Tottenham Hotspur supporters have become accustomed to seeing their team struggle against the so-called big four. Away from White Hart Lane they have played Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal 66 times without victory since winning 2-1 at Anfield in 1993. Last night's defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers, however, confirmed for many fans that dreams of breaking into that leading quartet on the back of their record of success against teams in the lower half of the Premier League are very much of the pipe variety.

Any team can have an off-night but a return of three goals from their last six league games, only one of which has been won, suggests this may be a group of players which has for the moment, in Harry Redknapp's words, "run out of ideas". This is despite the fact that they left Molineux still in sixth position and only a point behind Liverpool and Manchester City, although Roberto Mancini's team have two games in hand.

Inevitably much of the discussion after the match concerned the fitness of Aaron Lennon. The England winger was last seen in the 2-0 win over West Ham United on 28 December, since when a persistent groin injury has prevented him from playing. With Lennon in the side Spurs average over two goals per match, without him 0.6, but Redknapp's admission that the 22-year-old is not even training yet suggests he could be out for at least another fortnight.

"Aaron is the type of lad who can open teams up for you, but we've played great without him, we played fantastic against Villa on Saturday, and at Birmingham and [in the FA Cup] at Leeds," said Redknapp. "But it was only when we got the ball out to Gareth Bale, and [David] Bentley at times, that we looked as though we might break Wolves down. Other than that we lacked a little bit of magic from someone to do something special. We didn't have that."

Jermain Defoe, who scored 14 goals in 18 league games before the turn of the year, but only one in six since, has clearly missed Lennon, his chief supplier of chances. Redknapp appears to have already decided that Bentley, by no means Spurs' worst player against Wolves, is not the answer. "[Bentley's] been a problem and, if Aaron doesn't get injured, he probably doesn't play," he said.

"I played Niko Kranjcar at first, because I didn't really feel at that time David deserved to play in all honesty. I had Niko and Luka Modric as well, and I played Luka on the right. I just felt they were both happier on the left, so I brought David back in. I suppose other managers probably wouldn't have had the patience I've shown with him."

Redknapp argued that making five changes to the team which drew against Villa, including starting Eidur Gudjohnsen for the first time up front alongside Defoe in place of Peter Crouch, was not a mistake, although many supporters thought his decision to leave out the combative Wilson Palacios and partner the lightweight Jermaine Jenas with Tom Huddlestone in central midfield was unwise.

The FA Cup, in which they play at Bolton on Sunday, may now offer Spurs their best chance of playing European football next season but only if, as Heurelho Gomes put it, they maintain their concentration – something the goalkeeper admitted they had failed to do yesterday.

"We lose a little bit of concentration for games like this," he said. "The best sides win these games and that makes the difference in the table. It was our most disappointing result of the season. Away from home we normally play very well but not in this game. We had just one chance to score in the first half and in the second half we created nothing. It was a difficult day but we have to forget about it and concentrate on Bolton."

Thereafter Spurs head to Wigan, against whom they famously scored nine in November. Another win is vital – whatever the margin.