Apparently, there was a north London derby that took place on Saturday afternoon – it is just a shame nobody told the Spurs players. We have heard all the stories about this Spurs team being less fearful of the big sides and not giving up the ghost when times get tough but this was as bad as any performance against the top teams for many years.

Robbie Keane sums up much that is wrong with Tottenham’s players still. Spending all week mouthing off wonderful soundbytes about us being as good as the best sides and able to compete and play as good football as them, then putting on the sort of performance that has made us a laughing stock for so many years – both individually and as a team.

When top four sides make mistakes, they are scrutinised and vilified as it is so out of character. Unfortunately for Spurs, these mistakes happen more and more in our games against the big guns and are the reason we have failed to win away to many of them for so many seasons. Similarly, while the best teams can change their starting lineup and carry on churning out victories, Spurs show their old inconsistencies by playing reasonably one week then appallingly the next, taking their chances in one game and wasting them for the next two.

Yes we were restricted in some ways by injuries and suspensions but the minimum you expect is for the players who put on the shirt to be aware of the pace you need to play the derby at and the physical exertions you must go through. For 40 minutes, Spurs did that but as soon as the first, then second goal went in, the game was over. With absolutely nothing happening in the other direction there was no hope of Spurs getting back into the game.

As individuals, there were some truly woeful performances. Keane, we have already touched upon and Harry Redknapp now has a major decision to make when Jermain Defoe comes back – surely there can be no more excuses for his dismal displays and a spell on the bench is the only way to teach him his current form is simply not good enough.

It is harder to be harsh on Ledley King given his injury problems but this game again emphasised that Spurs have to start facing up to some home truths about the injury-plagued defender. There are only so many times you can throw King back into massive games and expect him to come up trumps. He has always struggled against Arsenal’s pace and movement and van Persie in particular has given a lesson too many times.

Against second-rate teams, Ledley probably would have got away with the first two goals but when you face that extra half yard of movement and bit of quality it is a different story. Sebastien Bassong may be the long-term prospect but he is still learning at the moment and Spurs need Jonathan Woodgate back and stepping up as soon as possible to lead the back line.

At least Spurs have options at the back but the centre of midfield is a much deeper worry at present. Wilson Palacios is having a dip in form that he will overcome but there can be no such excuses from the consistently pathetic Tom Huddlestone. For many years, a large number of Spurs fans constantly said that the team would achieve nothing with a limited player like Zokora in the side and when Palacios came we were proved wholly right. We are now at a similar crossroads with Huddlestone from the other end of the spectrum.

The days of having a ball-playing central midfielder died long ago and it seems only the old and blinded Spurs fans cannot see this. Time and again I hear people bleating about what a player Huddlestone could be. As a footballer he may well be but as an athlete he will never be good enough to take us to the next level – or even keep us at our current one. The problem with him is that when the passing goes to pot – as it has so many times this season – there is nothing to add value to the team.

Hudd cannot chase, go with runners, tackle with any aggression or win the aerial balls that he should – sounding like the aforementioned Zokora? You have to be an athlete and he is not. Jermaine Jenas gets a baffling amount of abuse yet he is many times the all-round player that Huddlestone is – able to get up and down for ninety minutes, tackle, compete and never give up. He may not be the silky footballer of Huddlestone but he will always offer you so much more, as he proved in this game. Redknapp’s persistent selection of Huddlestone is costing us big time.

Normally, we would go into details about the game but the overriding anger is stopping me this time – the players do not even deserve this much to be written about that performance. The goals perhaps summed everything up. If you are on back foot for so long it only takes a couple of players to switch off for a few seconds and the game is gone – yet only Tottenham could do it twice in the matter of 60 seconds to throw any hope away.

The first came from a throw-in that offered no danger, yet Spurs did not have enough players to stop a free cross to the near post – with Keane standing and pointing infuriatingly as usual rather than close players down – and King’s lack of that half a yard was exposed as Van Persie nipped in and got just enough power to beat Heurelho Gomes. Sadly, that was only the start of the problems.

Spurs kicked off, Palacios gave away the ball then failed to bring down Fabregas, King was too slow to cover and also did not manage to fell the Spaniard, and he waltzed on and finished. Game over. Redknapp went to a flat 4-4-2 after the break and the floodgates looks likely to open with the hopeless Huddlestone further exposed and David Bentley back to the form that made him a hate figure in his first season at the Lane.

Things briefly turned when Gareth Bale was given a long-overdue return to the side and the balance was restored with Jenas much more forceful in the centre of the park. But the third goal finished everything off as Arsenal escaped down the right and Gomes and King only managed to put it on a plate for Van Persie when the cross came in. Spurs went through the motions after that, seemingly unaware that they were still supposed to be playing a derby match. The season, as a result, is now at a crossroads and Redknapp and the players have to decide whether they want to make something of the campaign or fade into the sort of obscurity that has blighted the club for too many years.

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