‘We need you tonight more than ever’ was the desperate pre-match plea from Tottenham Hotspur‘s stadium announcer to supporters, but they cannot be blamed for leaving in droves halfway through another utterly shambolic performance from a group of players who look increasingly likely to get relegated.
Failing head coach Igor Tudor has also pleaded with supporters to drive his team on to overcome their unrelenting plight, though fans have to be given something to get behind, and there was little evidence of their detached players acknowledging how serious their predicament is against Crystal Palace.
Fellow strugglers Palace were on top of an opening half an hour that sorely lacked quality, but Spurs were given an incredibly fortunate reprieve as Ismaila Sarr was denied a goal after VAR adjudged him to be offside with his nose.
The automated offside system is accurate to a fault, but the PGMOL’s insistence on trying to make Premier League games flawless through VAR is to the detriment of the product; Sarr’s nose gained him no advantage and giving more leeway to forwards with offsides should be a must for next season.
This lucky escape sparked an ever-so-brief Spurs upturn. They went up the other end of the pitch to score what should have been the game’s second perfectly good goal; Archie Gray orchestrated it with a great turn and assist to Dominic Solanke, and the striker diverted the ball into the net past Dean Henderson from close range.
BBC Sport’s Steve Sutcliffe on their live blog said this was Tottenham’s ‘best two minutes of the season’, but it came as no surprise that they instantly capitulated.
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Spurs have had few players of whom they could hang their hat this season, but one let them down massively only four minutes after Solanke’s opener when Micky van de Ven pulled down Sarr as the last man to concede a penalty and get sent off.
It was careless of Van de Ven to let Sarr steal a march on him, and his dismissal means Spurs will be without one of their best defenders (after Cristian Romero’s four-match ban) due to suspension for seven straight games.
This self-destruction has been a major hallmark of Tottenham’s season, and they wilted further after Sarr nonchalantly converted his penalty past Guglielmo Vicario.
Adam Wharton was always likely to have a hand in breaking Spurs down and completing Palace’s comeback, but he would not have expected his mission to be so simple.
After Mathys Tel, as a makeshift left wing-back, gave away possession with a hospital ball in his own half, Wharton set up Jorgen Strand Larsen for Palace’s second, and he had acres of space to deliver a precise lofted ball to Sarr to score his second and his side’s third shortly before the break.
Tottenham’s ‘best’ two minutes of the season preceded their worst seven minutes, with this damaging sequence of events making relegation seem ever more inevitable.
Sitting only one point clear of 18th-placed West Ham after their priceless win over Fulham, Spurs are the worst-performing team in the Premier League.
Tudor laid down the gauntlet for his players to bite back after saying they are “lacking” in attack, midfield, defence and brain, but these same issues remained at the fore against Palace and the appointment of the supposed firefighter is proving the latest poor mistake from their inept board.
Co-commentator Joe Hart suspected there was a half-time “headloss” from Tudor as Tottenham’s players were back on the pitch a good few minutes before their opponents, but this hairdryer treatment and lambasting of his squad to the press has been equally ineffective.
Spurs are only going in one way under Tudor, who is already ‘at risk of being fired’, and could do worse than to turn to another manager as a Hail Mary. Some even want Tim Sherwood back.
Barring the odd exception, Tottenham’s squad “biggest” problem is that they do not have the “stomach” for the relegation fight, while West Ham and Nottingham Forest have shown far more survival instinct.
Without most of their best players due to injury and/or suspension, they will also not drag themselves to safety on quality alone, so it is looking really, really bleak and it’s hard to see them recovering.