Can Spurs end their February slide at the Etihad?

Hugo Lloris in goal for Tottenham Hotspur

Wolverhampton Wanderers defeated Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) 2-0 in Premier League action over the weekend (13 February) at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It was Spurs' third league defeat in a row, which the club's manager Antonio Conte put down to a lack of killer instinct on his players' part.

🇮🇹Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte insists he’s working everyday to instill the right mentality into his Spurs players:

😡“Winning mentality in my opinion means when you play I’m ready to kill you and to live.”

📺[@HaytersTV]

#THFC | #COYS | #TOTWOL
https://t.co/DWzd5B1X52

With all due respect to the Italian, there is more than just lack of a killer instinct in front of goal than meets the eye with respect to Tottenham's issues.

Spurs sliding into spring

The new year started well, but since the last week of January, things have seen a real downturn for the north London outfit.

Another defeat and this current run of losses would match the one the club suffered last fall. It was the same poor streak that spelled the end of Nuno Espírito Santo's term as Conte’s predecessor.

Spurs and Wolves are in 8th and 7th place respectively in the league table. After the weekend's results, Spurs' lack of scoring has left them with a goal difference of -1, which has been positive in the last two full seasons.

Tottenham's major problem right now is the disarray and uncertainty brought on by injury to several key players. Also, Harry Kane's inability to score freely like last season is not helping them one bit.

Tottenham riddled with injuries

Defender Eric Dier's absence due to a thigh injury has coincided with the club's three-match slide in the league. Additionally, Tottenham have recently been without Japhet Tanganga and Oliver Skipp. Chances are that Tanganga will be ruled out for the next important clash against Manchester City.

Conte told Football London last week, however, that he expected both Dier and Skipp to be cleared "within two weeks." That would mean that Dier would be ready to play Saturday (19 February) against Manchester City.

Whither Harry Kane

Another source of on-field uncertainty for Spurs seems to be the role of Harry Kane. Kane created a good deal of uncertainty last summer when he seemed ready to leave Spurs entirely.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

Harry Kane has told Tottenham he wants to leave this summer https://t.co/u3PDDg5a2h

While the club's managerial changes seemed to put some of that to rest, Conte's system has created new challenges for Kane. The Italian has reimagined Kane's on-field role. The new system calls for the England captain to drop deeper and create space in the final third.

At first, the England striker embraced his "new" role and it seemed to produce good results. No less than Peter Crouch was amongst many to laud the new manager precisely for his new deployment of Kane. But with recent personnel changes due to injury, Conte's tactics have become less effective.

Right now Kane's repositioning seems problematic. The striker has scored just five goals in 21 games in the league. His prolific partner from last season, Son Heung-Min, despite his own injury problems, has nine goals. The club's average goals per game is also down from 1.8 last season to just 1.27 this term.

Conte's men face a great challenge away to City this weekend. The Sky Blues average 2.44 goals per match and their goal difference is currently over +40. on paper, it seems like it would take a huge effort from even the strongest of Tottenham's defenses to come away with one point.

Current form and issues in the Spurs camp suggests that City might run away with this one as they did in their recent Champions League game against Sporting.