Debate: should Tottenham sack Ramos?

The goalkeeper was in tears at half-time, and by the final whistle half of North London will have joined him. At least Heurelho Gomes had physical pain as his excuse for bawling his eyes out. For the rest, those watching from behind the sofa at home or with mounting disbelief in the South Stand, there will have been a miserable combination of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and no doubt a sprinkling of paranoia.

This is officially the worst start to a season in the history of Tottenham Hotspur and yesterday's farce was added to abject failure, a mix that usually does for a manager, as it may for Juande Ramos. Tottenham did not just lose to Stoke City, more they folded in shambolic disarray, with two players sent off, another on his way to hospital having collided with his own goalkeeper and a scoreline that flattered their feeble efforts.

Stoke missed a penalty in the fifth minute of second-half injury time and hit the bar six minutes later. The lengthy delay for treatment to Vedran Corluka, who contrived to be flattened by Gomes on two occasions in quick succession, did not provide the heroic grandstand finish that would have been a sign of life in Ramos’s Tottenham side. Rather, it could have ended in humiliation with Stoke doubling their total of goals, as the visiting team collapsed in a morass of rash tackles and lame, blind-alley, counter-attacking initiatives.

The chickens are home to roost, clucking and squawking, and many have brought their mates. Luka Modric looks too lightweight for the Barclays Premier League, as predicted by Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, during the European Championship; Roman Pavlyuchenko is struggling to adapt to English football having played the best part of a season in Russia; Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane are sorely missed; the injury problems of Ledley King leave a hole in the heart of defence. These were not unexpected issues. All were identified before this crisis as reasons that Ramos could find his second season in English football difficult. Although maybe not this difficult.

The seventeenth-minute sending-off of Gareth Bale did not help, although Tottenham had their only worthwhile spell of the match immediately after it happened, but by the end he had been joined prematurely in the dressing-room by Michael Dawson, making that two straight red cards for a team that will need all hands to the pump in the next few weeks with tough matches against Bolton Wanderers, Arsenal and Liverpool looming. If Newcastle United beat Manchester City this evening, Tottenham will be five points adrift of their nearest Premier League rivals. On the up side, looking at the names in the squad it is impossible to imagine them being relegated; on the down side, looking at the level of performance turned in by those players, it is equally impossible to imagine them surviving.

Ramos’s future must be in serious doubt. There is a moment when the standard poor form of a team in trouble crosses the border into more dangerous territory, and Tottenham appear to have reached it. There is indiscipline, foolishness and an absence of character. Stoke are far from a team who look comfortable in the Premier League and are likely to be in the relegation mix at the end of the season, but they were too much for Tottenham here. They worked harder, knew what they were about and thoroughly deserved their three points. Tottenham enjoyed a period in the first half when, after going a goal down, they played like a team with nothing to lose and equalised through Darren Bent, but the joy evaporated when Rory Delap restored Stoke’s lead in the 52nd minute, after which they presented no further threat.

The day began badly when Bale, who already looked nervous, made a hash of dealing with an attack by Tom Soares, the player signed by Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, from Crystal Palace on deadline day. As the ball ran forward, Bale attempted to retrieve the situation and succeeded only in delivering a clumsy trip in the penalty area, which left Lee Mason, the referee, no choice but to award a penalty. The red card issued to Bale seemed harsh for what was a mistake rather than a malicious challenge and the drama increased when high winds around the Britannia Stadium blew the ball off the spot four times, before Danny Higginbotham was able to slip it low to Gomes’s left.

Quite why this breathed life into Tottenham is a mystery. But within seven minutes they were level when a shot by Alan Hutton was deflected fortuitously into the path of Bent, who, also fortuitously, was not judged to be offside and held off a strong challenge to slip the ball through the legs of Thomas Sorensen, the goalkeeper. For a while, it looked as if Tottenham might turn a corner, particularly when Modric gave a glimpse of the player he could be, involved three times in an intricate build-up before shooting over the bar. Unfortunately, the corner turned, they were run over by an oncoming bus in the shape of Stoke’s powerful forwards. Having spent far too much time lumping the ball forward aimlessly, the winners showed what could be achieved by passing to feet: Soares to Mamady Sidibe and his cross met by Delap at the far post, Tottenham’s defence overstretched.

This time, there was no inspiration. As Stoke applied the pressure, so Tottenham quivered. Gomes, who did not look comfortable after aggravating the training injury and being captured on camera in tears, attempted a panicked clearance of his area only to strike Corluka in the chest, requiring treatment. The next time, he went one better and knocked him unconscious, one of several incidents that summed up Tottenham’s chaotic meanderings. Jonathan Woodgate, supposedly one of the more experienced players, brought down Soares with a thoughtless challenge in the penalty area and escaped only when Ricardo Fuller’s penalty hit both posts and rebounded to Delap, who hit the bar. Dawson, the replacement for Corluka, was dismissed nine minutes into injury time for an over-the-top challenge on Sidibe. As almost the final act of an 11-minute injury-time session, Fuller hit the bar.

The one positive for Tottenham came with the news that Corluka’s head and neck X-rays showed no serious damage and he regained consciousness in the ambulance. Whether he was as pleased to be told that he really had left Manchester City for Tottenham on deadline day, and it was not all a terrible dream, it is hard to say.

Stoke (4-4-1-1): T Sorensen 6 A Griffin 6 I Sonko 6 Abdoulaye Faye 8 D Higginbotham 7 T Soares 8 S Diao 6 S Olofinjana 7 R Delap 8 M Sidibe 6 D Kitson 6 Substitutes: R Fuller 6 (for Kitson, 55min); S Simonsen 6 (for Sorensen, 65); R Shawcross (for Sonko, 83). Not used: G Whelan, R Cresswell, Amdy Faye, M Tonge. Next: Man City (a)

Spurs (4-5-1): H Gomes 6 A Hutton 5 J Woodgate 5 V Corluka 5 G Bale 4 D Bentley 5 J Jenas 5 D Zokora 6 L Modric 5 A Lennon 6 D Bent 6 Substitutes: R Pavlyuchenko 5 (for Bentley, 58min); M Dawson (for Corluka, 77). Not used: C Sanchez, T Huddlestone, F Campbell, J O’Hara, B Assou-Ekotto. Next: Bolton (h)

Referee L Mason Attendance 27,500