With Stan Lazaridis the latest player to suffer the 'left-back curse', Steve Bruce's main issue with regards team selection was who to play in the role. Damien Johnson, Matthew Upson and Stephen Clemence had all been touted as potential makeshift full-backs, but Bruce undoubtedly surprised a fair few people in opting for Julian Gray. As such, Johnson became a left winger again, after his career as a central midfielder has been put on hold for at least another match, and Clemence came into the side in the middle of the park alongside Muzzy Izzet. Whilst Clemence was facing his former club, there was no such luck for Darren Anderton who was overlooked for a place on the bench - though the 'injured' (depending on what you believe) Clinton Morrison did return to the 16.
Blues started the game tremendously well, and had won something like 3 corners within about the first 90 seconds. Unfortunately, these 90 seconds seemed to sum up the 90 minutes that ensued - plenty of promise, but no end product. Johnson and Jesper Gronkjaer both headed balls back across the area from either flank, but there was no one in the middle to capitalise - Mikael Forssell again struggling to recapture any kind of form early in the contest.
Forssell, in fairness, did begin to get a little more involved as the first half wore on, and had a couple of decent opportunities blocked - one following another cushioned header by Gronkjaer. The problem seemed to be though that the Finnish striker was taking too much time over the chances. The things that came so naturally and instinctively to him last season seem to be things that he now has to ponder, and in doing this, his greatest quality as a sharp goalscorer has been diminished.
Ten minutes before half time, Spurs took the lead, courtesy of Jermain Defoe. Defoe and strike partner Robbie Keane - normally such livewires - had been totally anonymous up until this point. However, Defoe picked the ball up halfway inside the Blues half, and seeing that Upson was backing off, ran at his England colleague, twisting and turning and generally making Upson (who had been poor until this point) look clueless, before firing a long-range effort which flicked off Upson and into the back of Maik Taylor's net.
This fired Spurs into life a little bit in the period before half-time, and certainly woke Deofe up, as the former West Ham striker again tested Taylor from similar distance. Defoe was also booked for diving when under challenge in the Blues penalty area. Blues couldn't come up with any sort of swift response prior to the break - not helped by Emile Heskey clearly struggling with his ankle injury - and so Spurs led at the interval.
The second half was more of the same from Blues, who toiled, but to no avail. Spurs look a different proposition under Santini in some senses - they're still far from spectacular, but Spurs teams of the last few seasons may well have crumbled under the pressure, but they defended pretty well.
Forssell, Johnson, Gray and Heskey all fired over the bar during the second half, whilst Heskey also had a header cleared off the line by Michael Brown following an Izzet corner. Heskey was really struggling though - everytime he jumped for the ball, his landing clearly caused him great discomfort, due to his ankle. This though was perhaps no excuse for his dive when Robinson came out to meet him. Heskey was rightly booked, and may have actually profitted if he'd stayed on his feet and rounded the committed Robinson.
For all the possession, Blues had no real answers when it came down to breaking Spurs down. Clemence and Izzet in the middle lacked the craft that, say, David Dunn would have provided, and Blues resorted late on to just one tactic - get the ball to Gronkjaer to cross it in. To be fair to the Dane, his crosses were all pretty good, but no one was taking advantage, despite Morrison - who did flash one header over the bar - and Stern John also being thrown on in search of a goal.
Gronkjaer, worringly, is already beginning to get some criticism from a minority of Blues fans for being 'lazy'. Personally, I find this unfair. He worked hard yesterday, but people have to understand that he's not going to go diving into tackles throughout the match - his game is getting the ball, running at full-backs, and putting crosses in. He did all of those things pretty well yesterday, especially in the second half. People need to realise that if Steve Bruce wanted a gritty, aggressive wide player, then he wouldn't have singed Jesper Gronkjaer. What he has signed him for is for what we've seen him do over the years for Denmark and Chelsea - and that's what he is doing, to be fair to him.
Late on, Heskey headed over when well-placed from an Izzet cross, and that was Blues hopes dashed for the afternoon. There needs to be more spark in Blues forward play to push on from here. I'm not just talking about getting forwards more, because the team are doing that now, especially with Mario Melchiot - who was outstanding - and either Lazaridis or Gray as full-backs. However, the actual craft to create real clearcut chances is lacking. This isn't helped by Dunn's absence, but until the side can rely on one or two other approaches, other than simply Gronkjaer putting cross after cross into the box, then the 'We deserved at least a draw, maybe even a win, but got nothing' line that has already been heard post-Chelsea and post-Spurs may be one we hear more often this season.