Tottenham Hotspur crashed to a disappointing defeat against Newcastle United in the Premier League at the weekend.

The North London club are currently pushing for Champions League qualification and they cannot afford to drop points at the stage of the campaign. The defeat against Newcastle coupled with Aston Villa’s outstanding win away to Arsenal will have come as a major blow to Tottenham.

Popular pundit Micah Richards has now claimed that Spurs are still a very good team, but they need more cutting edge in the final third.

Richards added that they have been slightly unlucky as well. He believes that James Maddison got injured at a bad time for the club and losing Son Heung-min during the Asian Cup affected their performance as well.

Tottenham started the season really well and losing players like Maddison affected their momentum. He also believes that Swedish winger Dejan Kulusevski has lost his edge in recent weeks and he is not quite the same player right now. The winger looked much more effective during the first half of the season.

Spurs had to be without Richarlison as well because of an injury blow.

He explained on ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast: “I think it’s unfair for people to say Spurs have not been as… they have just done what they usually do all season, they are just basically not scoring or finishing off their chances.

“Maddison got injured at a bad time, Son went to the Asian Cup which killed their momentum a little bit, Kulusevski doesn’t look quite the same, Richarlison then got injured, but they are still a very good team.”

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Can Spurs finish in top four?

There is no doubt that they have a quality team, but they have clearly had quite a few setbacks. It will be interesting to see if they can still finish the season strongly and secure Champions League qualification for the next season. Missing out on a top-four finish would be a major blow for them, especially after coming this close.

It will be interesting to see if players like Kulusevski can get back to their best once again and help Spurs win their remaining games of the season.