MAYBE Tottenham genuinely ARE in a relegation battle.
Before, it seemed like a sort of sick joke.
One that fans would have a relieved laugh about once they had come through this awful period and got their multitude of crocked stars back.
But that was before they lost at home to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester side, who had suffered seven straight defeats themselves and scored just two goals in the process.
Jamie Vardy was the man that sparked the shock win, levelling a minute into the second half from Richarlison’s opener, before Bilal El Khannouss’s winner four minutes later.
Now alarm bells really are ringing all throughout N17 because if you cannot beat this lot – scratch that, if you LOSE to this lot – then you can lose to anyone.
The gap is only seven points to the dreaded dotted line and with dreadful, knackered, injury-decimated Spurs without question showing relegation form, would you really rule it out?
It is now one win in 11 league games – and that victory came at doomed Southampton – for Ange Postecoglou, for whom the heat cranked up considerably in the miserable January weather on Sunday afternoon.
The vast number of players sidelined – it was ten here, with ex-Leicester man James Maddison the latest to be ruled out – have severely hampered him.
As has the lack of support this month in the transfer market by Daniel Levy, who was Public Enemy No1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium here.
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But even so, this was a team that finished fifth last season, that are competing in Europe, and are… well, bloody Tottenham Hotspur, one of the bastions of English football.
The fact that they are even being mentioned as a relegation candidate is as astounding as it is embarrassing.
And it is not like you can just turn form on and off like a tap in the Premier League, even when you have your key men fit. It is too demanding a league these days.
Levy may not have backed Postecoglou in the market so far this January, but until now he has supported the Aussie despite the club’s plummet down the table.
There has been a deep desire for it to work for the ex-Celtic manager and an understanding over the spate of injuries.
That faith is about to be given its strongest test yet though after this calamity.
As for Van Nistelrooy and Leicester, this was an unexpected massive boost given how the club were in freefall before now.
One win in 14 league games before this was even worse than Tottenham’s dire record and it only looked to be heading one way.
Ex-Manchester United super striker Van Nistelrooy played with a young Son Heung-min during his year at Hamburg in 2010-11.
He tweeted back then that his then 18-year-old South Korean team-mate was “a massive talent” and that the footballing world should “watch out for” his talent.
It was a solid tip as Son has gone on to be one of the finest players in Tottenham’s recent history and a Premier League centurion goal-scorer.
But fourteen years on and the winger’s poor campaign has been a big factor in Spurs’ problems, with the captain looking no longer the talisman he once was.
This was actually one of Son’s better games, though, at least in the first half, when he came close with two strikes which were brilliantly tipped wide and onto the crossbar respectively by Jakub Stolarczyk.
A rare moment of quality brought about the opener as Pedro Porro swung in a sublime cross which Richarlison guided into the net with a controlled header.
Given Leicester’s hopelessness in front of goal, many would have presumed Spurs – even this Spurs – would go on from there and see out the three points.
But those presumptions proved foolhardy as Leicester turned the game on its head inside the first four minutes of the second half.
First, a good ball across from Bobby De Cordova-Reid evaded both Kinsky and Davies, allowing Vardy to take a touch and smash in a leveller.
The former England striker revived his s***house tactics from the opening day of the season – where he also equalised against Spurs – by pointing to his Premier League badge, to indicate how he had won one title and Tottenham had not.
If that was a setback, what followed was a disaster.
El Khannouss was afforded the freedom of what felt like the Tottenham High Road, or the middle of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium pitch at least, as he raced towards Spurs’ box and curled into the far corner.
The chorus of anti-Levy chants, which had come and gone in the first half, significantly ramped up at that point.
There were incredulous boos when Richarlison was brought off on 54 minutes.
Postecoglou was presumably trying to manage the Brazilian’s minutes given his injury woes this season.
But given the state his side was in, few could fathom he had taken off his goal-scorer.
Neither could they believe when Porro, shortly after striking the bar with a deflected free-kick, opted to shoot towards the near post from the acutest of angles, instead of simply squaring for a wide-open Archie Gray.
Most damning of Spurs and Postecoglou from there was that that was pretty much it for their attacking threat.
Porous Leicester were comfortable and Tottenham were toothless.
The boos at full-time were deafening – save for the cheers of the Leicester fans – as were the ‘We want Levy out’ chants.
A banner was unveiled in the South Stand that read “24 years, 16 managers, 1 trophy, TIME FOR CHANGE”, aimed at Levy.
Frequently in the past, these kinds of scenes have resulted in change – but in the dugout, not the boardroom.
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