'No-one can be certain what they will get from Spurs at the moment'

BBC Sport's chief football news reporter Simon Stone
[BBC]

BBC Sport's chief football news reporter Simon Stone has been answering your questions.

Mike asked: What did you think of Tottenham's line-up in the north London derby? Do you think playing the likes of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Ben Davies showed that Ange Postecoglou and Spurs have prioritised the other games in the run-in? They put out a patched-up squad against probably Arsenal's best team in seven years (even if they did get away with only a 3-2 loss) and seemed like they were just protecting key players for important games.

Simon replied: I am not sure about that theory at all. I realise Tottenham still have five games to play but they do not play again until Thursday and have no travel.

They have also surrendered the initiative in that battle for fourth place to Aston Villa as they cannot catch them even if they win their two games in hand (which are against Chelsea and Manchester City so not exactly easy).

Tottenham have won six and lost four of their past 13 Premier League fixtures. That tells me Ange Postecoglou is searching for the line-up and combinations that would give him consistency, which is what every manager wants from their team.

No-one can be certain what they will get from Tottenham at the moment, even within games. The respective first and second-half performances Sunday were like chalk and cheese.

Read more of the Q&A with Simon here

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