Who’s responsible at Spurs? Everyone, which is why they’re into the top four

It had been a bad week at Tottenham Hotspur. They had been ripped apart at Leicester City, putting in arguably the worst performance of the whole Antonio Conte era, destroying any sense the team had turned any corner. Then they went to Milan in the Champions League and lost there, too. Finally, they received news that Antonio Conte would not be returning to London with them on medical advice.

But through all the difficulties there was one clear message, something Tottenham players had to do if they were to turn their season back around: the senior players had to take some responsibility and ownership. That is what Cristian Stellini, left manning the ship for another week, asked of them. (As Ben Davies put it on Sunday evening, Stellini’s request was that “the boys with the experience have to do their bit”.) This prompted some candid discussions in private, led by players who did not want to get embarrassed again. And the evidence of Sunday’s game against West Ham United was that this cultural turn might have worked.

In many ways, Spurs’ 2-0 win over West Ham was unremarkable. It was as comfortable as you would expect a home game against a team in the relegation zone to be. West Ham never threatened after the first few minutes. The first half was so bad as to be unwatchable, but when Spurs raised the tempo at the start of the second half, West Ham could not live with them. Compared to their last home league game, when Harry Kane made history and Spurs beat Manchester City, this one will not live long in the memory.

But this has not been a normal season for Tottenham and this was not a normal week. In that context, this game stands out more. This was only Spurs’ eighth clean sheet in the league this season. It required no stirring second-half comeback after conceding stupid goals before the break. And the qualities Spurs showed — defensive organisation, fitness to go for 90 minutes, reliance on the team rather than individuals — were precisely what they wanted to show. “Today you saw a team that was united,” Davies explained afterwards. “Everybody was on the same page and everybody was working hard, trying to pick up three points.”

In that sense, this game had more in common with the Manchester City win than you first might think. Both times Spurs defended better than they had done for most of the season. (Yes, there is the huge caveat here which is that even City’s worst performance of the season is on another level from this current sleepwalking West Ham.) Both times Spurs realised football is easier when you are not 2-0 down at half-time. Both times Spurs turned it up in the second half, showing more energy, more intensity, and creating more chances than they did in the first. And both times, of course, it was Stellini rather than the recovering Conte in the dugout.

And in both games —…