Having swept aside Manchester City in midweek, Tottenham gave further confirmation of their credentials as a top-four side with a victory against the grain at Blackburn to sober up any celebrations planned to mark Sam Allardyce’s first anniversary as manager.

This was only Blackburn’s third defeat at Ewood Park in Allardyce’s 12 months at the helm and it owed everything to Peter Crouch’s finishing, which emphasised his value as a centre-forward in the air and on the ground.

The first, on the very stroke of half-time, should perhaps have been prevented. Crouch was the only Tottenham player in the Blackburn box and was surrounded by three defenders when he met Niko Kranjcar’s high, looping header. The ball bounced down from the crossbar, struck the post and ended up in the back of the net.

That was just about Tottenham’s only meaningful attack of the first half and you could say the same about their second, utterly decisive goal. Jermaine Jeanas was falling to earth when his pass found Crouch, who had the kind of time and space in the area that might have panicked a younger forward but his finishing was as icily cool as the conditions. But for an offside flag when he met Aaron Lennon’s cross, Crouch would have had his second hat-trick of the season and taken his tally of goals to 11.

The result may have been hard on Blackburn but despite their possession only Benni McCarthy was in Crouch’s class as a finisher. The South African struck the top of the bar with a deflected free-kick in the first half and was denied an equaliser in the second when Heurelho Gomes deflected his shot on to the foot of the post.

Premier LeagueBlackburn RoversTottenham HotspurTim Richguardian.co.uk

Despite Robbie Keane’s brave talk, Tottenham’s shambolic defending suggested they are a long way behind the big four

Suddenly, Robbie Keane’s bold claim that Tottenham Hotspur are “definitely on a par” with Arsenal seems rather misguided. A gut-wrenching 30-second period just before half-time, in which the hosts ignited and Spurs imploded, choked those aspirations and rendered the visitors a team shell shocked. Their game of catch-up thereafter always felt forlorn.

If Tottenham are vastly improved from the side that arrived here last term bottom of the table to pluck a staggering 4-4 draw from a helter-skelter derby, then certain flaws still clearly remain. Any argument that they had arrived here depleted by injury and suspension was countered by the reality that for 42 minutes they stifled the hosts’ midfield and induced sloppiness that had the home partisans chuntering up the aisles towards their half-time pies.

Then, mystifyingly, Spurs simply switched off as if their jobs were done. Ledley King may have appeared most culpable as Robin van Persie stabbed Bacary Sagna’s centre through Heurelho Gomes’ grasp at the near-post, the centre-half caught flat-footed as the Dutchman ghosted in on the inside, but why had Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Robbie Keane permitted Sagna and Cesc Fàbregas time at the key throw-in seconds earlier for the Frenchman to eke out the space to conjure the cross? Where, too, was Sebastien Bassong as the ball looped in on his side towards the near-post?

That inquest was still on-going, of course, when Spurs re-started the game, Wilson Palacios carelessly surrendering possession, via Van Persie’s touch, to Fabregas and then melting along with Tom Huddlestone and King as the Spaniard sprinted through the centre to side-foot a second beyond the exposed Gomes. The shambolic nature of the concession was hard to grasp, though this was rapidly turning into one of those tormented Tottenham days.

Panic had long since set in. The third on the hour-mark confirmed as much. Assou-Ekotto’s foul on Fabregas prompted players on both sides to stop with Mark Clattenburg bellowing to play on. Sagna did just that though, even so, his low centre should have been collected by either Gomes or King only for fragility to flare again. Amid the creaking limbs and muddled minds in the centre, the ball dribbled cruelly through goalkeeper and centre-half for Van Persie to tap in.

Doubts will be raised now, surely, over whether King can be expected to excel in games of this magnitude with little to no training behind him given his chronic knee problems. Yet he was not alone in being error-prone and ponderous here while Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson – “themselves hampered by recent injuries” – watched on from the bench.

Spurs have now lost to Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal this season, conceding three times to each having been exposed ruthlessly as a work in progress at the back. Their victory over Liverpool on the opening day, which hinted at an imminent challenge to the top four, is starting to look like the exception that proves the rule. This side, on this display, does not appear ready.

Premier LeagueArsenalTottenham HotspurDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk