Football365

Jamie Carragher believes Leeds United’s impressive recent away record will come to an end when they travel to face Bournemouth on Wednesday – but the pundit is adamant that the Whites have more than enough to secure survival, while a Sky Sports colleague has explained why the relegation pressure is likely to be “too much” for Tottenham Hotspur.

Leeds United are in a very good place right now. Daniel Farke’s side are through to their first FA Cup semi-final since 1987, where they face Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday, while successive Premier League wins over Manchester United and Wolves mean they have an eight-point buffer between themselves and the relegation zone.

With just five games of the Premier League season remaining, Opta gives Leeds just a 0.4% chance of suffering relegation.

However, while Farke continues to insist Leeds cannot afford to rest easy in what the German has called a “relentless season”, both Carragher and Dean Ashton believe the Whites have more than enough about them to remain in the top flight.

Indeed, while Carragher thinks Leeds’ eight-game unbeaten run on their travels will be given a thorough test by Bournemouth on Wednesday, he is adamant the Whites are destined to finish with an impressive tally this season.

“Bournemouth away is a tough game, Burnley at home is a game you would expect almost every team in the division to win,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.

“Look, it’s interesting when you look at Tottenham away.

“I just think for Tottenham, that’s a game that nothing else can happen but that they [Spurs] win that game no matter what.”

Carragher also expects Leeds to come up trumps against Brighton at Elland Road, but reckons they will lose on the final day of the season against West Ham at the London Stadium.

As a result, the pundit thinks Farke’s side will finish the campaign with an impressive points tally of 45.

GO DEEPER: Leeds relegation chances now clear as Tottenham, Nott’m Forest, West Ham learn point-by-point survival guide

Pundit claims Leeds pressure on Tottenham will be too much

Stood alongside him in the Sky Sports studios, fellow pundit Dean Ashton – on the panel to assess West Ham’s chances of survival after the Hammers dug out a battling 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace – believes the resurgence of Leeds and his former side could prove too great for Spurs.

No team has ever been relegated in Premier League history having accrued 39 points, as Leeds have, by matchday 33.

Assessing their chances and the predicament Tottenham find themselves in, Ashton said:

Leeds have it. All those teams down there want to be Leeds. They have shown them all up, really. I think 39 points will be enough to keep you up,” Ashton said.

“I think Leeds’ win over Wolves on Saturday will be enough to keep them up now.

“I might be proved wrong, but I think it’s such a tough task, with so few games left, for Tottenham to gather that amount of points when there is that much pressure.”

A draw for Leeds at Bournemouth will take the Whites up to the magical 40-point mark, while a win will see them achieve the 10-win target Farke set his players at the start of the season.

For Spurs, they simply must win at Wolves this weekend just to stay in touch, and the fear for Roberto De Zerbi’s side is that the West Yorkshire side will be out of reach by the time they meet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday, 11 May.

In March, we came up with the 10 funniest things that could happen over the last couple of months of the season.

The last couple of months of the season is now the last month of the season, and we’re delighted to report that a lot of what were in many cases deliberately outlandish predictions – because obvious, straightforward things are rarely funny – are either very much on track or have been superseded by other new and still quite humorous possibilities.

What we said then we’ll say again now: we really are sorry, Spurs and Arsenal, but your continued misery features prominently.

Let’s revisit last month’s badinage and see where we’re at with these.

Tottenham relegated

Yes. Very much so. We chortled about it like it was already inevitable back in March and it’s only grown more certain in the weeks since.

Spurs have been a kind of reverse Man City since the new year. Only in the last fortnight have they actually fallen into the relegation zone, yet the sheer unstoppable force of their momentum has made their downfall feel utterly inevitable for absolutely ages.

You do have to hand it to Spurs, though. Nobody torments their own fanbase quite like these absolute bastards. Every time you sense Spurs fans coming to terms with their fate, even if it does involve entering some kind of fugue state, along they come with a fresh supply of false hope mined from the very bottom of the barrel only to then snatch it away again.

The Brighton game genuinely ought to be illegal under some kind of human rights legislation. Even games that aren’t Spurs games are getting involved now. Before Forest v Burnley, you’d imagine Spurs fans were at peace with the idea that Forest would almost certainly win that.

But 1-0 down at half-time having mustered barely a shot? Hello. But, of course, other teams are not like Spurs. Other teams don’t just give up when they suffer one setback in a match. Forest won 4-1, obviously. Morgan Gibbs-White, keen to join Spurs last summer, scored a hat-trick, obviously.

The first rule of Spursy is that the Spursiest thing will always happen.

Even West Ham’s total inability to lay a glove on a barely-there Crystal Palace whose focus now lies entirely on the Conference League is part of the conspiracy.

Had West Ham won, as they surely would have done had they attempted to do so earlier than the last 30 seconds of added time, Spurs would surely be resigned to their fate for the final, decisive time.

Now? All manner of ‘If we can just beat Wolves…’ prognostications have started bubbling up once more. Oh my sweet summer child, of course you aren’t going to beat Wolves. Your next win is obviously going to be at Chelsea after you’ve already been relegated.

Arsenal remain potless

And cruel irony isn’t restricted to the white half of north London. The red half are every bit as good at it.

What a vicious twist that Arsenal remembered they actually are quite good at football just at the moment it really might all be too late.

They were excellent at the Etihad and could easily have walked away with a point or even three. But they didn’t, and now face banterpocalypse.

And even in our wildest ‘funniest outcome’ fever dreams we didn’t have ‘getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Southampton’ on the bingo card. We were more on a ‘finish second in everything’ daydream back then. In fairness, losing to Southampton is probably less bad from an Arsenal standpoint.

Shrewd of them to avoid the ‘four silver medals’ outcome. It’s something. But we have found ourselves idly wondering something in our weaker moments in recent days. Suspend your disbelief for a second and just imagine that Spurs somehow stay up – we know, but stay with us here.

If that happens, which theoretically it still could, and if Arsenal finish second in the Premier League and don’t win the Champions League – very possibly as a result of some Harry Kane unpleasantness or other for added cruelty points – which of the two North London clubs is happier at the end of the season?

It’s the absolute f*cking idiots who’ve somehow finished 17th again isn’t it? Football is utterly ridiculous.

Liverpool win Champions League

Ah! Well. Nevertheless,

It was all going so well, wasn’t it? But when your first two ideas are looking even more solid than they did initially, you can allow yourself a whiff or two. Especially when you look at what comes next on this list.

The thrust of what we wanted to achieve from Liverpool winning the Champions League isn’t completely lost. It was to muddy the Slot Out waters. Liverpool fans quite reasonably wanting to get rid of a manager who had, in the space of two seasons, matched Jurgen Klopp’s tally of Premier League AND Champions League titles would have been truly spectacular but also very greedy on our part.

We can’t have that, alas, and it was always asking a lot. We’ll have to settle for the fact that Liverpool are going to qualify for the Champions League with a double-digit cushion and hope that serves to make the season sufficiently confusing.

No, it isn’t anywhere near as good as winning in Budapest would have been. No, it isn’t anywhere near as funny. But sometimes when life gives you lemons, you have to make Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Man City win domestic treble

We’re so back. Even a month ago this was still a bit ‘Technically they could now, you know. Technically’. Now it only takes two odds-on shots to land for it to happen.

And it will still tick all the boxes we had a month ago. A Man City treble win – matching a feat only they have previously achieved and that even the great Sir Alex Ferguson regarded as essentially unattainable – would be extraordinary in itself, but mainly for the fact nobody would really care.

It simply isn’t this season of Barclays’ primary narrative arc and never will be. It’s a secondary-character story viewed entirely through the way it impacts the anti-hero protaganists at Arsenal and even Spurs.

In years to come, the most memorable Man City figure from this season won’t be Guardiola or Haaland or Cherki or Silva or O’Reilly. It will be him with the Arsenal water bottle at Stamford Bridge.

As we said last time out:

Nobody will ever talk about City winning the league if they do so this season, will they? They will talk long and hard and with great joy about Arsenal losing it. It would become even less about City than their 2013/14 title, one that is now so exclusively remembered through the prism of Liverpool’s collapse against Chelsea that we still think a sizeable percentage of really quite keen football fans will have a rock-solid false memory of Chelsea in fact being the league winners that season.

Spurs and Arsenal launch joint legal campaign against Man City

With absolutely everything above involving these three going flawlessly to plan at this stage, we can just leave this here with no notes or addenda required.

With Spurs finishing 18th and Arsenal second behind Man City yet again, the two rivals set aside well over a century of mutual loathing to embark on a mortifying and desperate joint legal battle with the aim of getting the 60-point punishment that everyone now agrees seems just about spot on for whatever squiffy business City were up to for all those years applied to the season just finished because reasons.

Fans of both Spurs and Arsenal will unanimously agree that this whole sorry attempt at an AFCON-style retcon shows just how embarrassing the other club really is.

Forest win Europa League and finish 17th

This one still has legs, but does require some new footnotes.

An absolutely brilliant bit last season. In our view, the Premier League should go full Stewart Lee with this one. Just keep on having teams win the Europa League while finishing 17th every season until it stops being funny and then continue having teams win the Europa League while finishing 17th until it becomes funny again. And then keep on having teams win the Eur… well, you get the idea with that.

Bonus points to Forest, of course, for winning the Europa League at all when they didn’t even qualify for it. Not even Spurs managed that.

Next season their challenge is to pretty much win the same number of Champions League games as Premier League games. We already know they’re perfectly happy to appoint former Tottenham managers with comically disastrous recent Premier League records, so getting Thomas Frank in to oversee proceedings shouldn’t be an issue.

Forest winning the Europa has the added bonus of extending Aston Villa’s absurd trophy drought and once again placing their fans atop a tightrope where they must attempt their delicate, awkward balancing act of insisting Villa are simultaneously a very big boy who should be taken seriously but also too teeny and tiny to be expected to ever actually win anything.

It was always harsh to expect any other club to match Spurs in the absurdist banter stakes, even one as thoroughly capable of both the sublime and ridiculous as Forest. And listen, fair play, they’ve given it a red hot crack. But it does look now, alas, like they are just a bit too cowardly to finish 17th and are probably going to finish 16th instead.

No shame in that for Forest, of course. Spurs really are just built different.

Crystal Palace win Conference League

Still very much on. Still every chance Oliver Glasner goes out by adding yet another trophy to the previously empty shelves at Selhurst Park and makes London very much the Conference League trophy’s natural home.

Double funny if both Forest and Palace oblige and each end up winning the competition the other was supposed to be in.

If you’ll allow a brief moment of seriousness to creep in here – don’t worry, we’re taking the p*ss out of Liam Rosenior in a minute, we promise – we do rather suspect that a blueprint for European football has been established over the last couple of seasons.

English teams will do well enough in the Champions League, but never dominate it. There are too many other big clubs around for that to happen. The Premier League’s advantage in continental competition is not that their best team is necessarily better than anyone else’s; it’s that England’s 17th-best team is better than anyone else’s fifth-best.

The Premier League’s depth is its secret sauce. And that depth has grown stronger at the precise moment the Europa League has been weakened by the righteous but impactful removal of undeserving Champions League losers.

And now we see this new reality most clearly in the Thursday night competitions, where England absolutely do now dominate almost despite themselves. No English team has been knocked out of either the Europa League or Conference League by anyone other than another English team for very nearly two seasons now.

And there really is every chance that holds until the pots are dished out again, with Palace very much on track to claim the Conference and whoever wins the East v West Midlands semi-final between Forest and Villa sure to be favourite in the Europa final.

Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa all finish outside top five

Okay, look, we were pushing our luck here. We’re very happy with our current hit-rate from the above, so we’ll allow ourselves this ostentatious swing and a miss.

All is not lost, though. Liverpool and Villa are locked in for the top five, sure, but look at Chelsea. They are absolute dog toss right now.

So bad, in fact, that they are currently the worst of London’s ‘Big Three’ and right now that is an extraordinary thing to be.

Don’t believe us? Consider the standard, accepted form-guide number of six games.

Banter-addled, relegation-doomed Spurs? One win, two draws, three defeats.

Bottle-addled, happening-again-doomed Arsenal? One win, one draw, four defeats

And Chelsea? One win – against Port Vale ffs – and five defeats.

They are literally worse than the two biggest running jokes in English football who are both themselves operating at something dangerously close to 100 per cent banter.

That is utterly extraordinary and means that merely finishing outside the top five is no longer the limit of Chelsea’s comedic ambitions. They’ve fallen so far out of Champions League contention that they’ve ended up falling into the huge writhing mass of clubs scrambling to reach European football at all.

They are now only two points above the bottom half. They are closer to 14th place than to fifth. They might get another chance to ruin the Conference League for everyone else next season, by which point we assume they will have appointed a proper football manager. They might well not even get that. (Conference League, that is. Although also the proper manager, in fairness.)

Liam Rosenior has to go, right?

Brentford and Sunderland qualify for Champions League

Sure, we doubled down on the above with this one. Stood to reason, didn’t it? If we had all the bigger teams finishing outside the top five then it stood to reason that someone else had to take their places.

Brentford and Sunderland in the Europa and Conference League will have to do. It’s still pretty funny, we suppose.

And there are apparently still possibilities for sixth place involving Villa winning the Europa League and finishing fifth that make our head hurt when we try and think about them too hard but sound like they could definitely be funny in a too-clever-for-us way like Frasier.

One potential piece of fun we think we’re right about is that there is a non-zero chance that if Chelsea can get themselves secure in sixth they will play a game against Liverpool where it benefits them to lose and thus potentially help Slot’s side leapfrog Villa.

Liam Rosenior launches a podcast and starts selling a course and/or supplements

Lots of the above have decent chances of success, but our safest and most nailed-on winner comes right at the last.

If Rosenior isn’t trying to make Herbalife a thing again before big 2026 is out or at the very least advising his subscribers they can get 10 per cent off Huel with the code utterspoofer we will eat every single one of our hats.

We’re down to the final five matches of the Premier League season, and here’s every club’s biggest remaining game…

Some already have their eye on the final weekend, while others can’t look beyond the next game. Especially in north London.

Here’s the game we’ve picked out for each club as their biggest remaining…

Arsenal – Newcastle (h)

Arsenal will probably have to win their remaining five games to shed the big bottlers tag – stop laughing, it’s not funny – the first step being to stop losing. The Gunners have won one in their last six in all competitions, losing consecutive games in the Premier League to allow Manchester City to seize the initiative in the title race. So the Emirates clash with Newcastle on Saturday evening is super-mega-f***-off massive for the Gunners to halt their losing momentum. And, frankly, we can’t wait to see what gimmick Mikel Arteta has up his sleeve this week. But, no, it’s not funny.

Aston Villa – Liverpool (h)

Villa could have a big say in both the title race and the relegation battle since they have yet to face Tottenham and, on the final day, Manchester City. But for their own ends, the visit of Liverpool in their final home match is the biggest game remaining. The identity of the top five looks set, with only the order to finalise. If Liverpool beat them on May 17, the Reds could also overtake Villa and leave them in fifth, which would be lower than two of Unai Emery’s three most recent finishes. In that event, Emery out, obviously.

Also, Villa finishing fifth and winning the Europa League might allow Chelsea into the Champions League. And nobody wants that, obvs.

Bournemouth – Nottingham Forest (a)

Four of Bournemouth’s five remaining opponents are bottom-half dwellers, the other being Manchester City, meaning the Cherries face no direct competitor for a place in Europe. So we’ll point you to their final game of the season, away at Forest, where they will hope to wave off Andoni Iraola on their way to a Europa tour with Marco Rose.

Brentford – Liverpool (a)

It is a similar story for Brentford, the Bees’ current seventh-place standing likely to be enough to secure passage to the Europa League. They have no direct competitor to face but they do have half of the Big Six (United, City, Liverpool) to play in their final five games, building up to a last-day trip to Anfield.

Brighton – Chelsea (h)

Brighton have a couple of tasty-looking games in the run-in – away at Newcastle, then Manchester United on the final day catch the eye – but there’s always a bit more in the battles with Chelsea given the Blues have spent an awful lot of money trying to strengthen themselves while weakening the Seagulls. BlueCo have paid around £265million for a variety of Brighton players, managers and staff but Fabian Hurzeler could lift his side above Liam Rosenior’s with a home win on Tuesday night which could prove to be a Champions League six-pointer if Villa win the Europa League.

Burnley – Wolves (h)

Whoever wins on the final day between the bottom two maybe won’t finish last. Which is all either have been working towards for months. And since Burnley face three of the top four plus Leeds in their other remaining fixtures, this is their only realistic prospect of points.

Chelsea – Tottenham (h)

Aside from ‘BlueCo out!’, Chelsea fans haven’t much to shout about at the moment. But sending Spurs down in their final home game of the season would be a lovely touch at the end of a wretched season. That is if Spurs stay in the battle for that long.

MORE: Ten reasons Chelsea should sack Rosenior includes Lampard and 28-year low

Crystal Palace – Arsenal (h)

Do you really want us to pretend that Palace’s focus is not now completely on the Europa Conference League? We can say for certain that Palace’s biggest remaining game is not the trip to Bournemouth on May 3, coming between semi-final legs against Shakhtar Donetsk. Let’s rule out the visit to Liverpool the week before for the same reason. Which leaves us Everton (home, May 10), Brentford (away, May 17) and Man City (away, God knows) before Arsenal at home on the final day, when Palace fans will be hoping to give their side a rousing send-off for the Europa Conference final, all while hoping the players can at least make it look like their absolute priority isn’t avoiding injury.

Everton – Sunderland (h)

A mid-table six-pointer anyone? Much could change between now and May 17 given there are currently three points between 12th and sixth, but Everton’s last home game of the season could be pivotal in at least one of these sides’ pursuit of Europe.

Fulham – Bournemouth (h)

Fulham occupy that 12th place but the flip-flops and shades should stay in the closet for now, their penultimate home game being the visit of Bournemouth and another that could be important in the race for Europe, despite having ‘Saturday, 3pm’ written all over it.

Leeds United – Burnley (h)

Until very recently, we would have viewed the visit to Tottenham on the second-last weekend of the season as a relegation six-pointer. But wins over Manchester United and Wolves have Leeds eight points clear of the drop zone. A victory over Burnley, who could already be relegated by the time they go Elland Road on May 1, would take off what little pressure remains on the Spurs game, allowing Leeds to focus on a possible FA Cup final.

Liverpool – Manchester United (a)

It has been a wretched season for Liverpool, yet they could still finish as best of the rest behind Arsenal and City. They are currently fifth, with Champions League qualification all but in the bag, but in May they face the two sides above them (United, Villa) and the two below (Chelsea, Brentford), all of them within a win of the Reds. We’ve picked out United as it is the first of those fixtures which could set the tone for the run-in, and because it is the one game Liverpool fans would pick to win above the others.

Manchester City – Aston Villa (h)

Arsenal’s biggest remaining game is currently their next fixture; City’s is their last. We expect both to make the final day consequential, which is when City face their toughest opponent, on paper at least. They were in the position of needing to beat Villa at home on the final day four years ago and nearly made a b*llocks of it.

MORE: Ranking Man City’s last six games by where THEY could now bottle it

Manchester United – Liverpool (h)

Much the same applies to United as Liverpool. If the Red Devils could only win one game for the rest of the season, Stretford End-ers would pick this one. Plus, United’s run-in that follows is, on paper, kinder than Liverpool’s, so a win to extend what is currently a three-point gap should fend off the threat of their Merseyside rivals.

Newcastle United – West Ham (h)

In May, Newcastle don’t face an opponent currently above ninth in the table – granted, they go to Arsenal before April is over – but Forest could welcome the Magpies to the City Ground three games before the end of the season with realistic hopes of catching them. Which makes the following week’s final home game interesting more for the reaction of the crowd than the players. If the Toon Army turn on the team and Eddie Howe amid perhaps their lowest finish since they were relegated 10 years ago, it could hasten the manager’s exit. How much patience should Newcastle fans maintain?

MORE: The Premier League tables that could see Howe dodge Newcastle sack

Nottingham Forest – Newcastle (h)

While Newcastle might be looking over their shoulder at Forest, the Reds are also checking their mirrors. Keeping three clubs behind them is the absolute priority, despite being three games from Europa League glory. Forest’s is a tricky run-in, with Chelsea (a) sandwiched between the Europa semis against Villa, while Manchester United and Bournemouth are their last two Premier League opponents. Newcastle’s form makes their clash on May 10 Forest’s best chance of getting a decent chunk of the points required to stave off the treat of those chasing them.

Sunderland – Chelsea (h)

Sunderland would have killed to be five games from the line with only a top-half place to fret over. But here they are, 11th but two points off sixth, which makes all their matches consequential in a far different way to how they must have expected. Three of their final five are at home, the last being a Champions League play-off against Chelsea.

Tottenham Hotspur – Wolves (a)

Right now, Spurs have to look at their next game, a trip to Wolves on Saturday, as biggest of the lot. Because if they don’t start winning sharpish, the last games could be inconsequential wakes. Some are seeing improvement in Spurs since Roberto De Zerbi took over, which obviously means the square root of f*** all without the points. Everyone expected Spurs to get their sh*t together at some point but they are in serious danger of running out of time, especially while their rivals recognise the opportunity to leave them stranded. If they don’t beat a side already relegated, there probably is no hope.

West Ham United – Leeds United (h)

The Hammers’ job now is just to stay where they are: above three other teams. Ideally, Spurs would be one, but the Irons are in no position to be choosy. Three of their last five are at home, the last of which sees Leeds come back to east London after their FA Cup quarter-final win there. And West Ham might be hoping for Leeds to be suffering the mother of all hangovers as cup winners for the final game and for both to have reasons for celebration come the final whistle.

Wolves – Burnley (a)

See Burnley. Given the form and remaining fixtures for both sides, it is quite possible that Wolves will go to Turf Moor to defend 19th place.

While no one would disagree with Alan Smith’s assessment of Brennan Johnson’s Crystal Palace career thus far, least of all Johnson himself we suspect as he’s yet to register a goal in 19 appearances following his £35m transfer from Tottenham in January, the co-commentator’s pre-match ” he’s just not been good enough, frankly” quip felt strangely brutal.

Such comments are usually paired with ‘needs time to bed in’ caveats but Johnson was given short shrift by the former Arsenal striker, who proceeded to expose what certainly sounded like a deep-seated vendetta against the former Spurs winger and his North London bias to those donning tin-foil hats on their sofas at home hoping and preying a hero of theirs could do them a favour in the battle to avoid relegation.

After an opening to the game in which Johnson was just about the only attacking outlet for an otherwise toothless Crystal Palace side, Smith declared that “pretty much everything that could go wrong for Brennan Johnson has gone wrong in these first 20 minutes.”

He had just been booked for cynical swipe at El Hadji Malick Diouf, seconds after misdirecting a free header well wide of the target. Neither moment showed Johnson in the best light, but a more kindly appraiser might at least have praised the intent – he was in the right position to score – but not Smith, who simply insisted “he has to do better”.

Discussing the moment in the Sky Sports studio at the break, and how it would have been viewed by Spurs fans rooting for a West Ham defeat to keep them within a point of safety, Jamie Carragher said: “Johnson’s a Tottenham legend and always will be after his goal in the Europa League final, but he misses the chance to become an even bigger Tottenham legend here.”

Two minutes later Smith claimed “Johnson could easily have been sent off for a second yellow” if – and this felt crucial – it had been Johnson fouling Diouf and not Daniel Munoz, who wasn’t cautioned in any case.

Soon after, when Johnson took a very nice touch to make space for himself before curling a deflected shot just wide of the post, Smith commended Johnson as though he was a toddler hanging limply from a set of monkey bars or an infirm pensioner looking to extricate themselves from a wheelchair. “Fair play to him for having a go,” he said.

The co-commentator then identified a possible concussion for Johnson after a nasty clash of heads with Diouf as a blessing in disguise for Palace just before half-time. “You wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson did come off,” he said. “[Ismaila] Sarr’s on the bench; he’s been booked.”

Smith didn’t get his wish but a brilliant cross across the face of West Ham’s goal from Johnson shortly after the break served to illustrate the collective improvement rather than Johnson’s individual quality: “That’s a little bit better from Palace.”

In a similar situation a few minutes later Johnson took the wrong option, but not in such an evident and disgraceful way to give rise to a sound typically reserved for when someone steps in dog mess: “Urgh, you’ve got to pull it back for [Jorgen] Strand Larsen.”

Oliver Glasner at least saw enough in Johnson’s performance to keep him on the pitch longer than both Yeremy Pino and Strand Larsen as Palace chased a winning goal.

It never arrived to the delight of Smith, who spectacularly failed to hide his anti-Spurs agenda in the very last action of the game as substitute Mohamadou Kante charged down the right for West Ham.

“Go on, all the way,” Smith muttered.

We get that Tottenham getting relegated would be a) hilarious, b) good business for Sky Sports and everyone else, and c) hilarious, but openly rooting for one of their relegation rivals on a co-commentary stint otherwise used to disparage a former Spurs player because you used to play for Arsenal made for an uncomfortably conspicuous night of prejudice from Smith on a channel that should surely at least give the impression of impartiality.

Arsenal, Manchester City, the Premier League and the very sport of football itself have all answered every single one of their critics in 90 minutes of cathartic wonder at the Etihad.

And even Spurs are terrifying their rivals after stretching their winless run to 15 games.

Verily, will the good news ever stop pouring forth on this glorious Monday morn?

We’re so back

One of the great tricks of journalism – and this is in absolutely no way restricted to football or sport – is to spend vast amounts of time establishing a #narrative and then, when the time is right, furiously tearing it down while shaking your head at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, dressing as a hot dog and vowing to find the guy who did this.

Cue Jeremy Cross in the Mirror.

Pulsating Man City vs Arsenal title showdown proves English football is back with a bang

It was a very good game of football. We enjoyed it a great deal. Far more than we thought we would. A pleasant surprise in every way. But can one match – however good, however large – really undo a whole season’s worth of evidence? Apparently yes, yes it can.

And to think, some people reckon the Premier League is boring. That was until the two best teams in the land got together, to gang up on the critics of English top-flight football.

Pretty sure they were both trying to win a vital game of football for their own reasons rather than gangimg up to give the critics one in the eye. Much as we like the idea of Erling Haaland and Gabriel choreographing their beef like a couple of gnarled, veteran wrestlers, we don’t think this is actually what happened.

And ‘some people reckon the Premier League is boring’? Quite a lot of people have reckoned that this season.

But really this is all just a bit cake-and-eat-it, and very straw man. Nobody is saying every single Premier League game this season has been boring, obviously.

There is a valid argument to be made that just because this Premier League season has been different, and set-pieces have held sway, and several of the big teams have been cack, and all the rest, that doesn’t mean it’s been boring.

John Cross, the better Cross, actually made this argument rather well on the Mirror’s own pages after Fabian Hurzeler’s huff following Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Brighton last month.

Arsenal are being painted as the villains for employing dark arts to win at Brighton and go seven points clear of Pep Guardiola’s City at the top.

That is so disingenuous and so unfair because, actually, if Arsenal win it then it will be their first title in 22 years and the third different winner in as many seasons.

City, Liverpool and then Arsenal. That would go a long way to proving that the Premier League is exciting and unpredictable because different teams can win it.

There have been late goals, drama and, yes, set-pieces. But football has always been cyclical – and corners, grappling and long-throws is just the latest trend.

Arsenal are better than everyone else at it – they have scored 31 goals from set-pieces this season – and that should not be a cause for criticism.

You can agree or disagree with any or all of that, but it’s a valid and consistent position.

But using one brilliant game that conspicuously wasn’t like the ones people have been complaining about as proof that those people were wrong doesn’t work in quite the same way, does it?

Putting on the kind of show which deserves to put such ridiculous claims to bed once and for all.

There it is. One game was brilliant, so stop moaning about the others. Even if they were boring, this one wasn’t and it’s the most recent game and therefore the only important one.

When these rivals clashed in the Carabao Cup final a few weeks ago, the game had been so dull it felt capable of sending a glass eye to sleep.

But this reunion was the polar opposite. For once, a football game delivering what it had said on the tin beforehand. It was hard work just watching it all unfold, let alone being part of it.

Jeremy, we’re confused. ‘…the game had been so dull it felt capable of sending a glass eye to sleep’? And ‘for once’ here a big game had delivered on its promise? Are… are you one of the ‘some people’ who thought this season has been boring then? Surely not.

Because it proved the demise of our national sport has been exaggerated.

Yes, those men fashioned entirely from straw claiming football was dead are surely feeling sheepish indeed this morning, shuffling their straw feet and, straw heads bowed, fixing the gaze of their straw eyes firmly on the floor.

And even if it did leave us for a while, English football is definitely now back with a bang.

At least until the next big game ends 0-0.

Engage boosters

Mediawatch broadly agrees with the general thrust of Tom Canton’s ‘all is not lost’ response to Arsenal’s defeat at the Etihad for football.london. They absolutely did play well, they absolutely could have got something out of the game, and they absolutely were unrecognisable from the team that had limped to three straight domestic defeats in three different competitions over the last month or so.

There is definitely a world where yesterday went much worse for Arsenal. But, and we cannot stress this enough, this is still a universe where in the end it went badly.

We are really not sure losing to your only title rivals and thus ceding control of the title race can ever justify this headline.

Arsenal given Premier League title boost in spite of Man City defeat after major improvement

‘Tis a fine performance in defeat, but sure ‘tis no boost.

Weirdly, I feel encouraged and have more confidence than I did before the game began.

I was resigned to being beaten handily because of the performances lately, especially the defeat to Bournemouth. I have never been so low about this team as I was when we were beaten by the Cherries, but this performance, and how Arsenal continued to push until the end, has made me think differently.

Leaving aside Mediawatch’s more general old-man-cloud-yelling concerns about the way so many journalists just write unapologetic fan blogs now, and while we’re pleased for Tom that he’s feeling less gloomy now it’s ended 2-1 than he did when he thought it would be 4-0 or somesuch, it does rather feel like the accurate headline here would really be ‘Tom Canton given Premier League title boost in spite of Man City defeat after major improvement’.

Terror Watch

To the other side of North London now, and a weekend where Tottenham somehow found new and even crueller ways to toy with their fans’ fragile emotions.

Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. And against Brighton, Spurs had it against Brighton right up until they didn’t. Brutal.

Yes, they were definitely much better than they have been pretty much all season. But, and this is important, they still didn’t actually win and are in even worse relegation trouble now than before the weekend began after big wins for Leeds and Nottingham Forest.

Yet, according to football.london:

Roberto De Zerbi uses new Tottenham tactic that will terrify relegation rivals

Mediawatch would humbly contend that neither Forest nor Leeds any longer care much what Spurs are doing at all and that whatever mild perturbation might be bubbling over the London Stadium at the sight of Spurs’ winless Premier League run extending to 15 matches ahead of their own chance to move four points clear tonight at Crystal Palace would stop some way short of terror.

What with Arsenal title boosts and Spurs striking terror into their rivals, we do have to ask if football.london are feeling okay? If you are being held against your will, blink twice and publish a piece about how well it’s all going for Chelsea right now.

Manchester United are drawing up an opening offer for Tottenham Hotspur star Cristian Romero despite his injury, according to a report.

Romero has made 32 appearances during what has been a dire season for Tottenham. The centre-back has continued to be a surprise goal threat, finding the back of the net six times and registering four assists, but he has ultimately been part of a defence which has leaked goals.

Romero and Tottenham suffered a major blow during the 1-0 defeat to Sunderland on April 12, as the Argentine picked up a knee injury. Roberto De Zerbi has confirmed Romero will miss the rest of the campaign as he recovers.

The Sunderland game could be Romero’s last in a Spurs shirt, as he is poised to leave this summer regardless of whether they are relegated.

CaughtOffside report that Spurs are ‘willing to sell’ him this summer and have set their asking price at €60-65m (£52-57m).

That fee could drop if Spurs fail to stay in the top flight.

READ: Manchester United top scorers against Big Six: Mbeumo already second in current squad

Man Utd are rivalling Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid for the 27-year-old. The Red Devils are supposedly ‘preparing an offer’ to send to Spurs, though the report does not reveal its exact value.

United have made defensive reinforcements a ‘priority’ this summer – alongside two central midfield signings – and view Romero as an ‘attractive option,’ particularly if Spurs go down.

The report adds that Real Madrid are ‘keeping an eye’ on Romero’s situation amid concerns over Eder Militao’s long-term fitness, and with David Alaba leaving at the end of the season.

Atleti manager Diego Simeone, meanwhile, sees Romero as the ‘perfect defensive leader’ for his system.

The report goes on to describe Romero as a ‘combative, fearless and aggressive’ defender who is an ’emotional spark’ in Spurs’ backline.

On his day, Romero is an elite centre-half who can keep top strikers quiet. But Romero’s aggression and unpredictability can sometimes lead to red cards and mistakes, making him a risky signing.

Last week, former Spurs star Toby Alderweireld criticised the likes of Romero and Micky van de Ven. He began by saying: “I think you also need to start looking at pure quality.

“What do big players do? What do quality players do? That is to be decisive at important moments, achieve your level … And that has not been happening all season.

Man Utd target ‘lets his team down’

“Players who were acquired for a lot of money but who nevertheless don’t deliver and not in just one or two matches or a period, but throughout the whole season.

“You just have to conclude that they are not good enough in terms of quality.”

Alderweireld added: “I look at Romero, I look at Van De Ven… They just aren’t reaching their level. Again, not for a period, but actually for an entire season.

“Then I also look at Romero who gets red cards too often, doesn’t make the right decisions and therefore lets his team down.”

It was reported recently that Romero could lead a ‘radical summer overhaul’ at Spurs this summer. Players such as Van De Ven, Pedro Porro, Joao Palhinha, Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie and Randal Kolo Muani are expected to follow him out of north London.

Cole Palmer has just one decent season to his name and a record ‘bloated’ by penalties. He gets a proper kicking.

The Man City v Arsenal Mailbox is here now. E-mail us at theeditor@football365.com

Enjoying Spurs’ impending relegation

I would quite like them relegated.

I have been an avid football fan for 41 years now and I have seen one season Spurs were relevant.

They’ve had great players and been very funny. Relevant. No.

But whether it’s the London media or their fanbase it keeps coming up big club. BIG BIG club. Are you really?

Danny Blanchflower was 65 years ago this year. And I’d wager very few Spurs “fans” demanding leagues and trophies know who the f*** he is.

F*** em.

And I’m not confident they bounce back

And they’re no loss except guaranteed 6 points

Please redact my name. I know I have a stick and and am stirring. Also West Ham same goes for you. You peaked Bobby Moore and a whole generation of journalists who idolised him. Not a big club.

To start the argument…

Non contestable big clubs and it pains me who I start with:

Manchester United

Liverpool

Everton

Leeds

Newcastle

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Rude late arrivals

Chelsea

Man City (but they were always big just unsuccessful)

Honorable mentions

Wolves

Sunderland

Middlesborough

Small clubs who smashed it and there is a strong Brian Clough theme:

Derby County

Nottingham Forest

Ipswich

Blackburn

Leicester

Name redacted

READ: Morgan Gibbs-White relegates Tottenham Hotspur unless hungover, depleted Palace beat West Ham

That was rough on Spurs

Not a Spurs fan or sympathiser, and generally would enjoy seeing the team that beat us in the Europa League finals last year lose.

But that was heartbreaking and devastating, even for me as a viewer. Don’t know how they come back from this even if and when they beat Wolves next match.

Commiserations to Spurs fans. That was rough.

Aman

Spurs not relegated yet

Jason is right that the weekend was bad for Spurs but wrong to say Gibbs White relegated Tottenham.

There are 15 points to play for and we are currently one point from safety. We’re also playing the worst team in the pl next week and played markedly better yesterday.

Spurs will fight to the last minute of the last day and only when that whistle blows will we know if we are relegated or not. COYS!

Sam

On referees and PGMOL again

Another day, another controversy. Five days after sending Lisandro Martinez off for taking off Calvert-Lewin’s hair tie, resulting in a 3 match ban, Paul Teirney looked at Ouattara pulling Bassey’s hair and decided it wasn’t even a foul. Ok fair enough, on Monday Tierney also didn’t think much of the hair pulling incident at first glance, but lucky for Leeds fans VAR was there to intervene to give Martinez the card he deserved according to the letter of the law. So far so fair one might feel.

Except today, when Tierney didn’t pause for a second thought, VAR were not interested in re-refereeing the game and Tierney was not invited to look at the serious foul play, Ouattara did not get the card he deserved according to the letter of the law, from a referee who red carded Martinez for the same offence on Monday, meaning a week on Monday, when Manchester United face Brentford, Ouatarra will likely feature while Martinez will still be banned.

I’m not convinced that there is a conspiracy against Man Utd. I do think it’s more likely gross incompetence from match officials. But it is a problem when the conspiracy is so plausible. The inconsistency in decision making by PMGOL and its referees throughout this season and before is beyond a joke.

From the non-red card for Collins preventing a goal scoring opportunity for Mbuemo in Brentford vs Man Utd compared to the Maguire red card and penalty against Bournemouth, less than a minute after Truffert was allowed to pull down Amad in the area for no foul or penalty. Or disallowing a goal for Martinez against Burnley for a foul so soft it should be captured and turned into luxury toilet paper, but failing to rule out Okafor’s first goal after Calvert-Lewin smacked Yoro in the face with his forearm immediately before his clearance fell to Okafor. An VAR intervening to call back the game for “serious foul play” in relation to Martinez’ hair pulling antics but not pulling the game back for Walker stamping on a prostate Dorgu, which was also caught on camera.

It should not be a tribal thing where we are OK with inconsistency when it affects another team but get up in arms when your team is on the receiving end. I imagine Fulham fans must be wondering why they had to see the game out against 11 men. I know Spurs fans saw the foul by Calvert-Lewin on Yoro and wondered why Kolo Muani’s goal vs Arsenal was disallowed. And to top it off Maguire got an extra game ban for allegedly telling an official “they’re a f**king joke”, which he denies claiming he said “it’s a f**king joke”. The joke is that, without evidence beyond backing their own man, they decided that Maguire was guilty (even though they are demonstrably shit at doing their job and frankly in either case whether Maguire directed the statement at an official or in general, it’s a spot on assessment) and gave him an extra game ban rather than look at or address the inconsistency in their decision making.

To bring it back to hair pulling, it’s hard to believe that none of the match officials beyond Paul Tierney saw the Martinez incident this week, but you must believe it to be so if they all disregarded the clear foul and the precedent set on Monday this week.

It is a joke, it’s embarrassing. We’re constantly told the Premier League is the best league in the world and yet week after week decisions look arbitrary enough that there is fertile ground for conspiracies to thrive. Given the money involved both in terms of prize money, and the money that fans in the UK have to pay to see the Premier League, as well as the billions made betting on the sport even if we don’t actual care about the nobility of the ideal of competing on a level playing field, I think the least we can demand is that decisions are consistent and implemented fairly.

Daniel, Cambridge

Chelsea v Man Utd questions

Steve (ex-Flixton Red), Ontario (better Arsenal than cheating City)

READ: Rosenior sack certain as Garnacho excuses exposed by Manchester United again

Is Cole Palmer actually any good?

Obviously a worrying result for Chelsea, in a series of worrying results. I only saw the highlights but they seemed pretty unlucky to me. Hit the post or the bar, what, 3/4 times? Just wide of the upright a couple more times as well. One of those days where you could play 180 minutes and you’re not going to score.

Anyway. This one is a particular bugbear of mine. Cole Palmer apparently said before the game that if they don’t get into the Champions League everything changes. Translation – he’s going to do one if their form doesn’t improve.

So here’s a blue sky, out of the box thought. Why doesn’t he try living up to his reputation and play a s**t load better then? His reputation is based on *one* – count them , *one* – really good season. He never hit those heights before and he sure as hell hasn’t since.

His record is bloated by endless penalties and precious few goals or assists otherwise. But to hear him described, you’d think he was the Second Coming of Gascoigne sometimes. Tuchel clearly sees it the same way as I do, Palmer isn’t going to the World Cup. We need someone as good as his reputation, not the player he really is.

Someone will undoubtedly pay top bananas for him and he won’t live up to the price, not even close. Pep doesn’t let real quality leave until they’re too old to contribute. He didn’t let a top, top player leave here either.

Brains of a suet pudding, a stupid smug goal celebration and a horrendous f**k ugly hairstyle that needs immediate sorting. He’s cosmetically challenged enough as it is.

Personal abuse is never right of course, but I just can’t stand this m****f****r. So I’m making an exception in this case.

James, Liverpool

Mocking Everton history with zero class

Just after Everton scored the opening goal the commentator screamed, “ANOTHER PIECE OF EVERTON HISTORY”

Now I’m going to set aside the hilarity that it then got disallowed by VAR, but it’s equally comedy that scoring a goal against their big city rival counts as a piece of history. Liverpool win Champions Leagues and domestic trophies galore while Everton sometimes open the scoring at their own stadium. It’s sweet that even in our worst season the levels still are what they are.

First of all, to give credit where due, that Gakpo assist was so filthy it should’ve come with an age warning. It was so good that I was watching on TV and honestly thought he’d misplaced the pass for a second until suddenly my brain saw what his had at pitch level and actually executed to perfection. Fair f**ks pal. Easier to write this because of the W obviously.

Konate was all at sea (as usual) for their goal. I get that people switch off or have brain farts sometimes but why does he always do it on match day? He’s really not done anything to justify a new contract. Letting him go for free stinks but I think it would set the right tone, especially if we can make an agreement with someone like Senesi for the summer. It also annoys me that this switch off led to not only the goal but also the injury of our second keeper. Woodman did fine but does he have what it takes to see us through the last 5 games? Maybe a PNE can write in to advise…

The winning goal, coming as late as it did, from the guy that it did. Really doesn’t get sweeter at times does it? I’m sure VVD is still extremely annoyed about the season he lost to Pickford so it’s hard to have much sympathy watching that guy lie on the floor wondering why he’s always a loser. Might be those T-Rex arms mate.

Minty, LFC

How good are Sunderland?

Imagine there’ll be a sea of Arsenal-City-scouse Narrative tomorrow, but wanted to say a quick word about the Villa Park madness this afternoon.

Easy to be magnanimous in victory so this will have a touch of #sosogood about it,but Sunderland are a magnificent football team. Miles better than everyone we’ve played in Europe this season (and half the ones we played last year tbh), and most of the teams we’ve played in England.

This applies to a stack of teams in the prem tbh, but it’ll be a crime (probably literally) if they finish behind Chelsea this year.

Neil Raines Haway the Villa

Nickname corner

Adidasmufc…in response to your question about clever footballer nicknames that aren’t simply some appendage or abbreviated play on the actual name… Claude Makelele’s nickname at Chelsea was tripod.

There’s kids at home so I’m not willing to go any further.

Minty, LFC

…Jason McAteer was called ’Trigger’.

He allegedly shouted ”One hundred and eighty” as Jimmy White walked into a club, once.

Sixyardbox, Stockholm

…Adidas MUFC asked about nicknames not related to surnames that are actually used.

There are different types. There are the actual on-field nicknames, which are necessarily short and then there are the honorary moniker types, that commentators like but people would never actually use to the player’s face.

Of the former you have Pele, Zico, Cafu, Razor (was used an awful lot but sadly lifted from Donovan Ruddock).

Of the latter you have Der Kaiser, the Beast Nadal, the Baby Faced Assassin, the Holy Goalie.

And then you have the third type, which fans use, e.g. Slabhead, Psycho, Le God (well, related to the name, but it was quite good), ‘King’ Kenny.

I suppose there is the sad fourth type also, which is “the [insert adjective] [insert supposedly similar established player]”. For example, the Ginger Pele, the Egyptian Messi, the Latvian Michael Owen, the Croatian Cruyff, etc. Yawn.

The race for the Champions League and the relegation battle have both become much clearer after an absolutely disastrous weekend for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

We can confidently say the top five is as good as set. It will be Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool – probably in that order.

Yes, it’s a fun part of a pretty mad Premier League season, especially with so many clubs punching above their weight, but the two biggest stories are undoubtedly the title race and Tottenham’s fight against relegation.

It’s quite hard to put into words just how disastrous a weekend it has been for the north Londoners.

For the first time this season, Spurs looked like a team who knew they were in a relegation battle in Saturday’s home match against Brighton and Hove Albion.

They were actually pretty good against the Premier League’s in-form team.

The result, however, was probably their most painful in an excruciating campaign.

An injury-time Brighton equaliser denied Spurs their first win in the Premier League this year, leaving them a point behind 17th-placed West Ham United, who play their game in hand against Crystal Palace on Monday night.

They face an injury-ravaged Palace team on the back of a tough Europa Conference League match against Fiorentina, which was followed by a celebratory night out in Florence.

So they are missing multiple important players and are hungover? Literally nothing is going Spurs’ way.

That game hasn’t even happened yet and Spurs fans have already accepted their fate.

Their one ray of hope was Nottingham Forest’s home game against Burnley on Sunday. We are really, really stretching with the word ‘hope’, by the way.

Forest were the strong favourites on paper but made hard work of what should have been a routine victory. Of course, when you’re in the bottom four at this stage of the season, routine victories are an extreme rarity.

Up 1-0 at half-time, Burnley were exposing themselves as the only Premier League team who want Spurs to stay up. Either form showed or the Clarets realised what they were denying us, because they were put to the sword in the second period.

Because this is Tottenham, it was Morgan Gibbs-White – who was agonisingly close to joining the Londoners last summer – who turned things around with a 15-minute hat-trick.

Two brilliant right-footed finishes followed by a precise header earned Vitor Pereira’s side a 4-1 home victory and a five-point buffer between themselves and Spurs.

It’s a catastrophic weekend for Spurs, made even more depressing by the false hope they were given by Xavi Simons’ belter against Brighton and Zian Flemming’s opener at the City Ground.

At this point, you have to question whether this is a social experiment.

We can safely assume Forest and Leeds United are safe. Because Spurs won’t help themselves, they need Palace to do them a solid against West Ham.

The way this weekend is going for Spurs, that obviously will not happen.

They are down, aren’t they? Bloody hell.

Joe Hart feels Tottenham under Roberto De Zerbi are “really impressive” and they are “not the Spurs we have been used to” in a good way after the draw against Brighton.

Spurs have been in trouble for a while. That trouble has looked recently like it might almost be too much to handle, with the north London club’s loss against Sunderland on April 12 ensuring they remained in the Premier League relegation places, where they dropped down after West Ham beat Wolves to climb above them.

The Sunderland loss was the first of new manager De Zerbi’s tenure, and it looked like after his first loss, he might have been about to follow that up with his first victory, against Brighton, on Saturday.

Tottenham were 2-1 up as the 90 minutes passed, but in a hefty chunk of added time, Georgino Rutter scored to level the game at 2-2, ensuring Spurs are still 18th, one point below the Hammers.

Though Tottenham didn’t gain a crucial three points, former goalkeeper Hart feels there were positives to take from the game.

He said on Match of the Day: “He has identified what he doesn’t want to see, but what he wanted to see was to get that stadium rocking.

READ: Two relegations delayed by bumbling Spurs as Simons’ saviour moment wasted by team-mate

“The way that they pressed was really good, really impressive in fact. It is not the Spurs we have been used to; it is not the Spurs we have seen this season.

“He wanted to set the atmosphere: every single one of his players is running forward with intent, blocking passing lanes, and forcing Brighton to be perfect.”

There is positivity in that, as if every side who plays Spurs have to be perfect between now and the end of the season, there’s a good chance the struggling side will pick up some vital points.

READ: Tottenham: Roberto De Zerbi insists relegation ‘not the problem’ but he will leave on one condition

But with that said, Tottenham made strides but still were not able to get over the line against Brighton, despite being 2-1 up after the initial 90 minutes had passed.

As such, even if they play to a good level, there’s a sense that they could still let clubs back into games. With only five games to go, and two of those coming against top-six clubs, in Aston Villa and Chelsea, opportunities to get the points they so desperately need are slipping away.

Kevin Danso and Tottenham Hotspur have reacted to the racist social media abuse suffered by the centre-back after his late error cost the club three crucial points against Brighton on Saturday.

Spurs looked on course for a maiden win under new boss Roberto De Zerbi, and a first Premier League victory of 2026, after Xavi Simons scored with a spectacular 77th-minute strike to give them a 2-1 lead.

However, a lapse in concentration by Danso, who had possession pinched from him inside the box by Jan Paul van Hecke that led to Georginio Rutter firing in a stoppage-time equaliser, broke Tottenham hearts.

The result leaves the north London outfit sitting in the relegation zone, with only five games remaining to save themselves from dropping into the second tier of English football for the first time in 50 years.

After the final whistle, Danso was visibly distraught and had to be consoled by his teammates.

And the Austria international has revealed that he has seen the racist comments aimed at him, but that the intended abuse ‘will not define him’.

Danso wrote on Instagram: “Not the result we needed yesterday. We gave everything, we learn and we move. I’ve also seen the comments. The racist abuse has no place in this game or anywhere. But it doesn’t define me, and it won’t distract me from what is important. I know who I am, what I stand for, and why I play.

“Now it’s about staying focused, working harder, and coming back stronger for the next games. We keep pushing, we keep believing, and we give our all every single time we step on that pitch. Stronger. Together. On to the next.”

Meanwhile, a club statement from Tottenham on the abuse aimed at Danso, read: “Since yesterday’s fixture against Brighton, which took place during the Premier League’s No Room For Racism weekend, Kevin Danso has been, and continues to be, subject to significant and abhorrent racist abuse on social media.

“We have heard and seen vile, dehumanising racism. Behaviour that is without doubt a criminal offence. It will not be tolerated.

“The club is taking immediate action. We are reporting all identified content to the Metropolitan Police and to the appropriate authorities in the country where perpetrators reside, as well as to relevant social media platforms.

“We will push for the strongest possible action against each and every person we identify.”

READ NEXT: Roberto De Zerbi insists relegation ‘not the problem’ but he will leave on one condition

De Zerbi’s Spurs will now head to bottom club Wolves on April 25 before a trip to Aston Villa and then the visit of Leeds United on May 11.

Anything less than a win at Molineux could see the gap to safety grow even larger.