantly. He turned to 4-4-2, with Roberto Soldado joining Adebayor up front, and the two soon combined excellently, only for Soldado to slice wide from a dangerous position.

However, it was astonishing that Sherwood did not use Christian Eriksen. Tottenham desperately required a playmaker with his intelligence, guile and eye for a penetrative pass, and it is difficult to envisage a more fitting situation for his skills considering Spurs were dominating possession clearly, but failing to create chances.

It simply was not clear how Spurs were attempting to break down the Norwich backline and the more Dembélé, Paulinho and Lennon are switched between different roles, the more difficult it will be for Spurs to find familiarity in attack.

Norwich were unspectacular but they had an obvious game plan. The same cannot be said of Spurs under Sherwood and, though his overall impact at the club has been positive, a performance and result like this had somehow been on the cards.