Coach Andre Villas-Boas sacked by Tottenham after Liverpool shock

Tottenham Hotspur and coach Andre Villas-Boas have parted ways, a club statement has said.

A revamped Tottenham were always going to take time to gel with lot of changes this season, but the decision was on expected lines by many in the wake of Sunday’s humiliating 5-0 defeat by Liverpool.

“The club can announce that agreement has been reached with head coach, Andre Villas-Boas, for the termination of his services,” read a statement on the Tottenham website.

“The decision was by mutual consent and in the interests of all parties. We wish Andre well for the future. We shall make a further announcement in due course.”

Villas-Boas’s dismissal represents his second consecutive failure at a London side as he was sacked by Chelsea in March 2012 after only nine months at the Stamford Bridge helm.

He joined Spurs the following July but despite leading the club to their highest points tally of the Premier League era last season (72), they missed out on a Champions League place to arch-rivals Arsenal.

Speaking after the drubbing by Liverpool, Villas-Boas had vowed that he would not walk away from the club.

“The call to make that decision is not mine because obviously I won’t resign and I’m not a quitter,” he said.

“The only thing I can do is work hard with the players to get them back on track. This is a top-four squad but in our Premier League form we are not there.”

While Spurs have misfired in the league, they qualified for the last 32 in the Europa League after winning all six of their group games and were paired with Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Friday’s draw.

Following the sale of attacker Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a world record 100 million euros (Dh505 million), the signings of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Paulinho, Vlad Chiriches, Nacer Chadli and Etienne Capoue was supposed reduce the reliance on one standout player and strengthen all areas of the squad.

Instead, the team has looked unbalanced. A strong defensive start to the season was offset by a 3-0 loss to West Ham United, 6-0 thrashing at Manchester City and the defeat to Liverpool, the club’s worst home loss in 16 years.

Injuries have forced midfielder Capoue to deputise at centre back in recent matches, while the decision to loan Benoit Assou-Ekotto to Queens Park Rangers has backfired given Danny Rose’s injury woes and Kyle Naughton’s struggles in the left-back position.

Striker Soldado has been isolated up front despite scoring a hat-trick in a 4-1 Europa League win over Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala on Thursday, indicative of a laboured attack that has scored 15 goals in 16 league matches.

Lamela failed to adapt to life in the Premier League thus far, while Chadli, Capoue and Eriksen have all suffered injury setbacks.

Spurs currently are seventh, eight points behind leaders Arsenal and five-points off fourth-placed Manchester City.

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