Up until the eighty-third minute, my only concern during yesterday’s game at White Hart Lane was warming my hands against the cold air in the chilly environs of the north stand. Spurs did not have a vice-like head-lock on proceedings, more of a guiding strong arm round the waist of the match, but Leicester offered so little in the way of a threat that I felt almost numb contentment with the way in which Tottenham’s second string were playing.

Was I, like Pochettino, lulled in to a false sense of security? Definitely. But this game is not the season defining car crash that some would have us believe. If the manager plays his first eleven in every game during January and February, there will inevitably be burn out among our better players – he knows this and is trying to balance the assault on all fronts using a squad of players of very mixed quality and application. He’s sorting the plonk from the Chateauneuf de Pape, and it’s going to take time and a bit of patience on the part of the fans for this to work itself out. Remember where we were in October? All doom and gloom and staring into the abyss. If you stare in to the abyss for long enough, it starts staring back at you. Time for a bit of calm and perspective. We must stop self-flagellating – it’s as pathetic as it is painful.

That said, many of the players fighting for their future at Spurs did little to temper the enthusiasm of the already itchy-fingered firing squad. You would have to think that the ineffectual performance of Dembele is another nail in the coffin for a once promising player, likewise for Chiriches who finds himself further and further down the pecking order for his preferred position of centre back and is simply not mobile enough or astute enough to play right-back. Fazio covered up a multitude of sins for his defensive colleagues, impressing with his positional awareness and alert to the fact that in Kaboul he was playing alongside a man who is already thinking about his summer holidays and a transfer to a league where marking and reading the game aren’t crucial to defending. Narnia Southern League Divison Three perhaps awaits him? Elsewhere in the back five, before inexplicably rolling under and around a tame shot like an invertebrate in its death throes, desperately trying to avoid the sharp beak of a militant crow, Vorm made two excellent first half saves … shame he had to cost us the game in such embarrassing style in the ninety second minute. Although he did his best to undo his good work before that when poor Kramaric got booked for diving. That was probably a penalty. Almost definitely probably a penalty.

For all this, it was the link up play between Lamela and Soldado, occasionally supported by Paulinho, that had me paying the closest attention. Intelligent players making short passes to beat defenders, creating space and (sometimes) getting shots on goal. Lamela showed good physical strength too in fending off a Leicester defender before slotting Soldado in to win the penalty. People are praising Townsend for his industry but I’d rather see Lamela start any day, he’s a clever, exciting player and he doesn’t spend most of his time running towards the corner flag. The goal is over there Townsend. To you’re left.

I wasn’t content at the end of the game, I was pissing raging because Spurs threw away a lead against a relegation threatened pile of dross. At Spurs we should want to win everything but realistically some things are nearer to our grasp than others, the FA Cup would have provided an opportunity to get our sweaty little hands on some silverware given how other results went at the weekend. Pochettino has put himself and his players under huge pressure, winning on Wednesday night now takes on greater significance than it would otherwise have done if we had given Leicester the tonking they were crying out for.

Anyway, maybe the late goals conceded and the defeat are simply karma exerting itself after lucky late wins against West Ham, Leicester and Swansea away in the league, Spurs weren’t great in any of those games but still mugged the luckless opposition late on for a win – sometimes the shiny pink boot of late goal destiny is on the other foot. For us, it’s usually on Erkisen’s foot and he’ll be back on Wednesday along with Vertonghen, Kane, Mason, Walker, Lloris and, hopefully, Chadli. An almost entirely different team will have a chance to show why they are the chosen ones. No excuses.