Chelsea vs Tottenham: Under-pressure Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou facing unwanted history at Stamford Bridge
Ange Postecoglou is facing unwanted history on Thursday.
Defeat at Chelsea, live on Sky Sports, would see him become the first Tottenham boss to lose his first four league games against the Blues.
It would be yet another damaging stat for the under-pressure Australian.
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The 2-0 loss at Fulham before the international break saw Tottenham fall to a 15th league defeat of the season - their joint-most at this stage of a Premier League campaign (29 games). It leaves them 14th in the table and in danger of their lowest-ever Premier League finish (15th in 1994).
"Ange is clinging on to his job right now," ex-Spurs midfielder Jamie O'Hara told Sky Sports News in the wake of the Fulham defeat.
A day after the loss at Craven Cottage, a report in The Daily Telegraph claimed Bournemouth's Andoni Iraola and Fulham's Marco Silva are among the leading candidates to replace Postecoglou if Spurs decide to make a managerial change in the summer.
The next day, ex-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino told Sky Sports News he wants to "one day" return to the club and has a "very good relationship" with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
The warning lights have never been brighter for Postecoglou. So is his only fix to win the Europa League and end Spurs' 17-year trophy drought?
"I think it is, I really do," O'Hara said. "Tottenham fans are booing them off the park [at Fulham]. If you take Europa League out of it for a second, if you're looking at the Premier League table and you're looking at the performances and the output from the players, it's not good enough.
"[Postecoglou] is riding on the Europa League now. All the eggs are in that basket. If we get knocked out, he's going to lose his job."
Poor London derby record and lack of first-half threat
Before that crunch Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt, Postecoglou has a chance to not only pick up his first points against Chelsea, but to improve on Spurs' miserable London derby record this season.
No side has earned fewer points in Premier League London derbies this term than Tottenham, who have lost five of nine such games this campaign (W3 D1).
Stamford Bridge is a graveyard for Spurs - and it proved so for Postecoglou last season.
A limp 2-0 defeat in west London saw him fume at his players on the touchline in an explosive rant (watch below) as the visitors failed to have a shot on target in the first half.
Nearly a year on, and a lack of first-half goal threat remains.
No shot on target in the opening 45 minutes at Fulham meant it was the ninth time Spurs have failed to register a shot on target in the first half of a Premier League match under Postecoglou, which is more than Spurs' last two permanent managers combined - Antonio Conte (6) and Nuno Espirito Santo (2).
The free-flowing 'Angeball' that dazzled Spurs fans at the start of Postecoglou's tenure has fizzled out.
"I don't really understand the credit that Ange has got in the bank, I really don't," O'Hara said. "This is meant to be a football team and a football club that's trying to get Champions League football, and one of the most profitable clubs in the world.
"I get it when Ange Postecoglou came in. We had 10 games unbeaten, top of the league and we had this exciting football and everyone loved it. Well, I haven't seen that really since."
Chelsea architects of Ange's struggles
It was, in fact, Thursday's opponents Chelsea who were the team to trigger Spurs' decline in Premier League form.
The Blues' 4-1 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season in a chaotic Monday Night Football (relive the Premier League classic below) inflicted a first league defeat for Postecoglou.
It also sparked a seemingly never-ending injury and suspension list that has hugely hampered Postecoglou.
Nonetheless, from that infamous November defeat to Chelsea, Spurs have suffered more league defeats (27) than wins (22). And, as illustrated in the table below, only four ever-present Premier League clubs have taken fewer points than Spurs from then.
Their away form has also been alarming. Only relegation-threatened sides Leicester (10) and Southampton (12) have lost more Premier League away games this season than Tottenham (8).
"Ever since we lost to Chelsea, we've just been exposed and teams have figured Spurs out," O'Hara said.
"I think the problem he's had is that managers in the Premier League are top managers. Players are top players, they will adapt and they will figure out how to beat you.
"The first 10 games was a bit of an unknown quantity with Tottenham because you didn't know what you were going to get from Ange Postecoglou.
"But since then, teams and players have figured you out, and Tottenham since then haven't had a Plan B.
"Yes, they've had injuries, but I think we're still trying to believe that we can be that team from those first 10 games that Ange had.
"For 18 months, it's been really truthfully shocking."
But with a near-fully fit squad at his disposal and hopes of winning silverware still firmly alive, Postecoglou now has the chance to recapture that magic from his first two months in charge.
A first victory over Chelsea would be a much-needed step in the right direction for the 59-year-old in a defining two months ahead.
