The Athletic

There is a common theme that connects the majority of Tottenham Hotspur’s defeats in the Premier League this season together.

Apart from a chaotic encounter with Liverpool in December, Spurs have lost by a single goal 12 times. By contrast, all seven of their victories have been by at least a two-goal margin.

Could this be a bizarre coincidence? Or does it suggest there is a fundamental flaw in Ange Postecoglou’s approach which means Spurs thrive in open, end-to-end matches but struggle in tighter contests?

Before they were struck by an injury crisis which has taken their season wildly off track, Tottenham’s biggest problem was breaking teams down. This happened on the opening day of the season when they had 70 per cent possession against Leicester City but only registered an expected goals (xG) figure of 1.2 and drew 1-1. Spurs experienced the same issues in defeats by Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, and Bournemouth. The data shows that Postecoglou’s side have had more possession than their opponents in 11 of their 13 losses.

Tottenham’s league form has been dismal since they beat Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium on November 23. Since the start of December, only bottom side Southampton (28) have conceded more goals in the division than Tottenham’s 24. Postecoglou’s side also have the second-worst record for xGa (expected goals against: 23.9) and big chances faced (44) — again, only Southampton are worse. Tottenham are also on their longest winless run (seven matches) in the Premier League since 2008… and the only team they have beaten in their last 11 fixtures is Southampton.

Spurs have taken the lead in three of their last four defeats. They have dropped more points from winning positions (21) than any other team this season and have a nasty habit of conceding goals in clusters. They have conceded two goals in 10-minute spells on four occasions, including in the recent defeats by Arsenal and Leicester.

When Dejan Kulusevski spoke to the media before Tottenham’s 3-0 victory over Elfsborg in the Europa League on Thursday, which secured them a spot in the round of 16, he was asked why Postecoglou should remain in charge.

“Because we had games when we showed perfect football; football that not many teams can play in the world,” Kulusevski said. “We played beautiful games against (Manchester) United, against (Manchester) City 4-0, so I think he is the right man.

“We play for him. We want to win for him and to be honest, we have similar ideas. I am very positive as a guy and I always want to play that football he wants. I have to fight for him because I believe in that football too. Yes, I think he’s the right man.”

The problem is that all of the data above feeds into the idea that Spurs do not know how to win ugly under Postecoglou. They have not won a single game this season after playing badly.

It is a topic which Postecoglou touched upon following the defeat by Brighton in October after they threw away a 2-0 lead at half-time. Within 20 minutes of the second half, Brighton were leading 3-2 but Postecoglou did not make any substitutions until the 79th minute when he replaced Timo Werner, a forward, and Rodrigo Bentancur with two midfielders in Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma.

“Substitutions and all those kinds of things, they are totally irrelevant to me,” he said. “If you’re not competitive, it doesn’t matter what you do; you’re not going to get rewards. We didn’t deserve, on our second-half performance, irrespective of subs or anything else, to get something out of the game. If you do get something out of the game, you’re falsely rewarded and I don’t want to get falsely rewarded.”

Tottenham’s spiralling form means that Postecoglou probably would not mind being falsely rewarded right now. They are performing well in cup competitions but are 15th in the table, and Opta puts their chances of finishing in the top 10 at 11.5 per cent.

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The reason why this is being brought up is because Spurs play Brentford this weekend. Postecoglou has taken seven points out of nine from his three previous encounters with Brentford, but none have been straightforward.

In August 2023, Emerson Royal’s half-volley in first-half stoppage time rescued Spurs a point in Postecoglou’s first game in charge. Six months later, Neal Maupay was the pantomime villain in a game where Spurs recovered from being 1-0 down at half-time to win 3-2. Earlier this season, Bryan Mbeumo’s volley gave Brentford the lead inside 30 seconds. Tottenham eventually beat Thomas Frank’s side 3-1 but it was not until James Maddison scored in the 85th minute that the game felt comfortable.

During Brentford’s first three years in the Premier League after they won promotion via the 2021 Championship play-off final, Frank alternated between two formations. Brentford mainly used a 4-3-3 shape but switched to 3-5-2 when they faced members of the ‘Big Six’ and it helped them to record famous victories over Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.

The plan with the 3-5-2 formation was to soak up pressure from their opponents before creating opportunities on the counter or through set pieces. Frank rarely abandons a 4-3-3 shape now but he has made a few subtle tweaks out of possession which will cause Tottenham problems on Sunday afternoon.

A lot of that is down to the versatility and positional intelligence of midfielders Vitaly Janelt and Christian Norgaard, who have been integral in plugging gaps in Brentford’s back line when facing Arsenal, Manchester City, and Liverpool in recent weeks.

Granted, Frank’s side only picked up a single point from those three matches but watch those games back and you will see how much they frustrated such top teams for long periods with their structured shape in their defensive third.

Using data from Footovision — an analytics company that has created new contextual metrics by combining event and tracking data from video broadcast footage — 43 per cent of Brentford’s organised defensive blocks (i.e. a low, mid, or high defensive block) is spent in a low block, which is the largest share in the Premier League. It shows that Frank’s side are comfortable in their own defensive third when they do fall back into a zonal structure.

While Brentford nominally started with a back four in each game, they would often shift to a back five when in a deep block — with either Norgaard or Janelt dropping into the half-space to monitor any deep runs from opposition midfielders or forwards.

Against Arsenal on January 1, as shown below, it was Norgaard on the right side tracking Mikel Merino…

…and Janelt on the left, monitoring Ethan Nwaneri.

The plan was clear from the very first minute against Manchester City on January 14, with Norgaard keeping a close eye on the archetypal half-space runs provided by Kevin De Bruyne.

Having such cover has two benefits.

First, it blocks the space for those dangerous runs to be made in the first place, while allowing the midfielder to track those runs if necessary — as shown against Liverpool four days after the City game.

Second, it allows Brentford’s full-backs to push out and get tight to the opposition wide forward to stop the attack at source and force them backwards.

With countless more examples against City, Norgaard and Janelt would take turns to plug the gaps on both sides — with fellow midfielder Mathias Jensen also adding extra cover to form a back six if needed to cover City’s attacking front five.

That is not to say that Brentford’s midfielders retreat in all phases of play. Frank has added a greater versatility to his side this season — one that is equally comfortable pressing high and going man-for-man when the opposition builds out.

This can be seen below with against City and Liverpool, with Norgaard and Janelt pressing up to each side’s pivot players…

…with Frank’s midfielders even showing the versatility to switch between the two defensive approaches within the same sequence.

The two frames below show Norgaard alternating between a high press and a structured deep block in a back five just one minute apart.

Ironically, the half-space gaps in Brentford’s back line were how Liverpool’s breakthrough goal came about. After a full 90 minutes of discipline and hard work, one lapse in concentration saw Harvey Elliott find Trent Alexander-Arnold’s run, who crossed for Darwin Nunez to score.

It is a feature that Postecoglou will undoubtedly be aware of when looking to break down a Brentford side that can be so formidable at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Especially considering the attacking style with which Spurs typically like to play — one based on a high volume of underlapping runs and back-post crosses — they should be prepared for periods of frustration ahead of Sunday’s clash, given the stubborn defensive structure that Brentford provide.

Postecoglou needs to end their seven-game winless run but they face a significant challenge.

Follow live as the inaugural league phase of the Europa League comes to a close today with 18 matches in action at the same time

UEL league phase finale – Latest updates

All 18 of today's matches in the Europa League are underway as the competition's inaugural league phase comes to a close today.

Teams finishing in the top eight will advance directly to the round of 16, while those finishing ninth through 24th will have to navigate a play-off round first.

Manchester United and Tottenham are going through in the top eight as things stand.

Lazio are in position to finish in first place.

How to watch: TNT Sports, discovery+ (UK), Paramount+ (U.S.)

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Mourinho in trouble

Midtjylland have taken a 1-0 lead against Fenerbahce in Denmark. Not only does that push Jose Mourinho's club out of the top 24, but it lifts their Istanbul cross-town rivals Besiktas into the play-off places.

What a disappointing result that would be for Mourinho, a five-time winner of European competitions (2x Champions League, 2x Europa League, 1x Conference League).

Brief pause in play in north London

A little break for both sets of players as Gustaf Henriksson receives a bit of treatment on the pitch after getting a bang on the head.

Elfsborg manager Oscar Hiljemark, the same age as Spurs captain Son, calls over his players for a little drink and tactics break.

Henriksson back on, and he watches Pedro Porro wallop it 40 yards over from a long way out, Silly.

Spurs haven't really created anything substantial tonight other than that Davies header, and we're half an hour in.

United still looking for an opener

Not quite half an hour on the clock in Bucharest, and it has been a decent performance from United so far, particularly considering the changes.

Hojlund, for all his criticism this season, looks sharp and has cut a frustrated figure at times having not been picked out when making positive runs.

Amorim mentioned pre-match that his side were without genuine forwards in support of Hojlund tonight, and that has been very evident so far. It makes sense to not risk the likes of Amad and Alejandro Garnacho, but this game is crying out for a player of that ilk.

Rangers up to ninth

Rangers have climbed into ninth place in the live table thanks to a goal by Nicolas Raskin against Union Saint-Gilloise.

If Tottenham fall behind against Elfsborg, or FCSB fall behind against Manchester United, Rangers will climb into the top eight.

Super skill from Elfsborg

Lucas Bergvall, another teenager starting for Spurs tonight, has been a little hurried, a little imprecise so far.

A few casual, loose touches have led to interceptions, and he was lucky not to concede a free kick after barging opposition striker Abdullai off the pitch right in front of the dugouts.

We're told manager Ange Postecoglou had a quick word telling him to calm down.

With Elfsborg finally in possession, a lovely nutmeg from Besfort Zeneli confuses Rodrigo Bentancur and the visitors break, before it's snuffed out. Remember, a positive result is important for Elfsborg tonight.

They are only just inside the play-off positions!

Laser pens becoming an issue...

Just spotted the green flash of a laser pen flick past Toby Collyer as he was on the ball then. And then more of the same on Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez as they stood over a free kick just outside the FCSB penalty area.

Might be something of an issue this evening...

Where are all the goals?!

Twenty minutes gone across 18 matches and we've only just seen our third goal of the night.

In stark contrast, last night's 18 matches in the Champions League saw a total of 64 goals!

Anderlecht have taken a 1-0 lead against Hoffenheim, consolidating the Belgian side's grip on a top-eight spot and further reducing Hoffenheim's already slim odds of climbing into the top 24.

Anderlecht's lead bumps Manchester United and Tottenham down to fifth and seventh, respectively, in the live table.

Mainoo squanders a massive chance!

Another chance for Kobbie Mainoo and this one really should have found the back of the net.

Rasmus Hojlund has looked sharp so far and another of his runs into the left-sided channel got United into a really dangerous position. The Dane's cut-back into the heart of the FCSB penalty area was a very good one and met the run of Mainoo perfectly.

But, with the goal at his mercy 10 yards from goal, the United youngster fired a long way over the crossbar — that really should've been the opener!

Elfsborg fans making a hell of a noise

Nice interplay between Son and Ben Davies, who is at left-back today, with 18-year-old Archie Gray at centre-half.

Another dangerous corner flicked on by an Elfsborg head, big Micky van de Ven steams in at the back post but can't make contact that would surely have resulted in a goal.

The Elfsborg fans yell some good-natured (and some less good-natured) words at Pedro Porro, who takes the corner in front of the away end.

After Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall overcooks a cross on the second phase, the away supporters cheer like their side has scored a goal. They're determined to have a good time tonight!

Then United go close!

That's more like it from the visitors.

Sharp running from Kobbie Mainoo in behind the FCSB defence and he is picked out by a super lofted pass from Lisandro Martinez. The England midfielder chops into the six-yard box with a wonderfully watched touch over the defender's head but couldn't quite get a shot away under pressure.

Excellent bit of play from Mainoo who has struggled to find his feet under Amorim.

Seconds later, a scuffed left-footed effort from Christian Eriksen was beaten away by Stefan Tarnovanu in the hosts' goal.

Ferencvaros lead against AZ Alkmaar

Ferencvaros have taken a 1-0 lead through Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane against AZ Alkmaar. That moves the Hungarian side into the top 16 and bumps the Dutch side into 19th.

The difference between 9th-16th and 17th-24th is having the advantage of being seeded in tomorrow's draw and hosting the second leg of the play-off round at home.

Popescu within an inch of the opener!

And from that free kick conceded by Malacia, FCSB very nearly took the lead.

The delivery into the penalty area from Risto Radunovic was superb and Altay Bayindir was bolted to his goal line. Mihai Popescu did very well to reach the ball at full stretch but could only prod wide of the United far post on the angle.

Half of the home fans thought that was in!

Captain Fantastic does it all... and Davies misses!

Is there anything he can't do? Spurs captain Son does a few step-overs to flummox poor Hedlund again, the right wing-back flicking out his leg desperately and catching the South Korean as he looked to burst past him outside the penalty area.

Free kick on the left, tight angle, Son picks himself up and tries a clever disguised along-the-ground strike — no draught excluder — but it's blocked.

Then he takes the corner, a dipping inswinger that Ben Davies somehow contrives to nod over from very close range, with the goalkeeper (fairly) pinned to his line by Archie Gray.

Big chance!

Nothing doing here so far

We've not had anything which resembles a sustained spell of pressure from either team in Bucharest.

The first yellow card has just been shown, though. Tyrell Malacia was very late to his sliding challenge on Florin Tanase and was rightly punished.

Brief concern for the FCSB winger who was writhing around in pain. He is treated by a healthy dosage of magic spray from the physio and should be fine to continue.

Braga take crucial lead

Braga have taken a 1-0 lead against Lazio in Portugal through Ricardo Horta's goal.

Lazio remain in first place in the live table but Braga have climbed into 24th, pushing Besiktas out of a play-off spot.

No goals yet?

Eighteen matches, five minutes gone in each, that totals 90 minutes total of game action, and we've yet to have a single goal! What gives?! Where's the chaos?!

Brilliant atmosphere in Bucharest

United have been away to Porto, Fenerbahce and Viktoria Plzen in this season's Europa League, so an atmosphere like this shouldn't faze them. But my word is it loud inside the stadium this evening!

It hasn't led to a particularly quick start from either side as they are both feeling their way into this one.

A reminder, if you needed it, that both teams can secure a last-16 place with victory tonight. A draw for United would also likely be enough.

Europa League chaos is underway!

The waiting is over!

That faint sound you can hear in the distance is the whistles of referees around Europe.

The ball is rolling in all 18 Europa League games — stick with us over the next couple of hours as we try to make sense of the madness!

Load more updates

These are tough times for Tottenham Hotspur.

Sunday’s Premier League defeat to Leicester City was their 13th in 23 matches in the competition the season. It means have now lost 56.5 per cent of their league games so far in 2024-25. If they maintain that rate over their remaining 15 fixtures, they will have the worst losing record of any Spurs team in the club’s 142-year history.

It is quite the decline.

Remember, Tottenham came fourth under head coach Antonio Conte in 2021-22 and fifth last season in Ange Postecoglou’s first campaign in charge. They may not have won a trophy since 2008 but in the 16 seasons since, Spurs have never finished outside the Premier League’s top eight, and been sixth or better 13 times.

After Sunday’s humiliating loss, data giant Opta give them just an 11.5 per cent chance of even finishing in the top 10.

What is clear is that they are far, far too close to the three relegation places for comfort, sitting eight points above 18th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers.

So how has it come to this? How did a club that used to stand for consistency and stability suddenly find themselves trapped in this doom spiral? What’s happened to that solid high floor Tottenham always had?

Much has been written about the current injury crisis, which has spectacularly ruined this season. Much has also been written about Postecoglou and his unique style of play. But what about the underlying conditions and circumstances at the north London club? Can anything there explain how a team who always used to be competitive could suddenly go off a footballing cliff?

The wage bill has been slashed

It is impossible to fully analyse Tottenham’s struggles this season without considering the resources available to the manager/head coach, relative to previous holders of that job and relative to Spurs’ Premier League rivals.

Last week, the Deloitte Football Money League published its annual report, which contained one especially striking finding about Tottenham. It was the confirmation of what many people had thought: that the Spurs wage bill came down last season. According to leading financial services firm Deloitte’s figures, Tottenham’s salary spend for 2023-24, head coach Ange Postecoglou’s debut campaign, was £222million, down from £251m a year earlier.

This covers the departures from the squad of big earners including Harry Kane and Tanguy Ndombele, as Spurs got their wage bill back under control after it grew under Antonio Conte. (Tottenham will make their official figures for last season available later in this one.)

That decrease in the wage bill is notable for a couple of reasons.

Firstly because it shows that any idea of a ‘Big Six’ in English football, as determined by wage spending, belongs in the past.

Based on these Deloitte figures, Tottenham are in fact seventh among Premier League clubs, behind sixth-placed Aston Villa (who spend £256million on salaries, according to respected football-business analyst Swiss Ramble’s figures.) Spurs and neighbours Arsenal used to be almost neck-and-neck on wages. Now Arsenal (£327m) are spending more than £100m more per year than their local rivals in that area. Villa and Newcastle United are Spurs’ close competitors now, rather than what you might now call the ‘Big Five’.

Also, Tottenham’s wages-to-turnover ratio last season of 42 per cent was the lowest of all the clubs assessed by Deloitte. That means they are run more sustainably than their rivals, less exposed to risk if anything goes wrong. But it also leaves their fans wishing that the club would be a bit bolder in the transfer market, given how much theoretical leeway they have. Especially right now, with the winter window having a week to run and the first-team squad in dire need of bolstering.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

A recruitment gap

Rebuilds are never easy but it has been a struggle for Tottenham to get the age profile of their new team exactly right.

Postecoglou has presided over the dismantling of most of the old Mauricio Pochettino team, which in large part sustained Spurs all the way through until Conte’s tenure. Only Son Heung-min and Ben Davies remain from that generation of players. In the last few years, Tottenham have worked very hard to sign young players, in Fabio Paratici’s time at the club (2021-23), and continuing for Postecoglou.

But at times, it has felt as if they are still paying the price for not getting their signings right before Paratici joined the club. If they had signed younger targets back during the years when they struggled with recruitment, those players might now be of peak age. There is nobody in Spurs’ squad who joined the club between August 2015, when Son was signed, and 2020, when Sergio Reguilon arrived. (And if Reguilon had not come back into the fold this season after two years out on a series of loans, it would be nobody between 2015 and 2021, when Cristian Romero joined.)

That recruitment gap includes the 2018-19 season, where Spurs infamously didn’t sign a single player. The prospective teenage signings of that campaign would be the peak-age players of today and firmly established at the club by now.

All of this has made life harder for Postecoglou, who has generally just been dealing with younger players who have joined Tottenham in the past few years.

This could have been addressed by recruiting more peak-age players in the transfer market, and Spurs have made a few such signings since Postecoglou came in: Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison, Dominic Solanke. Last summer, they looked at plenty of other established players — Jacob Ramsey (now 23), Conor Gallagher, Pedro Neto (both 24), Eberechi Eze (26) — but did not complete deals for any of them.

Apart from Solanke, who turned 27 in September, the focus was on signing teenagers: Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert. Yes, they could all turn out to be excellent investments, and Bergvall and Gray have done incredibly well recently, but it has left Tottenham a bit short of proven players in their mid-twenties who could have stabilised the team in difficult times.

Postecoglou has always defended the club transfer policy in public, but he surely would have had an easier time this season with more experienced signings.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

No more Kane and Son

For the best part of a decade, Tottenham could rely upon one of the deadliest strike partnerships in Premier League history to dig them out of trouble. Between Son’s arrival and Kane’s departure in summer 2023, the pair directly combined for 47 goals — a record for the competition.

During 2021-22, when Spurs pipped local rivals Arsenal to the fourth and final Champions League qualifying spot, Son was the top flight’s joint-top scorer with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (23) while Kane was directly involved in 26 goals (17 scored, nine assists). They both scored in a famous 3-0 victory over Arsenal that May, and there are lots of other examples of them winning games together.

They were world-class stars and relentless matchwinners both at the peak of their powers and Tottenham do not have anybody in their ranks right now who comes close to matching them. Dejan Kulusevski has been excellent this season, while club-record signing Solanke has impressed, but they still fall short of the levels Kane and Son set during that era.

While Kane joined serial German champions Bayern Munich before last season, Son stayed with Spurs. But the now 32-year-old’s performances have been underwhelming over the past six months.

As stated above, Son and defender Davies are the only senior figures left from the end of Pochettino’s reign in 2019. Eric Dier followed Kane to Bayern last January and Hugo Lloris moved to MLS a few weeks later. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg arrived a year after Pochettino’s dismissal but is another senior pro to have left during Postecoglou’s time in charge. Some of those players may have no longer been first choice, but there has clearly been a loss of leadership within the squad.

At their peaks, Kane and Son were two players who led by example, and would regularly win matches in which the team overall had underperformed. Without that elite edge in attack, it is much harder for Tottenham to come out on top without playing somewhere near their best.

Jay Harris

Still adapting to a new philosophy

Postecoglou was presented to the fanbase as an antidote to the three managers who came before him when he arrived from Scottish champions Celtic.

Conte, Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo have forged their coaching careers on pragmatic and reactive tactics. Under the right circumstances, they have been successful.

Conte and Mourinho are serial winners who have lifted trophies with clubs in different countries; Napoli have won seven league games in a row and are currently top of Serie A under Conte, Nuno has exceeded all expectations by guiding repeated relegation candidates Nottingham Forest to third in the Premier League at time of writing, while Mourinho ended Roma’s 14-year wait for a trophy by winning the 2021-22 UEFA Conference League, and his Fenerbahce side are second in the Turkish top flight.

Postecoglou likes to play expansive, attacking football; a style which involves taking risks. He pushes his defenders high up the pitch to try to control territory. The away wins over Manchester City (4-0) and Manchester United (3-0) this season are prime examples of what this looks like when everything works.

Flitting between these different coaching ideologies has had a long-term impact on Tottenham’s success.

How can you consistently challenge for trophies when your needs change every 18 months, depending on who sits in the dugout?

Postecoglou inherited a squad including players who had been signed for Pochettino, Mourinho, Nuno and Conte. For example, midfielder Ndombele, the club’s record signing until Solanke arrived, only officially left in the summer — two and a half years after his final Tottenham appearance. The new head coach has also shipped out Ivan Perisic, Emerson Royal, Davinson Sanchez, Joe Rodon, Giovani Lo Celso and Hojbjerg.

Younger players the club signed with a plan to develop them into stars, including Alejo Veliz and Bryan Gil, have not worked out. Postecoglou has had to slowly build his perfect squad over time, and that process is still far from completion.

If you compare Spurs to other Premier League clubs — not just Liverpool and Manchester City, but the likes of Brentford and Brighton — the key difference is consistency in their playing style over an extended period, even under different managers/head coaches. Yes, every new appointment is going to make small tweaks to the style but it helps when the overarching vision is defined by the ownership. It means there can be alignment across all departments in exactly what type of player a club should be recruiting.

For example, Liverpool signed Ryan Gravenberch when Jurgen Klopp was in charge but the Netherlands midfielder has reached new heights this season under the German’s successor Arne Slot. There are signs Tottenham have a more defined approach to the transfer market now under technical director Johan Lange, who was hired in November 2023, but it will take time for that to pay off.

After almost two years under Postecoglou, it certainly seems like Spurs still do not have the squad to match the demands of their head coach.

Jay Harris

The fans have had enough

The mood on the terraces doesn’t always link directly to what’s happening on the pitch, but it does usually give you a pretty clear picture of just how deeply the rot at a club has set in.

The first sign of serious fan unrest this season came at the end of Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth on December 5, when there was a confrontation between Postecoglou and a small number of away supporters. Just over a week later, the fans made it clear their frustration was mainly aimed in the direction of the board rather than the coach as they chanted about chairman Daniel Levy throughout a 5-0 away win against Southampton.

Those songs have persisted at every game since, but reached a crescendo on Sunday when Bilal El Khannouss gave struggling Leicester what would prove a winning 2-1 lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with shouts of “We want Levy out” also booming around the ground. The full-time whistle was met with boos, and the unfurling of a banner which read: “24 years, 16 managers, one trophy — time for change.” It has become the most striking image of Tottenham’s latest poor result.

There are lots of different reasons for the fanbase to feel frustrated with Levy. Tottenham’s squad has been decimated by injuries but, with just over a week of the winter transfer window remaining, the only signing so far has been goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky. Postecoglou has repeated that he and his players need help.

The club’s commercial power has been boosted by concerts and NFL games at the stadium and clever partnerships with big brands but it sometimes feels like the first-team squad is not at the top of the list of priorities.

You can make your own jokes about the stadium’s branding and music paying tribute to Netflix’s dystopian TV show Squid Game on the same day Tottenham lost 6-3 in chaotic fashion to Liverpool on the weekend before Christmas. There were protests against the ownership before kick-off that day which featured fans releasing black balloons into the air.

The relationship between the fans and the club was already frosty.

Last year, Spurs increased season-ticket prices by six per cent and made changes to senior concessions. Their most expensive adult season ticket costs a staggering £2,367 ($2,954), which does not exactly scream good value for money when they have not won at home in the Premier League since November 3. The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust (THST) plan to talk about the “performance of the current ownership” at their annual general meeting (AGM) next Monday.

While Postecoglou speaks to the media multiple times every week, there has been no word from Levy, chief football officer Scott Munn or Lange.

Maybe it would be beneficial for everybody if a member of the club’s senior leadership spoke publicly about what has been happening this season and alleviated the supporters’ fears, or laid out what exactly their long-term plan is.

Jay Harris

A power vacuum inside the building

This season’s failings have turned attention not only onto Postecoglou but on the whole structure around him.

The current setup at Tottenham dates from 2023, the year Paratici and Conte left and Postecoglou arrived.

First, Munn came in as chief football officer, then Johan Lange as technical director in the autumn. Since those appointments, there has been a serious overhaul of the football departments, with strategic reviews conducted, some staff leaving and others being hired. It is a very different place today compared with even two years ago.

But what if something has been lost from all that turnover of experienced staff?

Whatever you might think about the reasons for Paratici’s departure (he resigned in April 2023, after being banned from football activities for 30 months over allegations of financial wrongdoing) he was hugely respected by staff and by players, who valued his experience from his days with Italian giants Juventus and his winning mentality. As well as overseeing recruitment, Paratici was a visible presence and a respected go-between, mediating between Conte, Levy and the players. He could represent the club’s views to the players, and solve the daily problems that cropped up.

Do Tottenham have a figure quite like that now? That is Munn’s role, but Paratici was such a unique outsized personality that he has still proven difficult to replace. Not just for his charisma and love of the limelight but also his big-club experience and winning mentality. (Tottenham have valued how Lange tries to conduct Spurs’ transfer dealings in private, but there is another side to that coin too.) Some people miss the elite experience and drive Paratici provided at the training ground.

Ultimately this puts more pressure on Postecoglou. He wants to focus on coaching the team but he is not exactly chatty with players around the place. It is very different from how open Pochettino would be, always making time to invite them into his office for a chat. If the head coach keeps his distance, he needs other people — both players and staff — to step in and fill that space.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

(Top photo: Andrew Kearns/Getty Images)

“This is probably as low as we have been this year.”

Ange Postecoglou’s comments after Tottenham Hotspur lost to Leicester City on Sunday afternoon were an understatement. Spurs have lost four successive games in the Premier League and are on their longest winless run in the competition (seven matches) since 2008. The only team they have beaten in their last 11 fixtures is bottom-side Southampton.

Everton were on a six-game winless run until they faced Tottenham at Goodison Park on January 19. Leicester were in an even worse situation following seven defeats in a row. Spurs gifted both sides three points. The memes and jokes about ‘Doctor Tottenham’ have flooded social media. Their recent run of results is similar to that of clubs fighting against relegation. They are second-bottom of the six-game form table, with only Southampton below them.

Tottenham took the lead against Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side through Richarlison’s header but imploded in a manic five-minute period at the start of the second half. It means they have dropped more points (21) from winning positions than any other team this season.

GO DEEPER

The Briefing: Spurs 1 Leicester 2 - Nightmare for Postecoglou and Levy protests in embarrassing defeat

It feels like everything is spiralling out of control. Senior players are underperforming, the injuries are piling up, fans are angry with the board and Postecoglou is struggling to find a solution. How much longer can Spurs go on like this?

Tottenham’s form has been inconsistent ever since that 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in November 2023 when Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie were sent off but they stuck with a high defensive line. Since then, they have won 19 games, drawn seven and lost 25 for a total of 64 points from 51 games. That is not good enough when you consider Aston Villa finished fourth last season with 68 points from 38 matches.

The first week of February feels defining. In the league, Tottenham face Brentford, who have an impressive record at home, and then play Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. They finish off a punishing eight days away to Villa in the FA Cup.

If Spurs are dumped out of both cup competitions and lose to Brentford, then Postecoglou’s job will surely be in serious danger. If he manages to beat Liverpool and take Spurs one step closer to winning a first trophy since 2008, then maybe you could argue all the pain and humiliation of the last few weeks was worth it.

Tottenham’s injury crisis is a complex issue with lots of factors. Djed Spence and James Maddison are the latest to pick up injuries, while Yves Bissouma was only fit enough for the bench against Leicester. It is an almost impossible situation to manage as the moment one player comes back, another seems to suffer an injury.

GO DEEPER

Inside the injury crisis that threatens to wreck Tottenham's season

However, Postecoglou admitted that Pape Matar Sarr — who started and came off in the 54th minute — should not have played because “he obviously was not fit”. Why did Postecoglou start Sarr in central midfield, and risk him suffering more damage, when Archie Gray could have performed there with Sergio Reguilon at left-back?

Home supporters booed the decision to take off Richarlison at the same time as Sarr. Postecoglou revealed the Brazilian striker “was feeling his groin” and that “he should have come off at half-time but he wanted to give another 10 minutes”.

Richarlison has only just returned from a hamstring injury that kept him out for two months. The 27-year-old had limited involvement in pre-season because of a persistent calf issue. He has not been fully fit and match-sharp at any stage this season. Asking him to start two matches in four days was questionable, but should Postecoglou have let him play for another 10 minutes if “(he) could see he was not running well”, as the manager said?

Lessons seem not to have been learned from the defeat to Chelsea in December when Romero and Micky van de Ven went off injured on their return from toe and hamstring injuries respectively.

Many fans directed their frustration at the chairman, Daniel Levy, throughout the game against Leicester. Postecoglou deserves some sympathy for the fact Levy and technical director Johan Lange have failed to sign any players, apart from goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, in the transfer window.

Tottenham’s squad was struggling to cope with the demands of European competition even before it was decimated by injuries. Tottenham’s best players over the last month have been Gray and Lucas Bergvall. It is amazing these two 18-year-olds are shining in difficult circumstances, but it tells you everything you need to know about the lack of options and quality running through the rest of the squad. Spurs desperately need reinforcements and it is not Postecoglou’s fault that none have arrived.

A brief confrontation between Postecoglou and a supporter was caught on camera at full time. The 59-year-old appeared to attempt to respond to the fan before he was dragged away in scenes that echoed what happened after the defeat to Bournemouth in December. Levy is bearing the brunt of the fanbase’s anger, but they are turning on Postecoglou in increasing numbers.

So where do Tottenham go from here? The problems are mounting as they slowly limp towards the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Postecoglou spoke about potentially having “significant players back” in the next two weeks before that fixture, but was asked directly if he would still be in charge by then.

“Who knows?” he said. “I reckon there is probably a fair chunk (of people) that will say no. When you are the manager of a football club you can be very vulnerable and isolated. I don’t feel that. I feel like this group of players, not for me, are giving everything for the club. I have a group of staff that is really committed. I focus on that.

“My role within that is to try and support these players. I can even see in training when the guys who are coming back it is going to give everybody a lift. As I keep saying to the players, there is a fantastic opportunity this season to make an impact and I know we can.”

Postecoglou might be convinced that Spurs can achieve something special this season but all of the evidence suggests they are heading towards disaster.

(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur suffered a defeat at home against Leicester City, who had lost their previous seven games, as more pressure was piled on manager Ange Postecoglou.

Richarlison put Spurs ahead after 33 minutes in his first league start of the season, but Leicester shocked the home crowd with two goals in the first five minutes of the second half to turn the game around.

While Tottenham pushed for an equaliser, there were protests against chairman Daniel Levy, boos for Postecoglou and a general unease among the Tottenham fans. Their side sit 15th in the table, with 24 points from 23 games. Spurs have now dropped 21 points from winning positions this season.

Here, Jay Harris and Nick Miller break down the talking points.

The Athletic‘s match dashboard, showing how Spurs dominated possession and territory but could not make it count

What does this mean for Postecoglou?

Most of the fan frustration on Sunday afternoon was aimed towards the chairman Levy but Postecoglou is rapidly running out of time to reverse this situation.

In the last eight days, Tottenham have been defeated by two teams fighting to avoid relegation, taking their league record to 13 defeats from 23 games.

It did not help that James Maddison missed this game through injury but Spurs have to perform much better. Maybe Postecoglou can feel aggrieved that his players did not score more in the first half. Son Heung-min impressed up against James Justin and had one effort saved by Jakub Stolarczyk while another hit the crossbar. Pedro Porro hit the woodwork in the second half from a deflected free kick. The margins are not going in their favour.

Over the last couple of months, Tottenham’s progress in the cup competitions has been a tonic to their woes in the league. They are into the fourth round of the FA Cup, have a slender advantage over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final and should progress directly to the Europa League round of 16.

They face Liverpool in their second leg on February 6 and three days later take on Aston Villa away in the FA Cup. Those two matches feel like the only things keeping Postecoglou in charge because this miserable form in the league cannot continue any longer.

Jay Harris

What went wrong at the start of the second half?

Spurs have not kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since they beat Southampton 5-0 over a month ago and Hoffenheim, who are fighting to avoid relegation from the German top flight, demonstrated on Thursday evening in the Europa League that Tottenham’s defence will fall apart at the slightest bit of pressure.

Even with all their absentees, Spurs should have secured all three points after going 1-0 up. Instead, they wasted all their hard work with an error-strewn start to the second half that allowed Leicester to turn the game around, reflected in the expected goals (xG) timeline below.

Opta’s X account highlighted how it was the first time since 1912 (vs Notts County) that Tottenham had lost against a team on a seven-game losing streak in the league.

It all started when Rodrigo Bentancur clattered into a tackle on Victor Kristiansen on the right wing. Bentancur was out of position and Boubakary Soumare drove into the space. He slipped the ball to Bobby De Cordova-Reid and goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky missed his cross. Jamie Vardy then scrambled the ball over the line.

The second goal was arguably even worse. Porro misplaced a pass and De Cordova-Reid pounced on it. He played it to Bilal El Khannouss, who dribbled to the edge of the box completely unopposed. Spurs’ defenders were almost encouraging him to shoot. The Morocco international obliged and curled a shot into the bottom corner.

Spurs are low on confidence and missing their best players but these were basic mistakes that allowed a team with even less confidence than themselves to win. If you think this sounds like a familiar story, it is because Tottenham did the same thing against Everton last weekend.

Jay Harris

Is Levy feeling the heat?

Arguably football fans’ protests are more valuable and hold more weight when they aren’t governed by events on the pitch.

If you’re unhappy with broader issues at your club, it’s important to make the point and not be distracted by whether the team is winning, as counterintuitive as that might seem. That way, you don’t seem as fickle, and the people you’re aiming your protest at can’t hide behind the short-term salve of a couple of wins.

With that in mind, the Tottenham fans who expressed their displeasure towards Levy should be commended for doing so even when their team was winning, and not just when things turned against Leicester.

The “We want Levy out” chants were certainly audible in the first half, combined with banners in the stands expressing their displeasure at the man with whom they have emphatically lost patience: the common factor in a quarter of a century of disappointment and underachievement. One of those banners read, “24 years, 16 managers, 1 trophy: time for a change.”

After the break, as the game started going the other way, the anger only escalated, the chants graduating to, “Daniel Levy, get out of our club.” The problem is that Levy is among the more stubborn men in football, so the chances of him bowing to their wishes any time soon seem remote.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is a toxic place at the moment and unless something extraordinary happens, it’s hard to see how it will change in the coming months.

Nick Miller

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

Speaking after the match, Postecoglou said: “For the most part, we controlled the game pretty well. We certainly created enough opportunities to win the game. We had that five-minute spell after half-time where we were punished but either side of that, there was enough there for us to win the game.

“The players are giving everything. From my perspective, I can’t get away from the fact that this group of players are trying as hard as they possibly can to turn our fortunes around.

“I have felt all along that the players are still very committed to what we’re doing. That’s important to me, because I firmly believe in it and I really believe that this is as low as we’ve been so far this year but I still think that in these last three months we can do something really special and these players believe that.

“Right now it’s very hard to visualise that when the current circumstances we’re in, you just have to look at our absences today. They’ll all be back. Even missing Madders (James Maddison) today, he was so good the other night. All these little things that are not allowing us to get any momentum I’m sure will change and when they change I’m really confident we can make an impact.”

What next for Tottenham?

Thursday, January 30: Elfsborg (H), Europa League, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET

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Inside the injury crisis that threatens to wreck Tottenham’s season

Spurs’ youngsters are performing superbly – but at what cost?

Tottenham are a club drifting – who is going to take control?

(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur are adrift.

In truth, they have been blindly drifting for weeks, if not months. Their appalling league form has been dismissed as a sideshow, an irrelevance, an inevitability given their injury crisis.

Everyone was happy to suspend judgement. Wait until the players get back from injury. Wait until the cup games. Wait until the resumption of European football.

But the problem with investing everything in the future is that you take your eyes off what is happening in front of you. And if you do that, you slip from league defeat to league defeat, from the European spots to mid-table to potential disaster, never confronting the reality of the situation.

That has been the story of Tottenham’s league campaign, their worst for a generation. They are — and this really has to be repeated until it sinks in — 15th in the Premier League table. They are only four points ahead of yesterday’s opponents Everton, who have a game in hand. They have lost more than half of their league games.

We could do this all day, listing all the different ways this season is a disaster, a catastrophe, without modern precedent. But all that can wait until May. Right now, Tottenham just need to save their season.

Usually, the league is Spurs’ priority but for much of this season, everyone’s attention has been on the three cup competitions. This squad are desperate to win a trophy for Tottenham this season. It is all the players talk about, which is in part why they have stuck together through such obvious difficulty.

That is why they could hit such heights when they really wanted to. They have won only three of the last 15 matches in 90 minutes: Manchester United and Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, Southampton in the league. For the rest of the time, the league games have looked like they were just the spare time between cup games, a chance to stay fresh and sharp ahead of the next one. And with the squad stretched so thin by injuries, and with the manager’s tactics under fire, the players have always had excuses to hide behind.

So Spurs drifted from defeat to defeat, moderating their approach to avoid a repeat of the 6-3 defeat to Liverpool, every defeat written off as unavoidable, their competitive edge increasingly blunted. That culminated on Sunday at Goodison Park, where Spurs were demolished in the first half by an Everton team who had been drained of all confidence in front of goal in recent years. Everyone reading this will be familiar with the concept of Dr Tottenham, but this was surely the greatest example in history. All of the belief, skill and conviction that Everton had lost surged back into their game. This was football alchemy at work.

At half-time, with Spurs 3-0 down, it felt like the trip to Newcastle United in April 2023. It had that same morbid end-of-era energy, the same glazed eyes and dazed players, the same dark humour from fans. That day, Spurs were 5-0 down at the break, after a desperate tactical switch by the manager. Spurs lost 6-1 and Cristian Stellini was removed as caretaker the next day. This time, at least, Spurs’ second-half fightback gave the scoreline (3-2) a degree of respectability no one would have predicted at the break.

GO DEEPER

The Briefing: Everton 3-2 Tottenham - How long can Postecoglou survive?

But at least that day at Newcastle, there was an acceptance that it was a nadir, and things needed to change. Tottenham must now find another fix to avoid spending the rest of the season glancing anxiously into their rear-view mirror at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town.

It is easy to blame the manager, but he is far from the only one at fault. Daniel Levy spent the afternoon listening to Spurs fans calling for his departure from the club. When the fans turn the heat on the chairman, the manager often pays the price — but if Levy sacked Ange Postecoglou, the attention would still be on the chairman rather than the sacked head coach. Levy has to find a way to fix this.

Tottenham need to go into the market now and give Postecoglou some more players. Dominic Solanke’s knee injury and Brennan Johnson’s calf strain have further damaged their already thin squad. Their only attacking player in any sort of form is Dejan Kulusevski, but he has done so much this season he needs to be helped and protected rather than asked to do even more. Richarlison and Mikey Moore both came on against Everton but Spurs cannot try to squeeze too much out of them too soon.

In defence, again, Spurs clearly need another player. They cannot just sit on their hands and wait for Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven to come back and save their season. Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray have done everything asked of them recently but both struggled at Goodison. Dragusin looks like he needs a spell out of the team.

Postecoglou started this season with a thin squad and now he has 11 senior players out. The calendar is not giving him any respite. Without at least two new players, it is hard to see how this situation does not get even worse from here.

Perhaps this is where there needs to be a change of emphasis. For too long, the cups were seen as the way for Spurs to save their season but who could claim now, with a straight face, that Tottenham are going to win a trophy? If they show up to Anfield and play like this in the Carabao semi-final second leg, they will lose by a cricket score. When they go to Villa Park three days later they will find it very difficult to stay in the FA Cup too. They could be out of both domestic cups within a few weeks.

The Europa League is a different prospect, but this Thursday’s game at Hoffenheim will be a struggle given Spurs’ injuries. If they do not finish in the top eight of the league phase, and end up in the play-off round in February, then there is every chance they will go out of that too. And then their whole season will be over within a month.

If that sounds like a grim prognosis, it is the only conclusion to reach after watching this, Spurs’ 12th and worst league defeat of the season and a game that should have ended even worse than it did. This is a Spurs team in the midst of a football disaster. They need to stop dreaming about being saved by returning players. They need to stop fantasising about cup competitions where they will likely lose. Someone needs to take control of the situation and keep this ship afloat. No one is going to do it for them.

GO DEEPER

Postecoglou says Spurs' form 'can’t be accepted by anyone'. So where does that leave him?

(Top photo: Ange Postecoglou and Archie Gray, who scored an own goal; by Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)

Towards the end of Ange Postecoglou’s press conference, after his Tottenham Hotspur side lost the north London derby away to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, he was asked if the only positives to take from the game were the performances of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.

It was an opportunity to acknowledge two teenagers excelling in difficult circumstances and end a bad evening on a hopeful note. Gray prefers to play in midfield but has started the past 10 games in all competitions at centre-back, while Bergvall has arguably been Spurs’ most impressive performer in recent weeks.

Instead of praising Gray and Bergvall, who 12 months ago were playing in the second tier of English football and Sweden’s top flight respectively, Postecoglou fired a warning shot.

“I hope not. I want them disappointed,” he said. “This can’t be accepted by anyone at the club. Us losing so many games in a league season is not right. I know we are going through a tough trot and are asking big jobs (of people), but I hope they are hurting, the 18-year-olds, as much as anybody else in terms of us not being able to deliver on a big night.”

Postecoglou’s frustration was understandable.

Tottenham withstood 20 minutes of intense pressure from Arsenal, then took the lead through Son Heung-min, only to concede twice just before half-time. There was an element of misfortune about Dominic Solanke’s own goal but Yves Bissouma was easily dispossessed by Thomas Partey in the build-up to Leandro Trossard’s winner. Postecoglou said his team were “too passive” and “nowhere near the level they needed to be”, describing the one they are playing at as “not acceptable”.

It was a complete contrast to how Declan Rice talked about Arsenal’s display on TNT Sports, the game’s live UK broadcaster. “Tonight meant more than anything, from the first minute,” Rice said. “First 45 minutes was pure domination. We showed that intent, that pressure, that desire. You could tell it was a derby. We are unlucky we didn’t score 10 tonight, that’s the feeling.”

This is the 11th time Spurs have lost in the Premier League this season in 21 matches — the only teams who have suffered more defeats are Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City (both 13) and Southampton (16). Or, to describe them another way, the three sides in the relegation places.

Tottenham have taken only 24 points from those 21 games and are closer to the bottom three than the four Champions League qualification spots. They have won once in nine league games, and that was against a Southampton side currently eight points adrift in last place. All of the goodwill from beating league leaders Liverpool in the home first leg of a Carabao Cup semi-final this time a week ago has slipped away following Wednesday night’s flat display.

In the first few minutes of the game, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jurrien Timber made interceptions high up the pitch that led to Arsenal attacks. Gray, Bissouma and Djed Spence found it difficult to progress the ball up Spurs’ left wing. Then Kai Havertz blocked goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky’s pass in the box and nearly scored.

Tottenham were overwhelmed and struggled to string a sequence of passes together. Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Solanke were peripheral figures. Bissouma and Pape Sarr were replaced with Brennan Johnson and James Maddison at half-time as Postecoglou tried to find “a different intent in our football”.

“It’s not who we are,” the head coach said. “Allowing Arsenal to play to their tempo. It just wasn’t good enough.”

This is not the first time Postecoglou has made drastic changes at the break. Injuries have hit Spurs but their midfield has been left relatively unscathed, apart from Rodrigo Bentancur suffering two separate concussions. Halfway through his second season, Postecoglou is still trying to figure out his most effective midfield combination.

In the Premier League, Maddison is leading the way, with Son, in the squad for direct goal involvements (12), yet has started the past four games on the bench. The 28-year-old England international has not completed a full 90 minutes in the league once this season and has been substituted more times (14) than any of his team-mates. Paradoxically, Maddison is either the first to be taken off when Spurs are underperforming or is asked to perform a rescue act coming on from the bench.

Bergvall is showing promise as the deepest-lying midfielder but it is a lot of responsibility to place on a young and inexperienced player. Kulusevski is often tasked with switching between a central role and the right wing in the same game and has racked up Spurs’ second-highest number of league minutes (1,681) this season after only Pedro Porro (1,716) and needs a rest.

If Postecoglou only tweaked his midfield on certain occasions, you could argue he was tailoring his approach to nullify the strengths, or capitalise on the weaknesses, of specific opponents. Instead, it feels like he tinkers too much and it is difficult for the team to build any consistency.

Postecoglou’s comments about how this poor run of form “can’t be accepted by anyone at the club” can be interpreted in two ways.

Was it a brutally honest admission he is running out of time to change this dire situation? Or was he applying soft pressure to chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Johan Lange to seek solutions to their problems in the final two weeks of the winter transfer market? Richarlison made his first appearance since the beginning of November last night after recovering from a hamstring injury but Solanke needs more help up front. Tottenham were interested in signing France international forward Randal Kolo Muani on loan from Paris Saint-Germain but he is now expected to join Juventus.

It is always frustrating to lose a derby but Postecoglou has now failed to beat Arsenal once in his four attempts. Spurs have looked more solid when they defend set pieces but this is the second time this season that Arsenal have scored from a corner against them.

Mikel Arteta’s side came into last night’s match reeling from back-to-back defeats in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, and the long-term loss of Gabriel Jesus to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury.

If Spurs had reached half-time in the lead or level, the frustration and nerves inside the stadium would have increased. Tottenham could have capitalised on the tension by sitting slightly deeper and hitting Arsenal on the break. Instead, they made costly individual errors and failed to create high-quality chances, things that have happened on countless occasions over the past six months.

If Manchester United beat Southampton at Old Trafford tonight as expected, Spurs will be 14th in the 20-team Premier League table.

Postecoglou can only lean on their impressive performances in the Carabao Cup for so long before serious questions are asked about his long-term future.

As the 59-year-old admitted, their form “is nowhere near good enough and it needs to change”.

(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Arsenal beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 on Wednesday night to move to within four points of the top of the Premier League.

The hosts dominated the early exchanges, but Spurs scored with one of their first opportunities of the match. A deflected Son Heung-min strike went past goalkeeper David Raya to give the visitors the lead.

But Arsenal turned the game around in the space of four minutes. First, Gabriel’s header from a corner hit Dominic Solanke before travelling into the back of the net. Then Leandro Trossard drove forward and scored from range for Arsenal.

An end-to-end second half yielded no further goals.

The Athletic’s experts Art de Roché, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jay Harris and Anantaajith Raghuraman analysed the game.

How important was this win to Arsenal’s title hopes?

Arsenal had missed opportunities to make up ground on Liverpool in recent weeks — which made this north London derby win even more important. The league leaders still have a game in hand, but closing the gap to four points should give Arsenal encouragement for the second half of the season.

The weight of the game could be felt in the ground throughout the game. After two disappointing cup defeats, the stadium was the loudest it had been all season, driving the players on.

Encouraged by the noise of the home support, Kai Havertz set the tone with a tackle on the touchline. The fans didn’t go silent after Son put Spurs ahead either, feeding an urgency onto the pitch that was key to the turnaround at the end of the first half.

From a footballing perspective, that helped Arsenal attack with much more purpose than in recent games. That was seen in their second goal, with Martin Odegaard and Trossard making their decisions to pass and shoot much earlier than they have done in previous matches.

This result will only truly matter if they back it up, however. Losing against Aston Villa at home was fateful last season, so meeting them this weekend is an opportunity to set the record straight and start a run necessary to catch Liverpool.

Art de Roché

Where does this loss leave Spurs?

An 11th Premier League defeat of the season for Tottenham leaves them 14 points behind fourth place. Quite remarkably, they are two points behind West Ham United, who have barely played well all season and just changed their manager.

This was by no means the worst Tottenham performance of this season. They had some good moments on the break in the second half, took the lead, only to let the game escape them just before the break. Then they had plenty of openings in the second half but were never sharp enough to take advantage. Pedro Porro even hit the post in added time.

The problem for Spurs is that every team has injuries and yet few teams in recent memory have underperformed as badly as Tottenham currently are. They don’t know how to find a way to win games they do not dominate. And, frankly, with better finishing from Arsenal, this would have been a more embarrassing scoreline than it was.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Should Arsenal have been given the corner in the build-up to their first goal?

Tottenham survived an onslaught from Arsenal in the opening half an hour to take the lead through Son but their bubble burst in the 40th minute when Solanke scored an own goal from Declan Rice’s corner.

It was a well-worked move as Gabriel made a darting run towards the back post and his header bounced off Solanke past Antonin Kinsky but Spurs will feel understandably frustrated as the corner should not have been given.

A through ball released Trossard down the left wing and Porro, who had slipped awkwardly a few minutes before, did well to keep up with him. Porro blocked Trossard’s left-footed cross and it appeared to hit the Arsenal winger’s right leg before it went out of play. The officials awarded Arsenal a corner, though, and less than a minute later all of Tottenham’s hard work was undone.

Tottenham’s record at defending set pieces has improved but it would have been irritating to concede from a corner for the second time against Arsenal this season.

Jay Harris

How errors from both teams defined first half

Fixtures such as these are often welcomed with the understanding that the margins for error are low and neither team helped themselves, conceding as a product of avoidable mistakes.

In the moments before Spurs’ opener, Arsenal committed plenty of men forward but did not track enough with equal energy, allowing goalkeeper Kinsky to find Pape Matar Sarr in acres of space. Sarr obliged by carrying the ball about three-quarters the length of the pitch before winning a corner off Thomas Partey. As Tottenham played a short corner, Arsenal were slow to react again from their initial clearance and did not close down Son, who scored with a tame effort via a deflection.

The hosts’ equalizer came in fortuitous circumstances with the referee wrongly awarding Arsenal a corner when the ball went behind off Trossard’s leg from Porro’s tackle. But Spurs did not do themselves any favours from the corner. Kinsky completely misread an excellent delivery from Declan Rice, while Radu Dragusin lost Gabriel, who got to the far post and applied enough pressure to force a Solanke own goal.

Spurs will not want to watch the third goal back either. Yves Bissouma was lazy on the ball in his own half, allowing Partey to win it and find Odegaard. With Spurs having pushed men forward when in possession, Odegaard could easily set up Trossard, who finished the move, though some will rightly question if Kinsky, who got a hand to the shot, could have kept it out.

Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou would have been far from pleased.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

How did Sterling perform on his return to Arsenal’s starting line-up?

After Gabriel Jesus joined Bukayo Saka and Ethan Nwaneri on the injury list, this was a big night for Raheem Sterling on the right wing.

This was his first league start since October, when he was sacrificed to replace William Saliba after his red card away at Bournemouth, and unfortunately, it was summed up by an action inside the opening minutes of the game.

Played in by Myles Lewis-Skelly, Sterling was in a great position to apply a first-time finish but decided to take a touch and the chance was gone. He had a similar moment when played in by Havertz inside the box in the second half, only to fluff his lines. The effort was there for the most part, but confidence and clarity seemed to be lacking at the crucial moments.

For example, the winger worked well to regain the ball in loose duels but struggled to get the better of Djed Spence on the right. His driving runs made an impact against Manchester United but Spence’s frame, and little support on the overlap, made the task harder for Sterling.

That became more noticeable in the first half as fans in the West Stand urged him to take his man on at every opportunity, but the burst just wasn’t there.

Sterling did have some bright moments, with backheels to Jurrien Timber inside the box and driving runs through the centre of the pitch. This being his first league start in three months could make the inconsistency in his performance understandable. Moving forward, however, more decisiveness (and potentially support) could be needed when Arsenal attack through him.

Art de Roché

Kinsky’s struggles a reminder of need for patience

It has been a rapid introduction to English football for Kinsky, but this was a reminder that maybe people should be more patient with Tottenham’s new goalkeeper.

Kinsky was put under pressure throughout and struggled to cope with it. No one could question his confidence with the ball at his feet but he had to scramble in the first half when Havertz charged down one of his kicks. It did not help that Archie Gray and Dragusin were struggling to build up from the back, so tended to pass the ball back to Kinsky every single time. Kinsky was under more pressure than he needed to be.

But then Kinsky’s problems were not just with the ball at his feet. When Arsenal equalised it was in part because Kinsky got pinned in at a corner and could not get a hand on the ball.

Four minutes later, the crucial moment in the game came when Trossard drove a hard shot to the bottom corner and Kinsky got a hand on it, but could not keep the ball out. It was not how he would have envisaged his first north London derby.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

What did Mikel Arteta say?

Arteta told BBC Sport: “We were outstanding today. From the first minute we were really at it, really intense. We played with a real purpose to hurt them. We created an unbelivable atmosphere.

“We know how important the game is. It’s a gift we can make the supporters very happy.

“The attitude we played with, not feeling sorry for ourselves, was phenomenal.”

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

Postecoglou said: “There’s no magic cure. You’ve got to get up tomorrow, work hard and go into Sunday and prepare to go into battle and turn around our fortunes and our season. There’s nothing magical that’s going to change it. There are always reasons for all these things to happen.

“The reality is that our results and our form in the league have been nowhere near good enough. That needs to change.”

What next for Arsenal?

Saturday, January 18: Aston Villa (H), Premier League, 5.30pm GMT, 12.30pm ET

What next for Tottenham?

Sunday, January 19: Everton (A), Premier League, 2pm GMT, 9am ET

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Alfie Dorrington has signed a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur and will spend the rest of the season on loan with Aberdeen.

Dorrington joined Tottenham’s academy when he was 13 after spending time in the youth-team set-up of non-League side Cockfosters. The 19-year-old centre-back made his Premier League debut for Spurs as a substitute in last month’s 5-0 victory over Southampton.

Tottenham are struggling with an injury crisis at the moment with senior centre-backs Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Ben Davies unavailable. Archie Gray, who prefers to play in midfield, and Radu Dragusin have started together at centre-back in the last nine games in all competitions. When Dragusin was substituted against Newcastle United and Tamworth, full-back Djed Spence partnered Gray.

It means opportunities have been slim for Dorrington and, with Van de Ven and Romero returning in the near future, head coach Ange Postecoglou said last week they were looking to send him out on loan.

“Alfie is training with us and he has been around the first-team squad and part of the first-team squad,” Postecoglou said. “He had a pretty significant injury which kept him out of football for quite a while. He probably needs to get some game time so we will look for a loan for him.”

He will hopefully receive more playing time with Aberdeen who are fourth in the Scottish Premiership. The England Under-19 international’s new deal runs until 2029. Dorrington signed his previous deal in June 2023 and it was due to expire in 18 months.

GO DEEPER

Tottenham Hotspur Transfer DealSheet: What to expect from the January window

(Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Tamworth’s forward Beck-Ray Enoru works for the fashion retailer Zara, goalkeeper Jas Singh is a building surveyor and midfielder Tommy Tonks runs a sandwich business.

Tottenham Hotspur progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 victory over their part-time opponents but it was an underwhelming performance which raises uncomfortable questions about the individual quality of certain players. Ange Postecoglou rotated his team but Timo Werner, Sergio Reguilon and James Maddison are experienced internationals who should have easily sliced open the non-League side.

It was an awkward and tight artificial pitch which sloped slightly. A few hundred Tamworth fans were packed tightly into the stand behind the dugouts. They were barely a couple of metres away from Postecoglou and the substitutes who would have had splitting headaches because of the noise they created.

There was not enough space on the bench so Tottenham’s coaches and medical staff were perched on plastic chairs on the side of the pitch. The dressing-room facilities were cramped and it was bitterly cold.

Yet none of that should have prevented Spurs from comfortably beating Tamworth in 90 minutes.

It took them two hours to break down Tamworth, which is the last thing this squad needed before Wednesday’s north London derby against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium when they are already running dangerously low on energy.

Pedro Porro, Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke and Johnson have registered the most minutes for Spurs in the league this season. Porro and Johnson played the entire game on Sunday afternoon while Kulusevski and Solanke came off the bench in the second half to prevent an embarrassing exit. Radu Dragusin has started 18 games in a row and was replaced at centre-back by Djed Spence before extra time.

Tottenham had 77 per cent possession and 65 touches in the box but found it difficult to penetrate Tamworth’s defence. There were too many occasions when Porro, Reguilon or Johnson aimlessly launched crosses into the box. Werner started in a central role and struggled to hold the ball up while he wasted a promising one-v-one situation in the second half. Maddison had a couple of good opportunities to score but Singh made excellent saves.

Enoru caused Porro a few problems with his speed and trickery. It seemed like Tamworth’s main tactic was to hit the ball long into the channel for the forward to chase and it earned them a corner in the first minute. Tottenham’s defence never looked too troubled from Tamworth’s set pieces, apart from one of Tonks’ throw-ins which struck the post. New signing Antonin Kinsky looked confident claiming the ball from corners and crosses.

It would have been a disaster for Spurs and Postecoglou if they had been eliminated.

They would have become a laughing stock, four days after an impressive victory over Liverpool in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie. And considering they did not even take the lead until the 101st minute, when Solanke’s shot bounced over the line via a deflection from Nathan Tshikuna, then there will still have been a lot of football fans enjoying Spurs’ predicament.

Centre-back Jordan Cullinane-Liburd spoke after the game about feeling deflated when Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski, South Korea and Sweden’s captains respectively, came on. Tottenham outlasted their opponents like a heavyweight boxer winning a fight on points instead of delivering a knockout blow.

“Firstly, credit to Tamworth, I thought they gave everything and gave a really good account of themselves,” Postecoglou said. “We knew it would be a challenging afternoon for us with the surface making it really difficult for us to play in the manner we wanted to. It is easy to get frustrated on days like this but the lads kept their heads clear and calm and persisted and eventually overpowered them.”

If there was one positive (in addition to not going out) from the afternoon, it was watching Mikey Moore make his first appearance since October after recovering from a nasty virus. Moore walked off the pitch after 68 minutes and there was a small chorus of boos from Tottenham’s supporters who were unhappy with the decision.

The winger’s first action of the afternoon was to hit a cameraman in the head with a wayward shot during the warm-up and things did not immediately improve. Reguilon moaned at the 17-year-old when he did not drop to receive a pass and then he was wiped out on the touchline by Ben Crompton. But Moore was electric during a 15-minute period in the second half when Spurs produced their best spell. He picked up the ball on the left wing, drove past Tamworth’s full-back and hit a fantastic cross with the outside of his boot into the box. Werner’s header was cleared off the line by George Morrison.

Maddison kept drifting over to the left and linking up intelligently with Moore. It speaks volumes of Moore’s ability that Maddison seems to trust him more than some of their other team-mates. A couple of minutes before he was substituted, Moore dazzled Tom McGlinchey with a series of body feints and stepovers which led the midfielder to fall over. He walked off with a bloody right knee after putting in a couple of fierce tackles too.

“Great to get him some game time,” Postecoglou said. “I think he’s itching to get back as well. He’s missed a fair bit of football. It just adds another attacking threat to us and I’m sure after today he’ll feel a lot better. As I said, I think he was a bit rusty at the start but he definitely grew into the game.”

It was not a good performance from Spurs, and it could have been a disastrous day, but they remain in three different cup competitions.

They need to be significantly better when they face Aston Villa in the next round but Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Richarlison will hopefully return from injury by then.

For now, Postecoglou has to hope his players will still have enough energy to take on Arsenal in less than 72 hours.

(Top photo: Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)