The Guardian

It was left to the kids to soothe the angst in N17. After the introspection brought on by a dismal run of form, it was at least heartwarming for Tottenham to seal their place in the last 16 of the Europa League thanks to three academy products puncturing the tension during a blistering end to an otherwise forgettable game.

This was not a night to rage at Daniel Levy, the beleaguered Spurs chairman. This was a night that belonged to Dane Scarlett, who did not look like a saviour when he came on with the score locked at 0-0 on 66 minutes. Inspiration was running low at that stage. Radu Dragusin had just added to the injury problems after jarring his knee and the underdogs of Elfsborg were beginning to think that there might be a goal in it for them.

But Scarlett wanted it when he replaced Dragusin. Recalled this month from a disappointing loan spell at Oxford United, the 20-year-old striker immediately threw himself into the thick of the action. This was Scarlett’s chance. It has been almost five years since he made his debut for Spurs and he was desperate to impress. The desire was clear when Dejan Kulusevski crossed in the 70th minute and Scarlett, who cannot go back out on loan now that he has played for two clubs in one season, held off a challenge before making it 1-0 with a fine header.

Ange Postecoglou’s faith in youth had been rewarded, and there was more to come. There was more joy when the 19-year-old winger Oyindamola Ajayi came on to score on his debut. Then came added time and a big moment for the gifted 17-year-old winger Mikey Moore, whose first goal for the club broke Jimmy Greaves’s 67-year-old record as the youngest English scorer in a major European competition.

“Made in Tottenham,” Postecoglou said. “They’ll go to sleep pretty excited. I keep saying that it’s been a pretty tough period in terms of our league form but there has still been real growth. It will all come to fruition. I’m so certain and bullish about that.”

Spurs are 15th in the Premier League but victory here was enough to earn them fourth spot in the Europa League group phase. Postecoglou, who was tightlipped on Spurs’ pursuit of the Bayern Munich forward Mathys Tel, has some respite. He needed his weary team to avoid the drain of falling into the playoff round. He hopes that more players will return from injury in time for the knockout phase, where Tottenham will face one of AZ Alkmaar, Midtjylland, Real Sociedad or Galatasaray. “It’s been a pretty good European campaign,” Postecoglou said. “We’ve had to deal with some adversity.”

Will it be the making of Spurs? There has been no let-up in recent months. They must have marvelled at this being Elfsborg’s fourth competitive fixture since the end of the Swedish season on 10 November. Imagine the luxury of such a long break. Spurs have had to play through the pain barrier and while they were boosted by the return of Micky van de Ven, who came straight back into central defence after more than a month out, there was a danger that confidence would be on the floor after Sunday’s defeat by Leicester.

The mood felt liable to turn at a moment’s notice. There was backing for the team and Van de Ven was greeted as a returning hero, but the first chants of “Levy Out” soon echoed around the ground. The first half was tough. Elfsborg sat back and stifled Spurs. The only rays of hope came from Son, who created chances for Pape Matar Sarr and Moore. Isak Pettersson denied them with superb saves.

The intensity dipped and Postecoglou made a triple change during the interval. Van de Ven was replaced by Dragusin after easing himself back into action, Rodrigo Bentancur came off for Yves Bissouma in midfield and Son made way for Kulusevski, but Spurs were flat. Elfsborg should have led on 52 minutes, only for Jalal Abdullai to volley over from close range.

The game drifted until the familiar sight of a physio running on to treat a Spurs player. Dragusin eventually went off and Postecoglou made the adjustment that turned the game.

With no senior defenders left on the bench, Spurs threw caution to the wind. Scarlett joined Richarlison in attack, Sarr went to left-back, Ben Davies moved next to Archie Gray in central defence and the mood changed. Elfsborg were forced back and they were slow to react when Kulusevski cut in from the right. The Swede’s deep, inswinging cross was a beauty and Scarlett stooped to head in from close range.

Scarlett looked sharp. He was involved again after 84 minutes, finding Ajayi, who dribbled inside and fired in from 18 yards. Nobody was thinking about Levy now. There were more celebrations when Moore ran through to score with another clinical shot.

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GOAL! Midtjylland 1-0 Fenerbahce (Diao 27). A cross swung in from the left. Ousmane Diao rises highest and heads home. Jose Mourinho’s men won’t qualify as things stand.

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GOAL! Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Plzen (Williams 25). A mere 90 seconds after Dani Vivian has a goal disallowed, Iñaki Williams steams down the right and crosses for his younger brother, who can’t miss.

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GOAL! Ajax 1-0 Galatasaray (Traore 23). Brian Brobbey, attempting to hold the ball up while being wrestled to the ground, manages to send Chuba Akpom away down the left with a hook from the floor. Akpom shoots. Fernando Muslera parries but Bertrand Traore, haring in from the right, slams home. Survival for the Dutch giants is on!

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GOAL! Rangers 1-0 Union Saint-Gilloise (Raskin 21)

James Tavernier, running back up the left wing after a slightly miscued corner, swivels and whips a glorious cross to the far stick. Nicolas Raskin arrives on the right-hand corner of the D and steers a fine header back across goal and into the left-hand side of the net. Ibrox launches into space! Rangers love this competition.

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Updated at 21.30 CET

GOAL! Anderlecht 1-0 Hoffenheim (Vazquez 18). A stunning goal by Luis Vazquez, who glides in from the right touchline before curling an unstoppable shot across the keeper and into the top left. Hoffenheim’s campaign hanging by a thread.

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Updated at 21.26 CET

Ajax 0-0 Galatasaray. Ajax need a win to guarantee more European action this season. They’re fortunate they’re not behind already, with Barış Alper Yılmaz crossing dangerously from the right, Victor Osimhen flashing a header wide right.

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Rangers 0-0 Union Saint-Gilloise. Leon King picks up a concussion and is forced to make way for Ross McCausland.

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Slavia Prague 0-0 Malmo. The ball pings onto Slavia defender David Zima’s hand, and the referee points to the penalty spot (after a little help from VAR). Erik Botheim scuffs the penalty towards the bottom left, and it’s a laughably easy claim for Prague’s Aleš Mandous.

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Roma 0-0 Eintracht Frankfurt. Roma need to win to make sure of survival. They’ve just spurned a huge chance, Evan N’Dicka crossing from the left for Artem Dovbyk, who hoicks over from six yards.

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GOAL! Ferencvaros 1-0 AZ (Ben Romdhane 9). Robbie Keane’s team take an early lead in style. Adama Traoré cuts in from the right and crosses long for Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, who slams a header home from close range. What an inviting cross that was.

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Updated at 21.20 CET

GOAL! Braga 1-0 Lazio (Horta 6). Victor Gómez advances down the right and cuts back for his captain Ricardo Horta, who whips into the bottom left. A lovely goal, and so Braga are on for the win they need to survive. Lazio, the table toppers, have little or nothing to play for.

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Updated at 21.15 CET

Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Elfsborg. A sprightly start for Spurs as Mikey Moore spins in from the right touchline and attacks the visiting defence. The ball’s switched to Son Heung-Min on the other flank. A scuffed shot. But a promising early attack.

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It’s chaos o’clock. Lights, whistles, action.

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All across the continent, teams take to the field. There are muscles to be stretched, corporate anthems politely listened to, hands shaken, coins tossed, pennants swapped, whistles sounded, hopes realised and dreams shattered. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes. “With apologies to Elfsborg, I think Spurs could start to turn things around if they beat their opponents tonight. But given their form, that is a big IF.” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the smörgåsbord.

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Jeopardy Corner. There’s not a lot of it about. Lazio are the only team to have already guaranteed their place in the last 16. Manchester United and Tottenham can both join them in giving the play-offs the bodyswerve: wins tonight will make sure of their last-16 spot; draws may be enough. Like United and Spurs, Rangers are at least certain of making the play-off round; a win may be enough for a top-right spot, but they’d need quite a few results elsewhere to go their way. But there are some continental behemoths in serious peril: Ajax, Real Sociedad and Roma are not too far above the 24th-placed cut-off line, while Porto are just under it.

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Updated at 21.03 CET

Here’s how the mega-table looks going into the final matchday of the league phase. There are 36 clubs playing 18 fixtures to determine which eight qualify automatically for the Round of 16 and which 16 go into the play-off round. Enjoy, enjoy.

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FCSB v MUFC team news

FCSB (or Steaua Bucharest in the old money): Tarnovanu, Mihai Popescu, Ngezana, Dawa, Cretu, Edjouma, Sut, Radunovic, Tanase, Birligea, Miculescu.

Subs: Udrea, Stefanescu, Daniel Popa, Chiriches, Toma, Baluta, Pantea, Musi, Alhassan.

Manchester United: Bayindir, Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot, Collyer, Mainoo, Malacia, Eriksen, Fernandes, Hojlund.

Subs: Heaton, Onana, Lindelof, Maguire, Zirkzee, Yoro, Diallo, Garnacho, Casemiro, Ugarte.

There’s a proper pukka MBM for this one: let Michael Butler be your guide. We recommend a two-window / two-tab system so you don’t have to choose! Toggle away between us like billy-o.

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Tottenham v Elfsborg team news

Tottenham Hotspur: Austin, Porro, Van de Ven, Davies, Gray, Bergvall, Bentancur, Sarr, Moore, Richarlison, Son.

Subs: Forster, Whiteman, Cassanova, Dragusin, Hardy, Bissouma, Olusesi, Kyerematen, Ajayi, Kulusevski, Scarlett, Lankshear.

Elfsborg: Petterson, Holmen, Henriksson, Yegbe, Hedlund, B Zeneli, Thomasen, Hult, Rapp, Abdullai, Qasem.

Subs: Uppenberg, Sorensen, Aronsson, A Zeneli, Gudmundsson, Holten, Larsson, Frick, Kaib, Richtner, Ostman, Ibrahim.

Tottenham have made three changes to their starting XI in the wake of the 2-1 home loss to Leicester. Brandon Austin replaces Antonín Kinský – who along with Djed Spence, Sergio Reguilon and Yang Min-Hyeok, is ineligible – while 17-year-old Mikey Moore gets a runout up front and Micky van de Ven returns from injury. Radu Drăgușin and Dejan Kulusevski drop to the bench.

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Rangers v Union Saint Gilloise team news

Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, King, Propper, Jefte, Cerny, Raskin, Diomande, Bajrami, Dessers, Igamane.

Subs: Kelly, Hutton, Nsio, Curtis, Lovelace, Rice, McCausland, Lawrence, Souttar, Munn.

Union Saint Gilloise: Moris, Khalaili, Mac Allister, Sykes, Leysen, Sadiki, Van De Perre, Vanhoutte, Fuseini, Ivanovic, Niang.

Subs: Berradi, Asri, Rodriguez, Ait El Hadj, Rasmussen, Chambaere, Imbrechts.

Rangers make two changes to their starting XI after the 3-1 Scottish Premiership victory at Dundee United. Václav Černý and Leon King step up; Ianis Hagi and Clinton Nsiala miss out altogether.

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Preamble

We ride again. Just in case last night’s Champions League chaos wasn’t enough to whet your appetite for widespread disorder, here’s what’s happening in the Europa League this evening …

Ajax v Galatasaray

Anderlecht v Hoffenheim

Athletic Bilbao v Plzen

Braga v Lazio

Dynamo Kyiv v Rigas FS

FCSB v Man Utd

Ferencvaros v AZ

Lyon v Ludogorets

Maccabi Tel-Aviv v FC Porto

Midtjylland v Fenerbahce

Nice v Bodo/Glimt

Olympiacos v Qarabag FK

Rangers v Union Saint Gilloise

Real Sociedad v PAOK

Roma v Eintracht Frankfurt

Slavia Prague v Malmo FF

Tottenham Hotspur v IF Elfsborg

Twente v Besiktas

It all gets going at 8pm GMT. Loss of thread, narrative, news, concentration, perspective, balance, will to live, etc., begins at 8.01pm, but hey, we’ll do our best to power on through. It’s on!

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Updated at 21.11 CET

Breath is bated and hooks are tentered, the country as one and preparing for the biggest day of the year: Marcus Mumford’s birthday.

But tomorrow is also another day closer to the transfer deadline, with Arsenal making yesterday’s biggest move, seeking attention by offering for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins. However, with Jhon Durán opting for a career break at Al-Nassr, the chances of such a deal happening seem slim – though which centre-forward wouldn’t be seduced by the prospect of the incomparable thrill of waiting ages and ages before taking a corner or free-kick? A second bid is said to be incoming.

Across north London, Tottenham are also looking at attackers, hilariously entering the race for Southampton’s Tyler Dibling. Most likely, the player joins Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, both also interested, but the enticing opportunity of full spursification, bringing with it a life of perpetual failure and untold misery, may yet win the day.

In other striker news, Marcus Rashford’s search for a new club continues, the bouncing babe who charmed the nation and saved the children the latest potential superstar ground into a husk of a human by The Biggest Football Club In The World™. Unfortunately for him, the market for streaky strikers who earn wild money and won’t press, track back or train properly is not at its peak, but Barcelona fancy a loan deal – if they can complete it by Monday’s deadline.

This may require Ansu Fati to leave Camp Nou, thereby freeing up the required spot in the squad. And the good news for Rashford and Manchester United is that Ajax are interested, their talent ID lads having deduced that their squad lacks a “played 11 games in the last season-and-a-half” profile.

If the above happens, United might try to ruin Mathys Tel, available from Bayern Munich and reportedly keen on the switch. Given he’s young and they don’t need him, of course Chelsea are also interested – they are, as we speak, drawing up a 5,923-year contract – likewise Arsenal, and if all else fails, he’ll at least be able to reject Spurs.

Another striker with an uncertain future is Victor Osimhen. Galatasaray have offered £54.5m to make his loan permanent, a bid turned down by Napoli; the player is thought to be holding out for Spurs.

Napoli are, though, still interested in Alejandro Garnacho as United pursue their policy of unsettling their few half-decent players in winter, so they can spend the summer talking about culture-changes and clearouts while overpaying for anyone who has ever played for Ruben Amorim. To facilitate this, Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe will reduce the wattage on the Old Trafford lightbulbs and charge all who enter the ground for any air they may breathe.

Dejan Kulusevski has leapt to the defence of Ange Postecoglou and said he will fight to make the manager’s “perfect” football bring success to Tottenham.

Postecoglou is under growing pressure after losing 2-1 at home to Leicester last Sunday, especially as the defeat was played out in a toxic atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but the Australian retains the support of the dressing room before the team host Elfsborg in their final game of the Europa League group phase on Thursday night.

Kulusevski stressed that the malaise runs deeper than the manager and the players, saying that it is “not OK” for Spurs to have taken on four competitions with a squad decimated by injuries, and he went to great lengths to explain his faith.

“We had games when we showed perfect football; football that not many teams can play in the world,” he 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.”

Spurs, who will seal qualification to the last 16 of the Europa League if they beat Elfsborg, are banking on key players returning from injury as they look to arrest a slump that has left them 15th in the Premier League. They could be without 12 players, and fans frustrated with the absence of any senior outfield signings this month have ramped up calls for Daniel Levy to quit as chairman.

Kulusevski is aware of the unrest, saying the team could feel the energy in the stands during the Leicester game, but insisted he would not be shaken from his belief in Postecoglou’s methods.

“I listen to no one because I know the truth,” the Swede said. “It’s not important what people say. It has never been. The league is very bad but you have to stay clear-minded and focus on the goals. We have done mistakes, don’t get me wrong. We have done a lot of mistakes. We are 10, 11 fit players in four competitions and that’s not OK and that’s why the team is paying that price in the league especially. You can look at the manager and the players but it’s bigger than that, it’s everything involved.”

Asked to expand, Kulusevski said: “We play three games a week with nine or 10 players. That’s all I need to say; it’s nothing more than that. I think everybody has got to watch the picture and ask themselves how we came this far. That’s it. We are 11 players playing three games a week for a long period. I don’t see any other team doing that. That’s the only thing we should look at.”

The return of Micky van de Ven has been offset by James Maddison being ruled out for up to three weeks with a calf injury. The midfielder is set to miss next Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Liverpool and the trip to Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario trained on Wednesday but Cristian Romero is still out. Queens Park Rangers have signed the 18-year-old South Korean midfielder Yang Min-hyeok on loan from Spurs.

If part of Tottenham’s problem is that they are tired, then help is on the way. Though the signing of Tyler Dibling looks familiar. The young Saint has been outstanding for Southampton, even amid doom. But now, like Lucas Bergvall, like Archie Gray, he is seen as the solution when he probably ought to be the future. Angel Gomes, of Lille, an England international, will add quality to the midfield and has all the skills to look proper Spurs.

A more ambitious target is Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams, one of the stars of Euro 2024, also wanted by Arsenal, and available as a buyout – that’s how Athletic do their business – at €58m, which seems cheap. Though does Daniel Levy see it like that?

Feels like it was yesterday when Rosenborg’s Norway Under-21 international midfielder Sverre Nypan, one of those hot Scandi properties who come around now and then, was headed for Manchester City via Girona. Not now, he’s off to Arsenal. Talks have begun over the player compared – well, here – to Martin Odegaard.

What of City? It seems James McAtee will follow Cole Palmer and Liam Delap out as a pure profit sale, and will now get to work with Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen. There he may find himself alongside Emi Buendía, unwanted by Aston Villa. Though perhaps that is an either/or situation. Jérémy Doku may never get the chance to be reduced to a boring player by Pep Guardiola as Barcelona fancy a loan. Though perhaps that one’s a flyer, as McAtee can only join Leverkusen as a permanent signing as loan rules prevent him from going abroad this month. Juma Bah, signed and loaned to Lens makes it six – the limit – with Kyle Walker, Yan Couto, Maximo Perrone, Issa Kaboré and Kayky abroad. The key question, of course, is whether McAtee wants to stay, and/or Pep Guardiola is happy with that.

Villa need reinforcements in defence and attack and, to certain Chelsea fans’ relief, the two players they are linked with are Axel Disasi, a man who goes close to living up to his name, and the enigma that is João Félix. Juan Foyth, once of Spurs, is another defensive candidate, and this may all be paid for by the sale of Jhon Durán, a favourite of this page, whose move to Saudi Arabia cannot be ruled out.

Daniel Levy wants Ange Postecoglou to plot a course through the storm at Tottenham and the chairman continues to hope the return of key players from injury can help to save a dismal Premier League season.

Levy has few viable external options that could come in to replace Postecoglou right away, should he wish to make the managerial change. Internally, there would be Matt Wells, the senior assistant coach, and Ryan Mason, the assistant, who has twice previously stepped up to work as interim head coach.

Spurs lost 2-1 at home against Leicester on Sunday to intensify the scrutiny on Postecoglou. It was their second successive defeat by relegation-threatened opponents after the 3-2 reverse at Everton.

Postecoglou’s team have taken five points from 11 league matches to lag 15th in the table. They are eight ahead of third-from-bottom Wolves, leading some fans to worry that Spurs might be in for a relegation battle.

It remains business as usual at the club under Postecoglou. They face Elfsborg at home on Thursday night in their final Europa League group game when they will seek to confirm direct qualification to the last 16. It has been announced that Postecoglou will meet the media as usual on Wednesday to preview the game.

The Australian has to be thankful that the axe has not yet fallen on him given Spurs are at one of the lowest ebbs of Levy’s 24-year chairmanship. That said, the club’s injury crisis, especially in defence, does provide mitigation, and the team harbour hope of glory in the cups. As well as the Europa League, Spurs are alive in the Carabao Cup, where they face Liverpool in the semi-final second leg at Anfield next Thursday, 1-0 up from the first, and there is the FA Cup, where they go to Aston Villa in the fourth round on Sunday week. That pivotal period begins this Sunday with the league trip to Brentford.

What Postecoglou also wants is support in the January transfer window. He has spoken on several occasions about the need to strengthen as he carries a list of absentees that has run into the double digits. The club did sign the goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky at the beginning of the month to cover the injured No 1 Guglielmo Vicario. However, it has been baffling that they have not moved for outfield reinforcements – particularly a centre-half, where they looked to be one short even at the start of the season, before Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were undermined by fitness issues.

Postecoglou’s first-choice selections in central defence came off with muscular problems in the 4-3 home defeat by Chelsea on 8 December and it has long been known they would not be able to contribute in January. Yet Postecoglou has been forced to mix and match in their absence. There will be great pressure on Romero and Van de Ven to hit the ground running when they return in February.

The January market is notoriously tough, but it is possible to add players, particularly if you are prepared to overpay, accepting that needs must. Postecoglou has made it clear that he wants a new player for the front line and the focus at the club between now and the window closing next Monday is on making at least one signing.

The good news for Ange Postecoglou is that it seems relatively straightforward to recover from being Tottenham manager: his two immediate predecessors, Antonio Conte and Nuno Espírito Santo, are top of Serie A with Napoli and third in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest respectively. As the banner unveiled by Spurs fans during Sunday’s defeat to Leicester read: “24 years, 16 managers, one trophy”. Nobody really looks at Tottenham any more and thinks the problem is the manager.

But it is usually the manager who pays the price. Their last 10 league games have yielded four points. They’ve just lost to Everton, who hadn’t won in six, and to Leicester, who’d lost their previous seven. They’ve reached a stage at which it feels possible that they could lose any given fixture. The only saving grace is that they’re 1-0 up against Liverpool after the home leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final and that they’re sixth in the Europa League table, assured of automatic passage to the last 16 if they beat the Swedish side Elfsborg on Thursday.

Yet the cups are almost part of the problem, placing further strain on a squad already hammered by injury and fatigue. What may be their salvation, what may bring Postecoglou the trophy he famously always wins in his second season at a club, is also what is undermining their league form. Tottenham were without 10 frontline players on Sunday and Postecoglou admitted Pape Matar Sarr, who managed 54 minutes after missing Thursday’s win in Hoffenheim with a knock, probably shouldn’t have started.

So much is going wrong at Tottenham, it’s difficult to know where to start but, even taking all the issues with personnel into account, even acknowledging that the hand Postecoglou is trying to play is not a strong one, Sunday’s was a poor performance, and one in a string of disappointing displays. Postecoglou’s time at Tottenham can be divided into two chunks: there were the first 10 games when he was the gruff Aussie, the normal bloke cutting through the Premier League’s nonsense to take 26 points; and there are the 51 games since, beginning with the notorious nine-man high-line defeat to Chelsea, which have yielded just 64 points: 10 games at 2.60 points per game followed by 51 games at 1.25 points per game.

The midfield against Leicester was shambolic. The two more advanced players in the central triangle, usually Sarr and Lucas Bergvall, would go off pressing but because the back four is sitting a little deeper these days – as Spurs try to be less exposed – the deepest-lying midfielder, usually Rodrigo Bentancur, was left with space in front of him. Leicester, with Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid taking turns out of possession to drift from the flanks, seemed deliberately to be trying to provoke that space.

The two Leicester goals stemmed from issues with Tottenham’s cover. For the first, Pedro Porro had advanced and nobody had dropped in to fill the space so that when Bentancur was dispossessed De Cordova-Reid was in vast swathes of empty grass and able to measure his cross for Jamie Vardy. For the second, Porro’s pass to Bentancur was underhit and possession lost and nobody had filled the gap left by Uruguayan, giving Bilal El Khannous space in the centre of the pitch through which to advance, before measuring a shot inside the post. Not for the first time this season there was an unforgivable openness about Tottenham that is less to do with the individual players than with the basic structure. Perhaps fatigue, the youth of the side and frequent changes of personnel play their part but those issues ultimately come back to the manager.

Yet given the way the slenderness of the squad has been exposed, it’s also fair to wonder whether the club might not have been rather more supportive of Postecoglou in this transfer window. The Czech goalkeeper Antonín Kinský has arrived for £12.5m to cover an obvious problem, although it’s not ideal for a 21-year-old to arrive and be thrust immediately into action. But it’s baffling other support hasn’t been offered, even if only on loan; if a couple of players don’t arrive before next Monday’s transfer deadline, the implication will be that Levy has already written off Postecoglou.

But even if players are added – and given Spurs’ wages-to-turnover ratio is a Premier League low 47%, there must be plenty of PSR wriggle room – it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that they should have been signed in the summer. Whatever the shortcomings of Postecoglou – at least some of which can be explained by the way the relentlessness of the Premier League addles minds as form goes awry – the ongoing pattern is the result of a club trying to do things on the cheap. It feels absurd now that they were one of the six English clubs involved in the Super League project: they currently lie 15th, undone by a chronic failure of ambition.

Ange Postecoglou admitted his future is out of his hands after a 2-1 defeat to Leicester deepened Tottenham’s troubles and saw furious supporters repeatedly call for Daniel Levy to quit as chairman.

Postecoglou, whose side are eight points above the bottom three after one win in their past 11 league games, had to be realistic. Spurs led at half-time but Leicester moved out of the relegation zone after responding with goals from Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss.

The turnaround was met with mutiny at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Anti-Levy chants were constant and Postecoglou felt unity fraying. The manager hopes that the situation will improve when injured players return, while he pointed out that Spurs are doing well in Europe, are still in the FA Cup and lead 1-0 on aggregate before the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool But he was philosophical after being asked if he is in danger of the sack.

“Who knows?” the Australian said. “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 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.

“When the guys who are coming back come back it is going to give everybody a lift. There is a fantastic opportunity this season to make an impact and I know we can. But in terms of your question, is there anything I can say about that that is going to change anything that I need to do tomorrow morning? Nothing.”

Postecoglou added: “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.”

Spurs were unable to fill their bench and need reinforcements before the transfer window shuts. “Even one more player coming in, just in the short term will give us an opportunity,” Postecoglou said.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was delighted after Leicester halted a run of seven straight defeats to climb above Wolves to 17th place. “We were 1-0 behind but playing well,” Leicester’s manager said. “I saw a team that were 1-0 behind but not affected. We got the ball. We started the second half extremely well.”

Away from the mutinous chants pouring down from the south stand, the unmistakeable disgust with Daniel Levy and the gathering angst around Ange Postecoglou, it was possible to forget about Leicester. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have endured a horrible winter and, when they found themselves behind to a fragile Tottenham at half-time, they had the look of a group waiting for the sweet release of relegation.

At that stage they were on their way to their eighth consecutive defeat in the Premier League, equalling a club record set in the 2000-01 season. If history was a guide, though, then playing Spurs was good news for Van Nistelrooy. After all Leicester stopped the rot by beating them 4-2 at Filbert Street 24 years ago.

It meant there was almost a grim inevitability to how this match unfolded. In control after Richarlison’s header, it was astonishing to see an injury-hit Spurs collapse in the first five minutes of the second half, 1-0 becoming 1-2 thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannous.

There were tired limbs, frazzled minds and, in the stands, ceaseless angry voices. Spurs fought but Leicester held on for a win that lifts them out of the bottom three, easing the pressure on Van Nistelrooy.

In doing so they might just have pulled Spurs into the relegation picture. Postecoglou’s side remain eight points above the drop zone after one win in 11 games and it would not be a surprise if this defeats brings an end to the Australian’s tenure. The venom directed at Levy certainly felt significant.

There was not much that Postecoglou could do to freshen his team up after a draining win over Hoffenheim in the Europa League. Pape Matar Sarr was back in midfield and Antonin Kinsky replaced Brandon Austin in goal, but the positives bulletins were diluted by James Maddison and Djed Spence becoming the absentees through injury.

It felt ominous when Sarr squandered possession in dangerous areas four times in the first ten minutes. The anxiety was palpable, growing when Rodrigo Bentancur joined his fellow midfielder in giving the ball away early on. It was jittery from Spurs and Leicester saw opportunities to push, a decent chance going to waste when Jordan Ayew finished tamely at the end of a move sparked by adroit play from El Khannous and Victor Kristiansen broke on the left.

There was already a sense that Leicester lacked the conviction to take advantage. Kinsky was forced to intervene when Ben Davies miscued a clearance towards his own goal but the visitors were also guilty of contributing to the mediocrity. The service to Vardy was poor and, for all that Spurs were well below their best, they still came closest to a breakthrough during the opening exchanges. It took excellent saves from Jakub Stolarczyk to deny Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min from long range.

Son, who later hit the bar with a misdirected cross, seemed to fancy his chances against the skittish James Justin on the left. But with Dejan Kulusevski tired on the right, the main point of interest tended to came from the regular chants calling for Levy to quit as chairman.

Postecoglou still seems to have buy-in from the crowd and his players. Here, meanwhile, it helped to be playing opponents as dire as Leicester. How simple it was when Porro whipped in a cross and Richarlison, starting up front with Dominic Solanke out for six weeks, darted away from Wout Faes to make it 1-0 with a thumping header.

Faes always seems to be on the brink of doing something calamitous. Then again, so are Spurs’ defenders. It was messy from the start of the second half. Bentancur clattered into Kristiansen but advantage was played and Sarr failed to react. The midfielder was dozing when Bobby De Cordova-Reid ran off him, latched on to Boubakary Soumaré’s perceptive pass and delivered a low cross which eluded Kinsky and ran for Vardy to collect his 10th goal in 18 games against Spurs.

It had taken 58 seconds for Leicester to equalise following the restart. Van Nistelrooy looked like a motivational genius. Spurs were stunned. They were still frozen when Soumaré sparked another counterattack in the 50th minute. Reid fed El Khannous, Spurs backed off and the winger accepted an invitation to thread a low shot past Kinsky from 20 yards.

Now the anger with Levy threatened to boil over. Leicester looked for a third, Vardy’s volley blocked, and there were boos when Postecoglou brought a tiring Richarlison off for Mikey Moore.

But the tweaks made sense. Son moved into the centre, the introduction of Sergio Reguilón for Sarr meant Archie Gray into midfield and Spurs worked themselves into a frenzy. Porro sent a deflected free-kick against the bar and Kulusveski almost beat Stolarczyk.

Leicester were far from secure. They lived dangerously, escaping when Porro dribbled through and shot wide from a tight angle. Postecoglou, again unable to fill his bench, looked at his right-back in disbelief. Desperation took over. A lot of Leicester players started to call for the physio. Stolarczyk was eventually booked for timewasting.

For Spurs, though, even the addition of seven minutes was not enough to stop the grumbling.

Long before he began experimenting with the mind-expanding potential of psychedelic mushrooms, Timothy Leary was a psychologist. In 1957, he came up with the interpersonal behaviour circumplex, which sought to represent personality using two dimensions: power and love. While relationships on the power axis were oppositional – that is, dominance inspires submission and vice versa – on the love axis they are reflexive: hostility inspires hostility and cooperation inspires cooperation.

This was subsequently developed by Emily and Laurence Alison at the University of Liverpool. In their 2020 book Rapport, they use animals to express the four basic characteristics: a lion for control, a mouse for capitulation, a T-Rex for assertiveness and a monkey for cooperation. None of these are intrinsically good or bad: the lion could be inspiring and supportive, but he could also be patronising or dictatorial. And nor are many people represented by a single animal.

The Alisons drew up two wheels to represent the “good” and “bad” variants, each with eight sections representing personalities as being primarily one with a secondary element of another. Good Monkey with secondary Lion, for instance, is “social, warm, friendly”.

When Ange Postecoglou arrived at Tottenham, he seemed refreshingly normal. He acted confidently and was assertive. He was frank and forthright, all characteristics of Good T-Rex. But the Premier League is a tough zoo. It can break even the most apparently robust of managers. When a BBC reporter began his interview with Postecoglou after the 3-2 defeat to Everton with “A familiar story?”, he responded by snarling: “Great way to start an interview, mate.”

Tottenham have lost five of their past six league games and Postecoglou has previously seemed irritated at having to point out Spurs’ injury problems over and over again. If anything, to suggest the defeat at Everton was a “familiar story” was underplaying it: this was far worse.

The Dr Tottenham phenomenon is well known – Spurs have long been a tonic for sides down on their luck – but even by their standards, this was extraordinary: by half-time, Everton had improved their goals tally for the season by 20%, Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored his first goal in four months and Goodison was rocking like Howard Kendall was back with Paul Bracewell running the midfield.

Few will worry too much about a manager snapping at a journalist but what is more significant is what it reveals about Postecoglou’s mindset – particularly if he is reacting in a similar way to players. Being sarcastic, punitive, attacking and unfriendly, the Alisons tell us, is characteristic of Bad T-Rex with secondary Mouse. In fact, Postecoglou ticks almost all the Bad T-Rex boxes. He’s become irritable, distrustful and resentful which is Bad Mouse with some T-Rex. And he’s always been dogmatic and demanding, represented by Bad Lion with some T-Rex.

What then has changed? Why has the Good T-Rex of 18 months ago gone bad today? “It’s the way of the world,” as Blackadder explains to Baldrick in the BBC series. “The abused always kick downwards. I am annoyed so I kick the cat. The cat pounces on the mouse … and finally the mouse bites you on the behind.” Postecoglou is under pressure, his skin perhaps not as thick as it initially seemed, and this current irascible incarnation is what happens when flaws and foibles are exposed by the Premier League machine.

It’s only fair, of course, to outline once again how the club have let Postecoglou down. The squad is short – inexcusably so given wages to turnover ratio is the lowest in the league at 47%. Fraser Forster is not compatible with Postecoglou’s preferred style; that he was the back up for Guglielmo Vicario is almost negligent and the result is a 21-year-old being signed and thrown immediately into first-team action. To lose all three frontline centre-backs at once was unfortunate but to have only three has left Spurs open to that sort of bad luck. How is the inexperienced right-back Djed Spence the first-choice back-up at left-back?

Add in that Tottenham’s policy is to sign for the future and they ended up at Everton with six teenagers on the bench and another two on the pitch. In that context, a certain inconsistency is only to be expected. The problem is that Spurs now seem to have slipped beyond that; a little inconsistency, in fact, would be welcome in the face of relentless league defeats. They shouldn’t be in a relegation battle but if they lose on Sunday to Leicester, who have lost seven in a row, maybe it’s not impossible they do slide into the mire, particularly given Postecoglou’s alarming slip into Bad T-Rex territory.

This is the greatness of the Premier League, but it is also its horror. It’s like a tale from the One Thousand and One Nights: complete the quest and great glory and the princess’s hand in marriage awaits, but for those who fail the consequences are severe. The Premier League is the richest, toughest league in the world. Every game is a test. Every aspect of a manager is constantly challenged. Stand still and you go backwards.

Postecoglou isn’t alone in giving the impression of being unnerved by the remorseless nature of the Premier League. Ruben Amorim is already making highly provocative comments about just how bad his Manchester United team appears to be.

Whether dogmatism is appropriate in any aspect of management in a league that demands constant evolution can be debated – particularly, perhaps, when the dogma in question feels like a breezy version of the hegemonic style of a decade ago – and there can be little doubt about the limitations of Tottenham’s squad. But the issue Postecoglou faces now seems more fundamental and could conceivably lead to his exit before the end of the season. Beaten down by the Premier League, he is lashing out, hostility generating hostility to create a doom spiral.

Once locked in that loop, it’s very difficult to get out. It’s easy to say a little cooperation, a little flexibility, might break the cycle, far harder to make it happen, particularly for somebody of T-Rex personality type with lion tendencies. More achievable, perhaps, is to find a way back from Bad T-Rex to Good, to replace sarcasm and argumentativeness with confidence and assertiveness. You don’t have to have eaten Leary’s mushrooms to realise grouchy dinosaurs rarely prosper.