Redknapp searches for answers

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp is struggling to identify the cause of his team’s form slump after a 1-1 draw with Stoke City.

Previously flying high in third place on the English Premier League table, Spurs have now slipped back to fourth, behind local rivals Arsenal, after being held at White Hart Lane on Wednesday.

Redknapp has now seen his team fail to win in their last four league outings, although they did end a run of three defeats in succession.

“We just seem to have lost our way a little bit,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.

“We are not playing with quite the same fluency that we were a few weeks ago. It’s difficult to put your finger on it. One or two of us look a bit jaded.”

Next up for Spurs is a key showdown with fellow Champions League hopefuls Chelsea, who are fifth in the standings, five points behind Tottenham.

“We’ve got Chelsea now on Saturday for a big game so we’ve got to pick ourselves up again and go there and try and get a result,” Redknapp said.

“Anything can happen. We’ve got to come from behind now and pick it up. It’s not all over by any means.”

“Now is the time to get going again.”

Tottenham trailed to a 75th-minute goal from Cameron Jerome, who latched on to Rubert Huth’s flick-on from a free kick.

The hosts needed Rafael van der Vaart’s last-minute equaliser to salvage a point.

“Stoke are never an easy team to beat. They were solid,” Redknapp said.

“I said before the game that we had to be careful on set-plays, and we got done on a set-play.”

“We huffed and puffed. We hit the bar with Gareth but we were thankful in the end for that (Van der Vaart) goal.”

Stoke manager Tony Pulis could not fault the performance of his players, who have encountered a sequence of three demanding away matches in succession.

“We’re very, very pleased with the effort that the lads have put in on the back of such a tough game on Saturday at Liverpool (in the FA Cup) and on the back of such a tough game at Chelsea,” he said.

“Putting in a performance like that today was testament to what the team’s all about.”

“They’re a very, very hard-working group of players who just give everything for one another.”