There hasn’t been a ton to celebrate this season if you’re a Tottenham Hotspur fan (though that could obviously change if Spurs win the Europa League), but there is something we can unequivocally say is a good thing — Spurs are now officially safe from the prospect of relegation.
Arsenal’s win over Ipswich Town this past weekend meant that Spurs, currently in 16th place with 37 points, are now mathematically guaranteed to remain in the Premier League. Leicester and Southampton are both officially going back to the Championship next season, and Ipswich Town are very, very close — they are 15 points behind West Ham (21 points to 36 points) with five matches remaining in the season. Spurs are only a point ahead of the Hammers, but that’s enough for mathematical certainty.
Now, Spurs fans are not really going to celebrate this fact. No matter how poorly Spurs did in the league this season there was never any real chance that they’d go down considering how historically bad the three promoted teams were this season. Most years, 40 points is the magic threshold for Premier League safety and Spurs haven’t even gotten there yet. But this season, 37 points at this point in time is enough. Ipswich are almost certainly the last team to go down unless they put in one of the most heroic and unlikely of comebacks... but they’ll probably punch their return ticket to the second division this coming weekend.
All of Spurs’ eggs are in the Europa League basket at the moment, but Spurs can leap three spots with a win over Forest today. We can probably expect some moderate rotation, but whatever else people think, expect Ange Postecoglou to take today’s match seriously. It’s unlikely that Spurs will end the season in a “respectful position” (whatever that means) but mid-table is still not out of the question.