Spurs face a striking problem without Emmanuel Adebayor, says William Gallas

The result in Rome will have a significant impact on Spurs’s ability to progress in the Europa League, a competition to which Villas-Boas is determined to give maximum importance.

Sam Allardyce’s in-form West Ham side visit White Hart Lane three days later before the home match against Liverpool on November 28 and the trip to Fulham on December 1. An away match at Everton follows the derby at Craven Cottage and although Villas-Boas insists publicly that there is little wrong with his side, they have won only five of their 12 Premier League fixtures this season, and four of those have come against the bottom four teams in the table.

Gallas was more candid than his manager and admitted that there is a lack of self-belief within the squad.

“The confidence can be low and we have to work hard in training to try to get it back. The season is long but we know how difficult it can be to qualify for the Champions League. We have some injured players like Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Younes Kaboul and Mousa Dembele who are very important to us but the squad are still good and we are unlucky not to have these players. We have to try to play without them.

“West Ham is our next League game and it will be difficult. We have a target and we have to try to keep working towards it. If we do that, it will come.”

Villas-Boas said last week that Dembele had a 50-50 chance of returning to the team for the Lazio game.

The Belgian midfielder has not played for his club since the 2-0 win over Aston Villa on October 7 and Spurs have missed his creativity in midfield as he has tried to recover from a hip injury.

When he replaced Harry Redknapp as manager, Villas-Boas was set a target of qualifying for next season’s Champions League and the task already looks tough. As they contemplate an arduous run of fixtures, Spurs are six points adrift of fourth place.

The Portuguese admitted his side had under-achieved so far this season but he is convinced Spurs can revive themselves. “Football is driven by results,” he said. “We are disappointed by what has happened and our position in the League but our belief is strong.”