Tottenham are yet to win a Premier League match in 2026 and find themselves inching closer to the relegation quagmire every week.
The club are the fifth favourites for relegation with the bookmakers. Should Spurs go down, it’d be one of the biggest shocks in Premier League history, but it could actually happen.
We’ve ranked the eight biggest reasons why a Tottenham relegation isn’t as crazy as you might think.
Were we to be churlish, this entire article could have been reduced to ‘did you see their performance against Arsenal?’.
A change in the dugout did at least offer a reprieve in terms of vibes, with most glad to see the back of Thomas Frank’s dour pragmatism, but the North London derby – with Spurs every bit as bad as they were in the reverse fixture – suggests Spurs’ problems run much deeper.
Igor Tudor had 10 days to prepare for this match. Enough time for us to digest all the long reads about his time at Juventus and Marseille, how he’ll stick a rocket up the players, and the statistics about how he always makes an immediate impact… And then he served up that.
It’s too early to judge the interim. They were playing against the league leaders, on their day the best side in the country, in a derby. That can happen.
But we are left questioning whether Spurs might have been better appointing a manager – not to go too Tim Sherwood – who knows the Premier League (aka “our league”).
Will Tudor’s well-established firefighter credentials from the continent translate over here? Spurs going from averaging 2.1 points per game against the so-called European elite in the Champions League to 1.07 points in the Premier League suggests that might be easier said than done.
The Croatian could well be exactly what they need. But we could also see this all going a bit Felix Magath Mk.II.
Leeds United and West Ham might be in the FA Cup, but they’re very much focused on the matter at hand. Nottingham Forest will harbour ambitions of winning the Europa League, but that shouldn’t prove as taxing as Tottenham’s upcoming Champions League excursions.
In the next round, Spurs will likely play Galatasaray (5-2 up against Juventus) or Club Brugge or Atletico Madrid, which still hangs in the balance. A trip to Istanbul, or facing Simeone’s Atleti, doesn’t sound ideal.
We can’t quite believe we’re saying this, given how dismal they’ve been in the league, but we could even see Spurs putting together a decent run and going even further. They’ve proven their ‘big European night’ credentials with last season’s Europa League victory and subsequent league phase form.
Avoid Premier League opposition – bar maybe Man City, who they still enjoy a hoodoo over – and they could go far. Paradoxically, that might be the last thing they need.
Were we feeling a bit more charitable, we could place this at No.1.
You could put together a very good XI of players who are currently unavailable. Had the likes of Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison been fit all season, they’d surely be at worst in midtable.
But you have to play the hand you’re dealt and there’s no use pining for what might’ve been.
Tottenham’s squad-building and recruitment has been questionable, to say the least, in recent years.
But even with so many key players sidelined, this team shouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as it has been. There are some quality players there.
You look at this squad, and you wonder who is going to step up and drag them out of this mess. Micky van de Ven’s head looks elsewhere already. Archie Gray is a kid. Xavi Simons possesses quality, but is he what you want in a relegation scrap?
Club captain Cristian Romero is a leader, but is he the right kind of leader? He’s suspended for two more games yet. He might be correct, and it sure must be cathartic, but is aiming both barrels at the club hierarchy actually achieving anything?
Last season, and the season before, the newly-promoted clubs were so feeble that any of the big dogs could afford to take their eye off the ball, safe in the knowledge that there’d always be three worse teams.
Indeed, Tottenham did exactly that last season, putting all their eggs in the Europa League basket and ending up 17th. It worked out in the end, but their tally of 38 points would’ve seen them go down in other years. It might not be enough this season.
Sunderland are practically home and hosed already. Leeds United are making a really decent fist of it, rarely losing since Daniel Farke switched to a back five in November.
Yes, Wolves have been historically bad and Burnley are gone, but there’s one other spot up for grabs.
West Ham are the current relegation favourites and have five points to make up, but they’re showing more signs of life than Spurs.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s Hammers have picked up seven more points than Tottenham so far this calendar year. They could easily have had at least five more points with a bit more rub of the green in recent outings against Bournemouth, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Only Wolves have picked up fewer points and lost more games on home soil than Tottenham this season.
Unbelievably, Spurs have managed just one league win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since the opening weekend.
They might boast one of the best stadiums in world football, but it’s anything but a fortress. Contrast that to Elland Road.
Yes, Tottenham are the only side without a win in the Premier League in 2026. But we can be guilty of being overly reactive to poor runs of form.
Step back, take a breath, and take a look at the bigger picture. Good idea.
Tottenham’s form over the past 18 months tells you this is no short-term problem. They mustered just 38 points last season.
They’ve picked up just 34 points from the last 38 games. Of the 17 ever-present clubs going back to March 2025, only Wolves have a worse record.
Spurs have picked up just three more points than Leeds over that period, despite playing 11 more matches.
READ: The crazy Premier League table over the past 38 games shows that Spurs could really go down
Were you not paying attention this season, it would be a fair assumption to make that this is just a freak season; that Tottenham have just been profoundly unfortunate and don’t deserve to be where they are.
Think Jurgen Klopp’s last season at Borussia Dortmund, whereby the data suggested they were just really unlucky to be scrapping relegation at the midway point.
This kind of thing just does not happen. The club with the sixth most expensively assembled squad and sixth highest wage bill should be insulated from relegation worries.
Surely they’re not as bad as the results suggest? Au contraire – they might actually be worse.
Tottenham’s cumulative xG in the Premier League this season is 32.9. Only Wolves, Burnley and Sunderland have notched a lower number. No side in the division is outperforming their expected goals more.
Sixteenth with 29 points is exactly where Spurs deserve to be. There’s little about their performances, and the numbers behind them, that suggest this ship is going to turn around any time soon.
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