Daily Mail

There was a moment towards the end here, after Tottenham had supplied yet more evidence of their inadequacies for this league and that stadium, when the corner filled by Nottingham Forest fans burst into song.

It was catchy and got to the heart of a point that had been lost on no one: ‘Morgan Gibbs-White, he stayed because you’re s***e.’

If anyone from Spurs had the appetite to mount a counterargument, then this was not the day for it. Not the season, either.

They are dismal. They are gutless. They are a club that has operated with sheer cowardice at an institutional level across multiple transfer windows and, right now, as this campaign enters its championship rounds, they are close to entering the Championship itself.

For a while that has seemed unthinkable. Possible but improbable. Too big. But they aren’t and this was the sort of match that proved it. The sort that could not be lost and the sort they have lost over and again, a tortured echo of the home game against Crystal Palace three weeks ago.

When the pressure is on, they crumble; when they need to step up, they fall. A second leg against Atletico Madrid when the tie is over? They can turn it on. But not when it counts against a side with some fight in them.

Tottenham 0-3 Nottingham Forest: MATCH FACTS

Tottenham (4-4-2): Vicario 6; Spence 6 (Bergvall 46, 5.5), Danso 6, Romero 6.5, Van de Ven 6 (Udogie 46, 5); Porro 5, Gray 7 (Gallagher 84), Sarr 6, Tel 6.5 (Kolo Muani 67); Richarlison 5.5 (Simons 67), Solanke 5.5.

Subs not used: Kinsky, Dragusin, Souza, Palhinha, Gallagher.

Booked: Udogie

Manager: Igor Tudor 5

Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels 7; Aina 6, Milenkovic 8, Murillo 7, Williams 7.5; Sangare 7 Anderson 7.5; Hutchinson 6.5 (Ndoye 80), Gibbs-White 7, Jesus 7 (Awoniyi 70, 7); Hudson-Odoi 6.5 (Yates 70, 6.5).

Subs not used: Ortega, Morato, Dominguez, Netz, Bakwa, McAtee.

Booked: Sangare

Manager: Vitor Pereira 6.5

Referee: Michael Oliver 7

Will it cost Igor Tudor his job? That remains to be seen.

In any case, he departed the stadium soon after this match because of a family situation. That provided some perspective. It’s only a ball game.

But it is also a ball game that doesn’t seem to suit Tottenham at present. Nor does this kind of battle, admitted with some honesty by Tudor’s assistant, Bruno Saltor, who gave a damning assessment of how a strong first half gave way to an abject capitulation: ‘We were unable to deal with the weight of the game.’

That is more of an indictment than he may have meant but the truth of it was unmistakable. For that, more credit goes to Forest and Vitor Pereira, who are facing identical pressures but emerged with three goals and a clean sheet. Not bad from a side that has not scored so many in a single league game since December. That was against Tottenham, too, by the way.

The details of this repeat could be told in Spurs’ shortcomings, because we can say the same thing about each of the goals scored by Igor Jesus, Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi - no marking. No busted guts. No chase. No clue. Forest were their opposite in every way.

Pareira’s take was telling on that front: ‘I asked them before the game how deeply they wanted to be in the Premier League next season. How much can you sacrifice of yourselves to achieve it?

‘If we want a lot, we need to do a lot. This is the spirit I want when they come back from international duty.’

Fair play, they delivered on his brief, while Tottenham merely reaped what has been sewn long-term by those members of the Lewis family involved the running of the club.

The fact it was Gibbs-White who killed this game was poignant – Spurs had effectively signed him in the summer but wouldn’t throw in the extra few quid to make it certain and so that Forest chant really resonated.

Spurs fans? They mostly stayed to the end and can take no blame for the mood here. It was immense, from the moment a pre-match protest was abandoned in favour of blue and white smoke bombs and a message of unified support. They created a superb atmosphere and that fed into a frantic game.

For a time, Tottenham had the better of the chaos. Archie Gray, excellent in midweek, was strong again here - he created the first opening by pinging a 50-yard dart from right to left, pitching Mathys Tel against Ola Aina. Tel skinned the full back and had his shot blocked.

Across the half, Richarlison would go on to head wide, Jesus glanced against his own bar, and Tel had further success in his duel with Aina. But they weren’t making it count. Over and again, we have made that observation, and just as often we have seen Spurs pay for their deficiencies.

So it came to pass here. Forest had offered only moderate threats, and nothing to stress Guglielmo Vicario and his hernia pain, but with 45 played that changed on both fronts. First, Igor forced Vicario into nudging over the bar and from the subsequent Williams’ delivery, Tudor was failed by poor marking, with Jesus allowed a free header. The bloke didn’t even need to jump for it.

Naturally, we might ask why none of the grappling was penalised, but it wasn’t isolated to any one side. They fouled each other and the easiest call from Michael Oliver was evidently to punish none of it. Clearly, it’s an area of the game that officials need to address.

As for Tottenham, their fix is infinitely more complicated. Tel hit the bar as they chased a quick retaliation, before Tudor took matters into his own hands at the break, hooking both Micky Van de Ven and Djed Spence in the hope that new full-backs might be the answer. It succeeded only highlighting that the decision to use Van de Ven at left-back was daft in the first place. Add it to the list.

The defensive weaknesses continued into the second half, signalled when Williams was gifted a free header, saved well by Vicario, before the killer strike of Forest’s second goal. Callum Hudson-Odoi made it with an easy skip around Pedro Porro and Tel permitted the space for Gibbs-White by paying no attention to his run. The strike was decent but Vicario should have saved it.

Forest are fighting to the end. Forest have given themselves a solid chance. Tottenham can say neither of those things.

Igor Tudor has put Tottenham’s small signs of progress down to sharper minds, fitter bodies and a little less on-field sleepiness.

Spurs followed a draw at Liverpool with victory against Atletico Madrid, which was not enough to avoid elimination from the Champions League but did lift the mood.

'Mental sharpness,' said interim boss Tudor. 'That was the key. We are sleeping less on the pitch. For me this is crucial. Now, we react earlier on what happened on the pitch.

'We are not always wondering what happened and then reacting. We are reacting before things happen. Not in the way I would like but much better.

'This mental sharpness, awareness of dangerous situations, this is coming and that’s why we are better.'

Tudor also has reason to believe his players are fitter than when he arrived. 'I saw good energy,' he said. 'I saw good numbers. They told me the last games are in the top four or five of all season for high intensity runs, so I think we are progressing.'

Tudor has benefited from a slightly less congested schedule since replacing Thomas Frank in mid-February.

Nottingham Forest on Sunday will be his seventh game in four weeks whereas Frank played nine in his final four weeks during a period when injuries were biting hard.

Tudor has players returning. Lucas Bergvall, who had been out for two months, and Destiny Udogie, who had been out for five weeks, both came off the bench against Atletico Madrid in midweek.

There were also positive updates on Mohamed Kudus and Rodrigo Bentancur, who have been out since January but could be back soon after the upcoming international break, and James Maddison who Tudor expects to return from a serious knee injury before the end of the season.

Spurs are 16th in the Premier League with eight to play and Forest are only one point behind, outside the relegation zone only because they have a better goal difference than West Ham, who are at Aston Villa on Sunday.

Tudor was reluctant however to pile too much emphasis on Sunday’s clash with Forest, claiming there was no such thing as a ‘six-pointer’ and he did not see it as a ‘cup final’.

'There are a lot of points to play for,' said the Croatian. 'Of course, it’s an important game because we are together there so let’s say not six, but four.

'It’s not a final. Maybe not three points but a four-point game. It is important but it will not be decisive.'

Antonin Kinsky could be thrust back into the Tottenham spotlight sooner than anticipated with Guglielmo Vicario set for surgery.

Vicario’s omission from the Italy squad on Friday was followed by confirmation from Spurs that he had been playing despite an injury and would have a hernia operation next week.

The Italian keeper will be available for Sunday’s relegation showdown against Nottingham Forest, however, and Spurs hope he will be back within a month.

The next fixture after Forest will be at Sunderland on April 12 with Kinsky on standby.

The 23-year-old Czech suffered the humiliation of being substituted 17 minutes into his Champions League debut last week after making two costly mistakes in a 5-2 defeat at Atletico Madrid.

Vicario, who had been rested in Madrid, came off the bench to replace Kinsky in the first leg and played through the entire 90 minutes of the second leg, on Wednesday when Spurs won 3-2 but went out.

If Vicario is not ready for the trip to Sunderland, it will leave interim boss Igor Tudor to face the decision of whether to recall Kinsky or select his third choice goalkeeper Brandon Austin, who has not appeared all season.

Spurs issued a statement to say: 'We can confirm that Guglielmo Vicario will undergo surgery next week on a hernia.

'The minor procedure for the Italy international goalkeeper has been timed to have as minimal impact on our season as possible.

'Guglielmo will commence his rehabilitation with our medical staff immediately, and it is hoped that he could return to action within the next month.'

Inter Milan are closing in on a £17million summer move for Vicario.

Tottenham have watched Germany Under 21 international goalkeeper Noah Atubolu as they assess potential targets for the summer.

A new goalkeeper will be paramount to Tottenham's plans with current No 1 Guglielmo Vicario looking at a return to Italy with Inter Milan in pole position.

Of course, who they can attract will depend on which division Tottenham are in. Sunday's crunch clash with Nottingham Forest will go some way to determining that. And Atubolu, the 6ft 4ins Freiburg stopper, has sights on a move to England.

The 23-year-old has been compared in style to Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer and while he has a long way to go to replicate his role model, Tottenham's defence certainly needs a similarly commanding force behind them.

Vicario has failed to convince this season while deputy Antonin Kinsky suffered the ignominy of being substituted after 17 minutes in the Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid.

That has left the Czech Republic U21 international contemplating a move away on loan.

Atubolu has recently signed up to the Epic agency with agents Marcello Brillmann and Ali Barat, who has exerted such great influence at Chelsea of late as well as bringing Xavi Simons to Spurs last summer.

The keeper has notched up 33 clean sheets in 111 appearances and earned a reputation as an expert penalty saver. He has also attracted attention from West Ham and both Milan clubs in recent months. He is under contract until 2027 but has no plans to extend.

Spurs would be well placed to proceed if they preserve their Premier League status.

Atubolu is not the only keeper on their radar though.

Crystal Palace's Dean Henderson and Manchester City's James Trafford are other names under consideration though both would cost significantly more than Atubolu.

Henderson, with his leadership and experience, has proved a consistent Premier League performer while Trafford is expected to mature into England's next regular number one.

He would first need to establish himself as a first-team regular but City would still look to command around £35million should they agree to sell.

More will become clearer if Spurs can build on their two performances from this week and use the momentum to stay up.

Inter Milan are closing in on a summer swoop for Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.

The Italians have been searching for an alternative to Swiss No 1 Yann Sommer and sporting director Piero Ausilio was in London for meetings this week.

Ausilio is understood to have met with Vicario’s agent Valerio Giufridda ahead of the Champions League tie against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and they are confident a deal can be done for a fee in the region of £17million.

Italy international Vicario started the game and made some wonderful saves in a 3-2 win, but the result was not enough to stop Spurs crashing out of the competition.

They lost the first leg 5-2 in Madrid when interim boss Igor Tudor opted to start with back-up goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky rather than Vicario.

Kinsky made two glaring errors in the opening 15 minutes and was brutally substituted by Tudor.

Vicario joined Spurs for £17.2m from Empoli in the summer of 2023. He made an impressive start to his Premier League career until opponents started to target his perceived weakness under the high ball.

The 29-year-old Italian has also been susceptible to mistakes with the ball at his feet.

He missed three months of last season with a broken ankle sustained in a 4-0 win at Manchester City, during which he played on through the pain until the end of the game.

It has been a rollercoaster three years for Vicario since he arrived to replace Hugo Lloris as Tottenham’s first choice goalkeeper.

He has two more years on his contract but there seems to be a mutual understanding that it will be best for both parties to go separate ways in the summer.

Vicario will be back in the Champions League if he joins Inter, who are currently six points clear at the top of Serie A.

He will also be in a good place to pursue his international ambitions and add to his five Italy caps.

Spurs see a new goalkeeper as central to the summer overhaul as they attempt to bid farewell to this awful season, in which they are threatened by relegation with just eight games to play

Kinsky, 23, is also keen to leave on loan in the summer and find regular football to rebuild his career after his calamitous night at Atletico Madrid.

Archie Gray has emerged as a hero of these troubled times for Tottenham and his performance against Atletico Madrid was further evidence he has what it takes to perform at the very top.

Atletico’s Marcos Llorente took the trouble to jog across to shake Gray by the hand as the Spurs midfielder made his way around the perimeter of the pitch having been replaced in the 81st minute. The home crowd rose in waves to applaud him as he walked back to the bench and interim boss Igor Tudor, seldom one to lavish individual praise, hailed the 20-year-old afterwards.

'He’s playing continually in the right way, in a good way,' said Tudor. 'It’s a mix of quality - physically and mentally - to always make the right choices and be humble and have legs to do it.'

Gray continues to progress in adversity, despite the chaos of this Spurs season, despite finding himself pushed from one position to another during the times when injuries have hit hard. Everyone can see he is most at home in the centre of an orthodox midfield, in the role Tudor asked him to play against Atletico alongside Pape Matar Sarr.

He reads the game, covers the miles, wins his personal battles, can compete in the air and in tackles. He is growing in strength. There were traces of a young Declan Rice about him on Wednesday as he broke with the ball and powered from box to box.

As with Rice at West Ham, it is his temperament that elevates him in a mediocre team. The Spurs squad is immature featuring an over-reliance on the young players and with older ones lacking leadership qualities. Gray keeps going, tries to do the right thing even when he is finding it difficult.

Ahead of Sunday’s relegation showdown against Nottingham Forest, it is worth revisiting what happened at the City Ground in December when Gray, taking a pass from his goalkeeper, was hustled into a mistake leading to Callum Hudson-Odoi’s opener and Spurs went on to lose 3-0.

He was already scheduled for an interview with Daily Mail Sport, but he did not try to duck out of the appointment or dodge questions. Instead, he came in, sat down and owned it. Unequivocally, he absolved keeper Guglielmo Vicario of any blame, said he had spent time scouring over the replays to work out what he should do better and promised to learn.

Only a small example, but impressive for a young man, then still 19.

The defeat at Forest was the start of a terrible run of one win in 15 games for Spurs. The only win came at Crystal Palace when Gray scored the only goal, his first for the club. His second came against Newcastle in what would be Thomas Frank’s final game.

When Tudor came in as interim boss he, like Frank, deployed Gray as a full back and a wing-back before realising, like Frank, that for all his versatility he is in fact the best central midfielder Spurs have available. His partnership in there with Sarr at Liverpool and against Atletico has shown early promise. They have energy, stamina and tick at the same sort of tempo.

They also seem appreciate their limits. Xavi Simons thrived against Atletico because both Gray and Sarr realised the good sense of getting the ball to the feet of their main creative force.

Less than three years after his Leeds debut, Gray has already made 130 senior appearances. More than a hundred of them as a starter and 48 in the Premier League.

'He shows a lot of resilience, that young man,' said Frank after his goal against Palace. 'It wasn’t an easy first season for him in Spurs, and this season also, it hasn’t been straightforward. For him, to keep going shows he’s made of the right character material we need both now and in the future.'

Others are noticing. There are fellow professionals like Llorente. Gray is sure to feature in the conversations for the PFA’s Young Player of the Year.

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are also among his admirers. Clubs managed in the past by Thomas Tuchel and the England manager must be considering Gray as he fine-tunes his World Cup squad.

Former Spurs coach and Frank’s assistant Justin Cochrane is still involved in Tuchel’s backroom team and those in the Under-21 set-up will vouch for him, too.

Rice, Elliot Anderson, Jordan Henderson, Adam Wharton and Alex Scott are the competition. All rank ahead in the pecking order with time running out although Gray can make a case through his versatility.

And by his determination to rise consistently to every fresh challenge thrown his way.

Tottenham Hotspur have set a low bar for reasons to be cheerful this season and on Wednesday night, they cleared it comfortably. Sure, they were knocked out of the Champions League round of 16 7-5 on aggregate by Atletico Madrid but, believe it or not, that was a sign that things are looking up quite considerably.

So, they didn’t substitute their goalkeeper after 17 minutes, as they had in the first leg in Madrid last week. They weren’t 4-0 down after 22 minutes. They won a match with a last minute penalty, a victory to go with their hard-fought point at Anfield at the weekend. They played with pride and cohesion. Their captain, Cristian Romero, even made a rare appearance between suspensions.

They deserved their 3-2 win as well, a modest triumph that will not have done their morale any harm. If they can play like this when Nottingham Forest visit north London on Sunday in the biggest match of Spurs’ season, then they will consign their relegation fears to the rear-view mirror.

Spurs brought out Toby Alderweireld to talk to the crowd before the game and evoke memories of the magical night in Amsterdam in 2019 when Spurs came from behind to beat Ajax and make it through to the Champions League final.

The time that has elapsed since has been less of a seven-year itch and more a seven-year hitch. This Spurs team is a long, long way from returning to the showpiece occasion of European club football.

And just as Real Madrid had shown little interest in being sacrificial lambs for a Manchester City comeback story at the Etihad on Tuesday night, so their cross-town rivals exhibited no appetite for being patsies in the story of an unlikely Spurs revival.

Ademola Lookman had the ball in the back of the Tottenham net after six minutes but the linesman flagged and replays showed he had strayed offside. Antoine Griezmann ran the show for the visitors. Marcos Llorente skipped past Spurs challenges at will.

But Spurs were playing well. They looked an entirely different team, a team with purpose and determination and even some coherence, and they caused Atletico problems, too, particularly down the Tottenham left, where Djed Spence and Mathys Tel combined well.

But it was from the Spurs right that their opening goal came on the half-hour. Tel found a pocket of space close to the corner of the area and curled in a lovely cross towards Kolo Muani. Kolo Muani peeled away from his marker and rose majestically to head the ball down and past Juan Musso into the corner.

Spurs should have added a second goal seven minutes later. Archie Gray burst forward from midfield and the ball was worked quickly to Kolo Muani and then to Xavi Simons who swept it into the path of Tel. Tel might have crossed to Gray but he tried to clip the ball past Musso and the goalkeeper blocked it.

Atleti looked startled by the quality of Spurs’ performance. Everyone did. But Simeone’s side nearly levelled the scores on the stroke of the interval. When a corner was half-cleared, Giuliano Simeone lashed a shot goalwards and it flicked off the head of Romero.

Guglielmo Vicario had dived to anticipate the original trajectory of the ball but now he had to readjust. The Spurs keeper has come in for much criticism recently but this time, he pulled off a brilliant save, clawing the ball away as he fell.

His heroics were in vain. Two minutes after the interval, Atleti grabbed the equaliser. Simons fell in a heap on the edge of the Atleti area after he was dispossessed by Julian Alvarez but the German referee waved play on.

Atleti broke at pace and fed Lookman down the left. Lookman played the ball inside to Alvarez, who controlled the ball and turned and smashed an unstoppable right-foot shot across Vicario and into the roof of the net.

The Spurs crowd was crestfallen. But their players did not allow their heads to drop. Four minutes after Atleti’s equaliser, Tudor’s side took the lead on the night again. Gray was again the driving force. Simons exchanged passes with him and then bent a shot past Musso into the corner from 20 yards.

Spurs threw everything at Atleti now. Simons played Pedro Porro in on goal and Porro tried to bend the ball around Musso with the outside of his right foot. Musso was equal to it and beat it away with his gloves.

The atmosphere grew fraught. Lookman shoved Radu Dragusin in the chest and Dragusin collapsed in faux agony, as is the custom. The referee showed Lookman the yellow card he deserved. He was substituted soon afterwards.

Alvarez could have scored a second with a brilliant run down the left and a quicksilver feint that fooled Micky Van de Ven but Vicario, once again, stood in his way and blocked his close range shot with his chest.

But 15 minutes from the end, Atletico finally ended Spurs’ comeback hopes. Alvarez turned provider this time, swinging in a corner to the near post, where it was met by David Hancko, who glanced it past Vicario from close range.

But Spurs still did not give in. Simons was fouled in the box by substitute Jose Maria Gimenez in the last minute and he got up to dispatch the penalty confidently. It was not enough to win the tie but it has helped to transform the mood at this club.

Forest are next and, suddenly, they will not be relishing their trip to this stadium quite as much as they might have been a fortnight ago.

The danger for Tottenham would be to think this solves anything much. It was a victory, which was critical after a winless run of eight games in all competitions stretching back over 49 days.

And there were glimmers of encouragement and another outstanding performance from Archie Gray at the heart of the team. But it is no less important to recognise that this was a night virtually devoid of pressure.

Atletico Madrid won the tie inside the opening 15 minutes of the first leg in Spain when Igor Tudor’s team failed to handle the enormity of the occasion.

They cracked under the pressure just as they had during a frenetic 20 minutes against Crystal Palace in the previous fixture.

Most of those who turned up for the second leg – and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was more than 10,000 down on capacity – came through a sense of duty.

In hope rather than expectation.

For Spurs, it represented a shot to nothing, and they responded with their best display since the trip to Eintracht Frankfurt and the home tie against Borussia Dortmund.

Just as they have developed a habit in the last couple of seasons of producing unlikely flourishes at the end of games that seem to be just slipped out of reach.

They also scored three for the first time since Slavia Prague visited at the start of December.

Tudor claimed after going out of the Champions League that last year’s Europa League triumph had instilled the players with confidence in Europe.

Thomas Frank had wondered if they liked a more prestigious stage. Perhaps there are those including Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani who remain potent against opponents from overseas.

Equally, it could be that European football involves very little jeopardy. There is a considerable safety net through the entire league phase for the biggest clubs.

On Sunday though, with the pressure very much on Spurs must deliver something similar against Nottingham Forest.

Can they cope with the intensity? Can they stand up and deliver in the Premier League? Can they beat their allergy to playing at home in domestic competition?

These are questions still to be answered but at least there are some positive signs at long last from the win against Atletico.

Some players back from injury, for a start.

Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie and Conor Gallagher all came off the bench albeit with Tudor under strict orders from the medical to play none of them for more than 25 minutes.

Richarlison and Souza will be available to face Forest. Dominic Solanke should be back after resting a slight hip injury.

Joao Palhinha could be available after suffering a concussion injury in the first Atletico tie.

Beyond which, Tudor seems to be settling on a shape he likes, a 4-4-2 with a bit of flex in possession, and although he insists mentality is more important than tactical systems at this point, this has made Spurs stronger at the back without being completely toothless up front.

There is a vague balance, and Xavi Simons was influential for the first time playing off the left and drifting inside to find pockets of space rather than locked into a dedicated number 10 position.

Simons added much needed creative flair and unpredictability in the attacking third, energy and a chance of pace and his second half goals should inspire belief that he can do something similar in the Premier League.

Gray continues to be the rising star of these troubled times for Spurs and has earned the right to hold down his place in central midfield.

Above all though, was a rare sense of unity on display and the determination to scrap.

These things bode well but if Spurs cannot produce something of the same ilk against Forest on Sunday we will know they cannot do it when the heat is on.

It was a goal which sent Nottingham Forest fans back into that fog of anxiety which has hovered all season: a narrative-shifting late Richarlison strike, 100 miles west at Anfield, prompting conclusions that Tottenham Hotspur had responded to Igor Tudor’s demands for some ‘fight’. That in some sense they had equalised because of him.

From my position in the Spurs end on Sunday afternoon, the reality was very different.

That late equaliser did send the travelling Spurs fans into delirium, crashing down into the rail seat barriers with renditions of ‘We are Tottenham’. But no one should be fooled.

An afternoon in that away end laid bare what the scandalous mismanagement of Tottenham Hotspur has created: a joyless pit of frustration and anger, descending into naked fury at times.

It didn’t start out that way on Sunday afternoon. On the concourse beforehand, there was the pre-match optimism and songs familiar to those who travel with almost any team.

North Londonders, Scandinavians, Americans, some in retro jerseys, some looking the height of fashion, some with children, some on the ales early and leathered by kick-off: all shared in the fragile belief. But the sentiment was skin deep, and the mood soon became oppressive and heavy.

‘Here we go,’ said someone behind me as Florian Wirtz sent Cody Gakpo in on goal in front of the massed ranks of the Kop at the other end of the pitch.

After his spectacular miss – setting the pattern of Liverpool’s afternoon – the strains of ‘Are you Tottenham in disguise?’ briefly sounded.

When a fanbase has become broken, setbacks confirm expectation and no one can see a way ahead. As Liverpool assumed an easy dominance, the noise level dropped. Then came Dominik Szoboszlai’s goal – from a free-kick which the wider Spurs fanbase felt should not have been awarded – and the desolate, stone-cold silence that followed its bleak inevitability.

Perhaps it would have helped if someone in the team’s ranks conveyed a basic impression of wanting to lead. There was, to all intents and purposes, no one demanding anything of anyone else.

From the sidelines, Tudor was doing a lot of gesticulating and shouting but, perhaps unsurprisingly given the way he has publicly castigated his players and humiliated goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, the Spurs players did not pay him the remotest notice.

Briefly, the strains of ‘Is this a library?’ struck up – because Anfield is also presently struggling for joy. But any thought that the travelling Tottenham band might descend here intent on demonstrating the cussedness and fight that the squad are struggling for was dispelled.

Empty seats suggested that the away allocation was either not sold out, or that those who had forked out had not bothered travelling after the catastrophe in Spain last week, which leaves Tudor’s players facing a 5-2 Champions League deficit as they host Atletico Madrid in the second leg on Wednesday.

A few Spurs fans in the row before me focused on taking images of Mohamed Salah as he warmed up among Liverpool's substitutes. Some among the away contingent asked each other who Tottenham’s substitutes were. Hardly surprising, given the club were relying on such names as James Wilson and James Rowswell and Callum Olusesi.

A more familiar presence among the substitutes, Xavi Simons, was the one staring intently at the play as he went through his own warm-up on the sidelines.

The mood of deep gloom was made evident by the disinclination of some to return to the stand for the start of the second half. The shouts of ‘Tudor out’ had already been issued by then. Spurs have still been asking around about candidates to replace him.

Simons is one of the players you would have imagined Tudor might look to make more use of, given how he drove the team to recover a 2-2 draw against Manchester City last month and was man-of-the-match against Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt in back-to-back Champions League games.

Club captain Cristian Romero has not exactly proved the man for this crisis with his public criticism of the club's hierarchy. Instead, Tudor seems to have viewed keeping both the Dutchman and Randal Kolo Muani on the sidelines as a measure of his own strength.

The team’s resolve seemed stiffened and the travelling supporters were briefly lifted, too, though that optimism was punctured when Salah arrived and looked a treacherous presence as Liverpool attacked in front of us. The away end was blanketed in resignation – another defeat accepted – when Richarlison sent it into raptures.

Tudor opted not to join those players taking acclaim before supporters fuelled with some desperately needed positivity after a comeback which told them that this squad – depleted, with 13 players unavailable – just might have some fight in it.

The StatsPerform match data demonstrated how Simons had contributed – despite, rather than because of, Tudor.

From the time of his introduction to the action, he made more successful passes in the final third and more dribbles than any other player and was second only to Pape Matar Sarr for progressive ball-carries.

As the players drifted away, the chants of ‘We are staying up’ sounded from a few fans. It is a refrain which has belonged down the ages to those who know and accept that other clubs are superior to their own and yet who are damned if they will go down with a whimper.

Tottenham have not known such adversity in the contemporary era, as Forest, West Ham and Leeds United, who also belong to this relegation battle, all have. The question for the defining next few months is whether this fanbase can dispense with their despair and, for the present at least, embrace the fight they find themselves in. Forest will be hoping not.

The collision of the two teams at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday looks monumental.

On Oscar’s evening, here was a film we have all seen far too many times before. A boring script with a predictable ending and letdown performances from the star protagonists.

A team who sleepwalked to dropped points for the umpteenth time this season, a bunch of players and head coach who seem lost for ideas on how to stop the inevitable happening again.

No, not the much-berated, ridiculed Tottenham Hotspur and their equally-mocked interim head coach Igor Tudor, but Arne Slot’s Liverpool, the Premier League champions.

Both teams got exactly what they deserved. Spurs won their first point under Tudor in what was hardly a polished performance but at least one in which they showed some organisation, guts and fighting spirit, while Liverpool were left berating the same old story.

‘I don't know what happened, I have nothing to say,’ said Dominik Szoboszlai, the goal-scorer who was let down again for Liverpool. ‘In the last minute, again, I don't know how many times this season already. We have to wake up.

‘I feel flat. We have to wake up because if we carry on like this, we should be happy with the Conference League. I don't know why this is happening, I honestly don't know.’

That is the problem. Nobody seems to be able to arrest the slump.

Not Slot, not reigning player of the season Mohamed Salah (a substitute for the first hour), not the best defender in Premier League history Virgil van Dijk. Not any of these big-money players.

It is rinse and repeat: get into a commanding position, fluff several big chances and then capitulate late on. More than 20 times this season, Liverpool have conceded after the 75th minute.

When the clock ticks past that point, the anxiety inside Anfield rises several notches almost as if to say everyone knows what is going to happen, just cut to the chase and get on with it. This stadium has not been a fortress at all this season, more a melting pot of nerves.

How much of the blame should lie at Slot’s feet?

Certainly a high proportion, as is the world of football management. Tudor, for example, was not solely responsible for Antonin Kinsky’s mess-ups in Madrid or his team-mates’ slips midweek but he takes the brunt.

The boos at full-time were louder than they have been at any point of this season as fans have grown sick and tired of the wastefulness at one end and vulnerability at the other. Who can blame them?

They work hard in the week to follow their football team on the weekend. Of course no fan is entitled to seeing their team get results but Liverpool are boring to watch and have been all season. Even when they win, they often do not play as well as we all know they can.

There are a couple of minor positives we must note: the point here actually saw them leapfrog Chelsea, who lost to Newcastle on Saturday, into the top five which will almost guarantee Champions League football.

But do they deserve that? You could say the same about Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea, to be honest, but neither could grumble if they were left to Thursday nights in one of UEFA’s B-grade competitions next year.

It is also worth saying that Rio Ngumoha, the 17-year-old winger who made his first start in the Premier League here, did more than enough to show he deserves more minutes.

Liverpool are going careful with his body to not ask too much, too soon physically – but he is a supreme talent.

The rest of the attackers were poor, though. Cody Gakpo was unlucky not to make it 2-0 when Guglielmo Vicario tipped a shot on to the post but other than that, the Italian goalkeeper had a relatively quiet second half. Substitutes Salah and Hugo Ekitike were wasteful.

Florian Wirtz, likewise, was largely anonymous and Jeremie Frimpong, starting on Salah’s right wing, was ineffective. Are the above sub-par performances Slot’s fault? Maybe not entirely, but it feels that whoever he plays cannot win games for Liverpool right now.

This is not a new issue either, the Reds have been poor all season. You could say it has been six months but the problem, in truth, goes back further.

Every week, Slot bemoans how his team underperforms against their expected goals (xG) tally but after a certain amount of time, there must be a deeper-lying trouble that is bugging Slot.

The biggest one is the vulnerability his team shows every week. From half-time onwards, the ending was easy to envisage. How many times have a team equalised or scored a winner against them that prompted the reaction ‘that has been coming’?

The champions retreated and Spurs, a team devoid of confidence and staring down the barrel of a shocking relegation, started to fancy their chances.

They are not the first team to do that here this season and judging on the evidence of Slot’s inability to fix the issues, they will not be the last.