Gulf between Giovani Lo Celso and the rest leaves one question: is this the football we wanted back so badly?

A penny for Giovani Lo Celso’s thoughts.

The Argentine midfielder was the best player during Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-0 win over West Ham, doing plenty right in both facets of the game.

In attack he was ever-present, making an impact in the opposition half where he completed 64 of his 83 successful passes, with as many key passes (three) and crosses (five) as anyone else. And at no point did he shirk the rougher work: winning the ball back more than anyone else without seemingly putting in a tackle in anger.

But lauding Lo Celso as the best player at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday night is less about what he did and more on what others did not. Such was the gulf between him and the other 21 who started the match that he would be inclined to feel a bit embarrassed. Were this a weekly knockabout five-a-side, he would have every right to mute the Whatsapp group, and could mount a strong case to be exempt from chucking in his share. Then again, so selfless was his performance that he would probably end up dipping into his own pocket for those who were short.

You can acknowledge the mitigating factors and still recognise how low on quality this was. Even legislating for the lack of fitness and two teams struggling for form and identity, is this really what we wanted back so desperately?

The lack of fans merely exacerbated that. This could have been someone’s first visit to this incredible venue, someone’s first as a Spurs or West Ham fan, perhaps even a present for dad from Sunday. Instead, it was another couple of hours in our own homes that we could have done without and won't be getting back.

Maybe it’s on us - should we really have expected more considering the respective managers? Jose Mourinho and David Moyes would not command a seat at a dream dinner for the same reasons why many feel modern football has passed them by: defensive, dour and uncharismatic in their approach.

A remarkable nugget that emerged yesterday was that this was the first time two former Manchester United managers faced off against each other in the Premier League. Both not only failed at Old Trafford but stagnated so dramatically that the next person in was at an immediate disadvantage.

They were in sync on the night, too. Tomas Souceck’s comical mishap to open the scoring was not just the third own goal to have benefitted Spurs this season but was the third a West Ham player has put past his own goalkeeper. Even in the post-match press engagements, Mourinho was empathetic to his opposite man, reiterating Moyes’ comments earlier in the week that West Ham were at an unnecessary disadvantage at having a day’s less rest than their opponents when neither are playing again for over a week because they are already out of the FA Cup.

But as easy as it is to lay into the circumstantial and pre-existing limitations of both, Tuesday night does contain lessons to be heeded. Firstly, that teams need to make the best of the limitations placed on them by coronavirus protocols, especially in training. And secondly that style may have to be shelved for, simply, putting in a shift.

There was a school of thought that football’s hiatus would be used by managers to fine-tune their philosophies so players could return to better reflect them for the run-in. But restrictions on the training ground around personnel meant sessions together and contact time with coaches were scarce.

With training groups limited to five people, Mourinho decided to throw his defenders together to ensure that was sorted first. The results, even after two games, are clear to see: just one goal conceded - “a funny penalty”, as Mourinho put it, against Manchester United on Friday - and not many more shots on goal. These seven days leading up to next Thursday’s match away to eighth-placed Sheffield United will be spent wedding that with better attacking organisation. “We know that we have to improve a lot - we have to be more consistent in our movements, in our dynamic, in our intensity."

The scrapping elements might seem to apply more to teams of West Ham’s ilk, and it was telling that Moyes opted for a more hard-working forwards in Michail Antonio, Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals, with the more creative Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini coming on later in the game. Andriy Yarmolenko was an unused substitute.

“We won’t be making 15 to 20 chances a game. More like three or five and we have to take one or two of what we get.”

What reservations respective fans have over Mourinho’s suitability for Spurs’s squad of ball-players or Moyes’s unambitious brand of football will not be dissipated by the conclusion of the 2019/20 season. The latter might not make it to 2020/21, and the former may not be in his position come 2021/2022.

There are likely to be more uninspiring nights like these. But these are uninspiring times. Should both teams emerge better off than they were in March, then at least the tedium would not have been for nothing.