There are few things worse for football fans than a defeat before an international break because they have to stew on the misery for two weeks and in that regard, Tottenham's supporters are being tortured more than most.
Many clubs' fans hate the international breaks at the best of times and the way they fragment the football season, but at least they're more manageable if your team has gone into it with a victory and in high spirits. For instance, Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham side could have done that on Sunday with a home game against an Ipswich side sitting in the bottom three without a win.
A win against the promoted side would have lifted Spurs up to third place in the table for the international break to ensure things looked rosy with a high league position, a quarter-final spot in the Carabao Cup and a healthy position in the Europa League table with three wins from their first four games in that competition.
Instead the north London outfit contrived to put in a stinker of a performance against Kieran McKenna's side, losing 2-1 and handing the Tractor Boys their first Premier League win in 22 years and their manager a memorable victory at the club where he began his career as a player and then a coach.
A defeat going into an international break is far more painful for the fans than it is the players, with most of them looking forward to meeting up with friends across the world with their respective countries to play football far away from N17. The supporters are stuck with the pain and Tottenham have been torturing their fanbase ahead of international breaks on a consistent basis during the Postecoglou era.
Before Sunday's defeat, Spurs lost 3-2 at Brighton on October 5 ahead of the previous international break. For the one before that, they lost 2-1 at Newcastle in September. It doesn't stop there though. The previous international break came in March and Tottenham went down 3-0 at Fulham with a dreadful display.
We're not done yet though as in the international break before that, in November last year, Spurs lost 2-1 at Molineux to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
That means Postecoglou's men have lost five games in a row ahead of international breaks. The last time Tottenham triumphed in a Premier League match before an international break was more than a year ago, on October 7, 2023, with a 1-0 victory with 10 men at Kenilworth Road against Luton Town.
There will be understandable questions about how such a long pattern can emerge. Is it purely coincidental or do some of Tottenham's international players ease off slightly before each break, worried that they will get injured and miss out on representing their country? With five such defeats in a row over the past year, it's understandable such questions about mentality will be asked.
There is at least now a long gap until the next international break in March. Tottenham face a tricky trip to Craven Cottage before that next one in 2025, a location they have lost at before a previous break. It couldn't happen again, could it?
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