Tottenham Hotspur once more failed to pick up points against a bottom-three side as the side gave up a one-goal lead and dropped all three points to Leicester City, 2-1.
Knowing the frustration of the Premier League season so far for Spurs — entering the 15th match and having 12 losses on the campaign — Spurs welcomed a struggling Leicester City side on a seven-game losing streak.
Enter Dr. Tottenham.
With another injury hitting the side, James Maddison was not dressed due to soreness from the Europa League win on Thursday. Spurs had another bench that first-team players did not field.
With tired legs, poor play, and a fanbase who chanted ‘We Want Levy Out’ at every possible moment, Tottenham looked sluggish out of the gate as Leicester jumped on sloppy passes and tried to capitalize.
But with the Foxes being a relegation side — something you can see as they just failed to put chances away — Spurs were slowly getting into the match.
Son Heung-min had a free kick punched away at the back post as Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur leapt and waited for the ball to fall on their heads. However, with the breaks not coming on Spurs’ end, Leicester looked to break several times against a wide-open midfield.
The middle half of the first half had Spurs getting closer and closer to breaking the deadlock as Son’s patented cut across the pitch and bend around the defense was saved at the final second. Another Son moment was a “shot” tipped off Jakub Stolarczyk’s hands and onto the crossbar.
Waiting for that moment, Spurs got it in the 33rd minute from Richarlison as Pedro Porro took a first-time cross outside the box and into the middle of the box for Richarlison to split the Leicester defense and head it into the back post for the lead.
Leading 1-0 and thinking that this game could be the turn in the right direction in the Prem, things flipped for the worst in the opening minutes of the second half.
Coming out of the break and looking sluggish, Leicester broke free off a bad challenge attempt from Bentnacur and broke free down the touchline with Bobby De Cordova-Reid sending a low cross into the box for Jamie Vardy. Antonín Kinský got a slight touch as he dove for the ball, but the ball bobbled over him and into the path of Vardy to smash it in from two yards out. Being the shithouser he is, Vardy pointed to the Prem badge and held up the No. 1 to Spurs fans to show he has won the title and they haven’t.
Sensing another drop in play, Spurs lost the ball again three minutes later as Bilal El Khannouss had a wide-open final third to take on the Spurs’ defense. With no one picking up the relative midfielder, El Khannouss took his chance and slotted the ball into the bottom corner as Kinský ripped into his defense for the poor play.
Once leading 1-0 into the start of the second half and down 2-1 three minutes later, Spurs had moments to get the equalizer as Porro took his chances — mindful a lot of them in rage to try and get the side into the game — but the final ball was not there at all.
Richarlison was subbed off in the 53rd minute, with fans booing the choice; Sergio Reguilón and Mikey Moore came on and were the most impactful in the second half.
Leicester City were masters in time-wasting throughout the second half, and with that, the Foxes were able to frustrate Spurs and the entire fanbase as the urgency from the home side picked up in the final 15 minutes.
Unable to get that tying goal, Spurs are still 15th in the table but now have 13 defeats on the campaign.
This is an essential stretch for Ange Postecoglou to take the pressure off of him from a possible sacking. Winning the Europa League game on Thursday and coming back and looking dreadful against a relegation side, this time is crucial for him. Many are out on him at this point, but for him to have so many setbacks with injuries, the real-time to make a change shouldn’t be until after the January window closes.
Spurs’ upper heads are playing with fire right now, and it is up to them to decide if they want it to blow up in flames or cool off. They hope for better days with trophies still up for grabs.