It was another hugely worrying sign that Tottenham Hotspur are simply lifeless without Harry Kane as their shocking form extended to a third straight league defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Chelsea on Thursday evening.

In the absence of the talismanic Englishman, Jose Mourinho finally turned to the man he signed as backup in the summer, Carlos Vinicius, but he struggled to affect the game whatsoever.

But it wasn’t his fault.

Spurs were set up too defensively and rarely ever threatened to level the game let alone try to win it having been gunned down by a 24th-minute penalty from Jorginho.

As per SofaScore statistics, the home side mustered up a total of seven shots, only two of which were on target. On the other hand, the visitors managed a total of 18 and, of course, came away with all three points.

Vinicius, who is valued at €30m (£26m) by CIES, was starved of service as their sole striker.

Indeed, he managed only 21 touches in 90 minutes of action – the fewest of any Spurs player, even those that came off the bench and the goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris (35) too, via SofaScore.

Neither Tanguy Ndombele nor Steven Bergwijn could provide any sort of influence, both failing to contribute a key pass, which was below what is usually expected of the two. Both have averaged 0.9 key passes per 90 this campaign, as per WhoScored.

Heung-min Son did manage to deliver two key balls but to no avail, as neither were converted into firm chances created.

Only three members of the Spurs squad averaged a position inside the Chelsea half, and interestingly, it was Vinicius who was the deepest of the three as he evidently dropped back to try and create something of his own, as you can see in the map below, via WhoScored:

The 25-year-old colossus, on loan from Benfica, managed just one shot all match as a result of the sheer lack of creativity behind him, and also won just seven of 16 duels (44%), as per SofaScore.

Mourinho’s dire and defensive set-up on the night has cost the 6 foot 4 Vinicius a real chance to impress here as he was a mere passenger throughout the entire time he was on the pitch.

‘Battled away upfront but had little support,’ wrote football.london’s Alasdair Gold in his post-match ratings column, only emphasising how little service he had.

On the face of it, Vinicius’ display was rather pathetic, but it’s hardly his fault as Spurs, on the whole, were absolutely diabolical, and a lot of that comes down to Mourinho’s negativity.

AND in other news, Levy could land Mourinho his own Van Dijk in £35m Spurs swoop for 6 ft 4 “top talent”…