So it could be interesting times ahead for Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou, but things move quickly in football.

Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal players were under serious pressure leading into Wednesday's north London derby after back-to-back defeats at home in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg and FA Cup third round...

Aaron Lennon
Former Tottenham midfielder on the Football Daily podcast

It's 100% been a massive factor [Spurs injuries], you're not talking about one or two fringe players, you're talking about your key players here. You're talking about your number-one goalkeeper, you're talking about your two centre-halves, [Destiny] Udogie out, three of your back four are out, including your goalkeeper.

That would affect any team, the boys that have come in have been brilliant. [Djed] Spence has looked really good, I'm surprised he's not played more football looking at how good he's been in these past few weeks. The interesting thing to see now is will Spurs look to bolster their squad in this January window.

They need the cover at the back, they've shown they don't have the cover there. Archie Gray has been filling in, he's not a centre-half, he's not even a right-back. I think they'll be looking to cover centre-half and possibly maybe even another striker. Richarlison came back on today. They've shown today and over the season that the squad needs strengthening.

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Regardless of the VAR decision and the result of Wednesday's north London derby, former Tottenham midfielder Aaron Lennon believes the current squad needs urgent reinforcements in the January transfer window...

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Former referee Dermot Gallagher on Sky Sports News' Ref Watch speaking about the incorrect corner decision which led to an Arsenal goal: "This is a real shame as it is all about consequence. The referee [Simon Hooper] makes the decision from where he is, he does not see the ball strike Leandro Trossard, which it definitely does, he gets the last touch, it should be a goal kick.

"The corner comes across, if it gets knocked out of play we do not talk about it, but it goes in the net and suddenly the consequences are ramped up.

"VAR cannot award anything other than red cards, penalties, goals, mistaken identities - they can't do re-starts, so it is out of their remit at the moment. Whether that will come in years to come, I do not know.

"For Simon Hooper, he may well have felt that when it hit Trossard, he was actually off the pitch, but he not, there is no doubt about it, it is a factual decision."

Despite all of that, Tottenham did take the lead against Arsenal, albeit against the run of play, and there is an argument that the Gunners should never have been awarded the corner that led to their equaliser...

Pat Nevin
Former Chelsea winger on the Football Daily podcast

I think it's just really hard to do it [play Ange Postecoglou's high-energy style of football] over a long period of time, two or three games a week. You sometimes forget when you've been out of the game, you're never really fully fit, you've always got injuries, you've always got things that are slowing you down, particularly if the squad's stretched, you're asked to do a little bit more. It exhausts you, it wears you out.

You could be right, that they [Spurs players] are thinking 'you're asking a bit too much of us here because we've not got enough bodies to do that' and if there is that feeling, not spoken and never owned up to in the group, that's lethal, that's not good.

With young players being asked to fill in at Tottenham, such as Archie Gray at centre-back and Lucas Bergvall in midfield, as well as injured players being rushed back into the first-time, could Ange Postecoglou be expecting too much of his squad to carry on playing in the style he is accustomed to?

BBC Radio 5 Live pundit Pat Nevin certainly thinks so...

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Aaron Lennon
Former Tottenham midfielder on the Football Daily podcast

It's a big problem, I think the team looked really sad today. The team is stretched with the injuries, but it is a big problem. His [Ange Postecoglou] way is fast tempo for 95 minutes, the Spurs players don't look like they can keep up this pace and like I said, they've had a lot of injuries. It's a massive problem, one win in nine, it's just not good enough at all.

If Spurs went there and won the game, it wouldn't be forgotten about. Honestly, that's how big this game is. Now with this game, losing a game, I think Arsenal were the better team, I don't think there was loads in it, but like you said, Arsenal fully deserved to win. But this puts a lot of unrest in the camp now, if they weren't in the EFL Cup semi-finals, I think there would be big problems.

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There has also been a lot of talk about Tottenham's injury problems.

Eight first-team players were missing against Arsenal, including key members of the defensive unit, such as goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, first-choice centre-back pairing Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, full-back Destiny Udogie and experienced Wales international Ben Davies.

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Pat Nevin
Former Chelsea winger on the Football Daily podcast

There's a lot of good players there, we know what Son's capable of doing, we know what Richarlison is capable of doing, But I wonder what tense we're talking about here, is it present or the past tense? They didn't have the legs to get away.

It happens to a lot of players if you're playing a high tempo game, there's a huge amount of games they're playing, they're not getting the rest they need because they haven't got the squad. All those excuses but you still need to be able to do it. I've watched Ange Postecoglou's teams, obviously with Celtic, they're high energy, they're high tempo and that's the way he seems to play.

If you don't play that team that way or aren't able to play that way, they're not going to be very good and that's the problem, they've not got those energy levels. They're a long way from it, they didn't look close to it. There's a difference between what is a normal pace and Ange Postecoglou pace, they're nowhere near that.

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It cannot be understated just how big the next month could be for Tottenham Hotspur - starting with Everton on Sunday (19 January) and culminating with Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round, which has been pencilled in for Saturday, 8 February.

Four cup matches in three different competitions are sprinkled either side of three massive Premier League fixtures. Just two of those seven fixtures are on home soil.

By the middle of February things could either look very rosy or very, very bleak.

Tottenham's upcoming matches:

• Everton (a)
• Hoffenheim (a) - Europa League
• Leicester (h)
• IF Elfsborg (h) - Europa League
• Brentford (a)
• Liverpool (a) - EFL Cup
• Aston Villa (a) - FA Cup

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Aaron Lennon
Former Tottenham midfielder on the Football Daily podcast

They were massive words coming from the manager [Ange Postecoglou] and the club captain [Son Heung-min]. They were flat and, listening to Ange speak, you could feel that even he was really flat and disappointed there.

There were times in the game when you were thinking this didn't feel like a derby, especially in that first half. It was all too nice, Arsenal were very comfortable and they were letting them have possession.

Even in the second half, you were going 'come on, let's go for it, we've got six forward players on this pitch'. We didn't really see the tempo lift and that's disappointing in this game.

The fans will not accept that because this game means so much to the fans and the football club, and it didn't feel like a derby watching it.

Defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday left Tottenham 13th in the Premier League table after 21 games played.

Eleven of those 21 games have ended in defeat, with only the bottom three having lost more.

It wasn't so long ago that a debate was being had about whether Manchester United were in a relegation battle. Well, if they were to get a positive result this evening, they will leapfrog Spurs in the table.

The gap between Tottenham and the relegation zone is currently eight points.

Spurs' next two Premier League fixtures are Everton and Leicester City.

Six pointers?