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Vitor Pereira has done as much to embarrass Ruben Amorim as Manchester United have, while Ange Postecoglou is gone and Newcastle did Eddie Howe proud.

Premier League winners

Vitor Pereira

Ruben Amorim was right back in December: the Wolves squad was “built for the system” of Vitor Pereira and so the comparison of Portuguese mid-season manager appointments at struggling clubs cannot be completely pure.

But for Pereira to accrue three more points in five fewer games than Amorim is a remarkable feat considering their starting positions. Only the managers of the current top seven have a better points-per-game record than Pereira in the Premier League this campaign.

Wolves, 19th and five points from safety upon his appointment, are 16th and 14 points clear of the bottom three five months later. Their current winning run of four games is a longer sequence than Arsenal have put together this season, and as good as Liverpool’s best.

And aside from the final 20 minutes of the victory over Spurs, that has been achieved entirely without best player and chief social media liability Matheus Cunha.

“Matheus is committed, working and preparing himself to help the team,” Pereira said before the Spurs win, the first time in 2025 Wolves had scored more than two goals in a match. “But we won the last three games, playing consistently, tactically and mentally.

“What is fair? It is fair to keep going with the same team. This is my opinion. This is football, this is commitment, this is leadership. And Matheus will come on to help us,” he added of a player who scored his 16th goal of the season from the bench. It is difficult not to be impressed with such clear management and confident coaching.

Manchester City

It cannot have been often that four Manchester City academy graduates have shared the same pitch in a Premier League game, even if James McAtee was immediately substituted upon Oscar Bobb’s introduction.

Pep Guardiola might consider integrating McAtee and Nico O’Reilly earlier this season if given the opportunity again, while Rico Lewis will be grateful for the chance to develop in slightly more settled circumstances.

Those players are good enough to be part of Manchester City’s new era and Guardiola’s trust in them instead of the faltering old guard is long overdue.

Newcastle

There are many different ways of measuring a manager’s ability even in the context of just one game, but securing such a powerful victory in both their image and absence is a fine indicator of success.

Eddie Howe had been missing from the touchline for a Newcastle game before: his first in charge, against Brentford in November 2021. His input was inevitably heavily relied upon, with Jason Tindall saying the pair were in “constant dialogue” and that the manager made the “final call” to introduce substitute Ryan Fraser, who set up the late equaliser in a 3-3 draw.

Newcastle could not possibly have been expected to function properly as a Howe team back then, but three-and-a-half years later the machine functioned effortlessly without the man who holds the blueprint.

Even with the undoubted generosity of an opponent as bereft of confidence and identity as Manchester United, it was a phenomenal performance that should give Howe immense pride. Neither Tindall nor the players needed their hands holding on this occasion; the manager put the game plan in place earlier in the week but only sent “the odd” message from hospital from Friday onwards. He knew he could trust the kids not to burn the house down this time.

David Moyes

The accepted wisdom is that you never go back. Moyes, having taken West Ham from relegation adjacence to European glory in his second spell in charge, would already have disagreed before picking up where he left off at Everton almost 12 years ago.

A pettier man might derive some perverse joy in sitting above both the Hammers and Manchester United after being dumped by both, even if those exits were entirely justifiable. But Moyes is long enough in the tooth to look beyond settling past personal scores and will instead focus solely on his current objectives.

Everton are closer in terms of points to the top four than they are the relegation zone. They are currently 13th, not only the highest they have been all season but the highest they have been since October 2022. Yet still Moyes is looking up, publicly dreaming of having “a season like Nottingham Forest are having this season, next season here”.

Sean Dyche habitually delivered results like these against high-flying teams. But rarely was it so consistently backed up against the rest of the league and never did he actively encourage supporters to aim high and be ambitious. It is a powerful shift in mindset.

Liverpool

The Manchester United champion vintage of 1996/97 have already been reeled in, with Arsenal’s Double winners of 1997/98 next and only two points ahead.

Liverpool still have plenty of future issues to sort but only 12 teams have ever had more points at this stage of a Premier League season and that really is quite good.

Aston Villa

It is arguably easier said than done against the continent’s form team but if Villa can keep Paris Saint-Germain within touching distance relatively deep into their Champions League quarter-final second leg then Unai Emery will know the mere act of turning to his bench could shift momentum inexorably.

Some might also suggest PSG are slightly better than Southampton but those people are no fun.

Emery specifically imbued his squad with more attacking depth in the winter, like a hibernating squirrel discarding Jhon Duran while storing Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio in preparation for a busier mid-spring.

Donyell Malen remains ineligible in Europe but his goals in three consecutive games in which he has played just 88 minutes sum up the general theme still pushing Villa on three fronts. If the first team in Premier League history to have three different substitute scorers in one game do not beat you from the start, they have more than most in reserve to finish the job.

Here’s the Premier League table since the January transfer window closed, by the way:

Kieran McKenna

Facing Enzo Maresca four times with a vast disadvantage in terms of resources and remaining unbeaten against the Italian as a manager is a neat trick. McKenna preventing it from going stale by getting relegated is wise.

On a slightly more serious note, this was welcome proof that Ipswich can function without Liam Delap ahead of his predestined summer transfer auction. He has started all but three games in the Premier League and the Tractor Boys had lost the previous two 4-3 and 4-0, with Delap scoring one of those goals off the bench.

George Hirst was mightily effective against Chelsea and has earned his shot as the attacking fulcrum in the Championship.

Brentford

The explanation for their Jekyll and Hyde ridiculousness was initially that Brentford simply had easier home fixtures and tougher away trips at the start of the season, with their form generally tracking when that was inverted at the midway point.

Then they came from behind to take a point from the Emirates, their first this season away at a team higher than ninth, and everyone just came to accept Brentford are fundamentally quite weird.

Leicester

It is difficult to recall the last time an entire team simply needed one to go in off its collective arse, so Leicester will not look a gift horse made entirely of fortunate deflections and atrocious set-piece marking in the mouth.

This will not spark a miraculous push for survival but Ruud van Nistelrooy was right about the Foxes needing “to break a negative cycle”. How unfortunate that they have six games left to get back into one.

Aaron Ramsdale

The ninth keeper to save two penalties in a Premier League game will surely soon have the opportunity to pick his next career move a little more wisely. Although perhaps joining a Southampton side incompetent enough to entirely absorb his poor performances while platforming his more eye-catching displays was actually fine 4D chess.

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Premier League losers

Spurs

Ange Postecoglou settled on “unusual” as the buzzword to describe the individual mistakes which underpinned a 17th defeat entirely typical of a miserable Premier League season.

It felt like the manager was purposefully subdued, almost to the point of antipathy after the game. Postecoglou might suggest he cannot win in that case, having been criticised for his more antagonistic, argumentative post-match interviews throughout the season. But for such a gifted orator he has so frequently struck the wrong tone this campaign.

“We made errors that conceded goals, so that’s all you can analyse and that’s what happened today,” said Postecoglou. The hope is that being outshot by a team lower in the table despite having almost two-thirds of the possession warrants a little more in-house scrutiny, because one or two individual mistakes leading to a goal is an anomaly but four such instances in the same game points to deep systemic issues.

A chaotic system begets chaos. A lack of proper structure leads to structural problems. And as was wholly predictable, those returning from injury have simply been consumed by that chaos and lack of structure rather than miraculously correcting it through their mere presence.

If Postecoglou is only willing to “analyse” those specific individual mistakes then Spurs can expect nothing else while he remains in the post.

Manchester United

It is genuinely impressive to finish level on points with a team, poach and then part with their sporting director to the tune of £4.1m while cutting costs and making hundreds redundant, outspend them by more than £150m and for the gap to widen to 18 points and ten places in their favour.

That is not all on Amorim but the perennial question remains: do things really need to be this specifically awful? The Portuguese inherited an undoubted mess but the worst of Erik ten Hag had Manchester United four points from Champions League qualification in November; they are three above 17th in April.

The tactics are a separate abject point but even the sort of bold selection calls a manager often relies on to make a statement or evoke a reaction are backfiring horribly. The Andre Onana problem has now been compounded ahead of a game which will help define this miserable season.

Nottingham Forest

No Premier League club has used as few as their 23 players this season and it is starting to show. The legs might be weary with minutes while minds start to be weighed down by pressure and expectation.

Nuno Espirito Santo saw “no positives” but there was also nothing Nottingham Forest did specifically wrong. Their attack was just blunt with Chris Wood returning perhaps a game too soon, while Murillo soiled a hard-earned clean sheet in stoppage time. Everton took full advantage.

The hope is that consecutive defeats can be compartmentalised, coming as they have against one of the league’s form teams and a side which has become remarkably difficult to beat. Everton were organised in defence and struck on the break to secure an ostensibly narrow but ultimately deserved win; Forest have administered that medicine often enough this season to know how to take it and move on.

Enzo Maresca

The prevailing theory that he is quite prone to being Found Out in some way is twofold:

Chuck in an inclination to clash with fans over the playing style and it would be no surprise if Chelsea were conducting another manager search shortly. Blaming the supporters for the errors of Robert Sanchez is brave coming from the man who has played, dropped and then restored him to the starting line-up this season.

Brighton

No club outside the bottom three has accrued fewer points per game against that imminently relegated trio than Brighton (1.67). It is a record somehow damned further by being shared with Spurs.

Brighton’s manager reign-spanning inability to extract the absolute maximum from theoretically the season’s easiest fixtures is well established but no less infuriating. They have faced four of the bottom five at home and failed to win each time, keeping just one clean sheet.

Theirs is a substantial injury list robbing them of key players in crucial positions but excuses and caveats really shouldn’t be necessary against a team which hasn’t scored for eight games dating back to late January, never mind avoided defeat.

The biggest spenders in the Premier League this season still need to invest a little more in defence and on research to discover a way of consistently beating the division’s worst teams.

Oliver Glasner

The latest manager to react in the only sensible way to being linked with taking over at Spurs: by promptly losing his next match.

Glasner did at least own it, admitting that changing formation when leading 2-0 at half-time was “the wrong decision” and his ambitious plan “didn’t work” after some early brilliance at the Etihad.

But even that is a mark against his candidacy for other more illustrious posts. The big nerd has been here long enough to know that blaming VAR or sneering at the long-ball merchantism of the opponents is far more preferable than public introspection and accountability.

Arsenal

Already more Premier League points dropped this season than in both of the last two, with a relatively worrying trend developing in terms of squandering advantages: before this campaign, the most points Arsenal dropped from winning positions in a full season under Mikel Arteta was nine. It is 16 and counting in 2024/25.

The good news is that it is really beyond the point of actually mattering and there are no relevant scenarios in which Arsenal’s emerging tendency to waste a hard-earned lead can properly hurt them this season.

The Athletic’s David Ornstein claims it is looking “increasingly likely” that Tottenham will sack Ange Postecoglou at the end of the season.

Spurs are having a horrific season with their 4-2 defeat to Wolves seeing Postecoglou’s side drop to 15th, just two points ahead of Vitor Perreira’s 16th-placed outfit.

Tottenham have won just one in their last six Premier League matches and the only thing keeping Postecoglou in a job seems to be their run to the Europa League quarter-finals.

Postecoglou’s side drew the first leg at home to Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 and now they head to Germany on Thursday looking to keep their season alive.

The Tottenham board reportedly felt sympathy for Postecoglou earlier in the season when injuries were hitting the Australian’s squad – but, now many of the players are back, and Ornstein reckons a change of manager is now looking “increasingly likely”.

Ornstein told NBC Sports: “It’s no exaggeration Paul, to say this has been a disastrous season for Tottenham Hotspur by their standards. And I think a change in the dugout this summer is beginning to look increasingly likely. That’s certainly the sentiment around football and the people that I speak to. It’s not a personal thing on Ange Postecoglou.

“It’s down to performances, results dating back to really, since the first 10 games of last season, they’ve not been good at all, and the atmosphere among the fan base has certainly taken a dip towards him after he was being praised so heavily right at the beginning.”

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Former Tottenham and Man Utd scout Mick Brown – who is still well-connected in the Premier League – reckons Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner “will walk” at Selhurst Park and be the new Spurs boss in the summer.

Brown told Football Insider: “Oliver Glasner is one of the names on their list. He seems to me to be a very stable character, he knows what he wants and how to get it.

“The evidence is there in the way his team have performed since he came in and they’ve been largely successful – and they’re in the FA Cup semi-finals.

“He will speak to Palace to find out what sort of backing he’s going to get this summer.

“That is both in terms of players they’re going to bring in and players they’re going to keep, because there has been a lot of talk about them.

“If he doesn’t believe he will get that backing, I think he will walk and take the Tottenham job – that’s if he’s the one they decide to offer it to.

“I haven’t heard anything to suggest he’s unhappy at Palace or that he’s wanting to move on.

“But it seems Marc Guehi will leave, there’s endless talk about Mateta, then you’ve got Eze, Wharton, the spine of that team is attracting interest.

“So for Glasner, if the club can’t make any promises about keeping those players, what do you do?

“Tottenham can offer him backing in the market and they’ll be looking to get back into European competition next year, so it’s going to be a big decision.”

The sacking of Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou ‘could be sealed’ this week, with a report stating one thing will see him shown the door by Daniel Levy.

Postecoglou’s second season at Spurs has been a nightmare. After his Tottenham side finished fifth in the Premier League last season, the boss suggested he always wins things in his second campaign.

But the chances for silverware have all dissipated, apart from the Europa League. Tottenham bowed out in the fourth round of the FA Cup, were beaten in the League Cup semi-final, and are currently 15th in the Premier League.

Their Europa League quarter-final is perfectly poised at 2-2, and it’s been reported previously that Postecoglou has been told it’s that ‘or bust’, with his dismissal coming if he doesn’t win the trophy.

There is consistency in that line of reporting, with Football Insider stating his exit ‘could be sealed’ this week if Spurs suffer defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Indeed, the report states Tottenham ‘must win the competition’ to both qualify for the Champions League and for Postecoglou to ‘have any chance’ of keeping his job.

It’s believed a decision ‘could be made’ about Spurs moving for a new manager ‘this week’ if the club exit the European competition.

It has already been reported that Tottenham have approached Oliver Glasner for information on his future, with the Crystal Palace boss not currently in talks to renew his deal with the Eagles.

Meanwhile, our friends at TEAMtalk have long been reporting that Andoni Iraola is a top target, and could be moved upon as soon as Postecoglou is given the boot.

They have also stated that Marco Silva and Edin Terzic are on the radar at Tottenham.

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It is viewed by most that European success will be the only saving grace for Postecoglou, with former top-flight striker Gary Lineker stating: “It’s tough for Tottenham, but hopefully they can do something in Europe. And I’m sure he had his one eye on that this week because that will possibly be his salvation this season.”

Lineker does feel like things might have gotten “a bit much” for Postecoglou this season amid the hard times Spurs have had, though. He and Micah Richards have both suggested they feel sorry for the Tottenham manager amid the tough spell at the club.

According to reports, Tottenham Hotspur may need to pay around £17m to get a Premier League manager to replace Ange Postecoglou.

The Spurs boss is fortunate to still be employed as the Premier League outfit have endured a nightmare season, sitting 14th in the table with seven games remaining.

The North London outfit have massively declined since they came close to qualifying for the Champions League last season, losing 16 games in the Premier League.

Injuries have heavily impacted Spurs, but Postecoglou‘s side have been far from good enough in most of their matches, and he is one of the favourites to be the next Premier League manager to leave.

Having failed in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, Tottenham’s focus is on the Europa League ahead of their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

READ: Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt prediction, expected line-ups, how to watch and stats

Postecoglou arguably needs to win this competition to keep his job as Spurs are already linked with several potential replacements ahead of this summer.

Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Fulham’s Marco Silva are among the favourites to be Tottenham’s next manager, but a recent report claimed they have made an ‘approach’ to Crystal Palace for Oliver Glasner.

Now, a report from German outlet BILD claims Palace have set a huge 20 million euro (£17m) asking price for Glasner amid interest from Spurs and RB Leipzig.

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Thiago Motta is another potential contender following his exit from Juventus, with a report in Italy claiming he has ‘immediately jumped to second place’ behind Iraola in the race to replace Postecoglou.

Earlier this week, Postecoglou was brutally honest when asked about his future at Spurs.

He said: “I came to this club with a clear purpose of rejuvenating a squad that was coming to the end of a cycle.

“I just think we’re in that position that the good stuff we may do is going to be turned into a glass half full rhetoric and from that perspective I don’t think that can be a driver in what we want to do. The lads are really keen to bring success to the club.

“I don’t think you’re going to win that argument of convincing people, well I think [someone] wrote that even if we win it, I’m gone anyway.

“That’s not having a go at you, that’s just saying the general sentiment of people.

“So if you’re trying to use that as a motivation, you’re not going to win that anyway.

“There’s got to be more in it for us and for us what is the most important thing as a group is that we’ve been through a really tough time but we’re still in a position where we can make an impact and you don’t know how often you get those opportunities.”

Ange Postecoglou was once again on fine form as he faced down his best friends, the media, ahead of Tottenham’s Europa League clash with Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday night.

The Spurs boss was left flabbergasted as he fielded more silly questions, firstly about Mathys Tel covering a penalty in Tottenham‘s 3-1 win over Southampton, thus denying Brennan Johnson a Premier League hat trick.

The Aussie also fired back at questions about winning the Europa League and his future at the club, responding, “I think you wrote that even if we win it, I’m gone anyway.”

Thursday’s meeting with Frankfurt offers Ange the opportunity to nudge Spurs towards a first European semi-final since the club beat Ajax during the 2018/19 season.

Tel and Johnson were seen disputing who would take the late spot-kick before the Welshman seemingly lost out and the Bayern Munich loanee converted.

Speaking on the matter, Postecoglou said, “We scored, and we won. I’m delighted. It’s incredible. It’s literally turning gold into c**p, when it’s Tottenham. Seriously.

“We were 2-1 up. If we’re 2-1 up tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute, I want the best penalty taker to take it.

“The one slight against this club is apparently that it hasn’t been a winner. Well, a winner’s mentality in the last minute of a game is to score a goal.

“We scored a goal and yet somehow in this alternate universe where everything that Tottenham does is wrong, that’s come out as a negative.

“From my point of view, I was delighted because if that’s tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute and we get a third goal which could be really decisive, I’ll be really pleased with the way the players handled it.

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Next on the agenda was a line of questioning about his future, with Big Ange asked if winning the Europa League would help win over his critics.

He responded: “I came to this club with a clear purpose of rejuvenating a squad that was coming to the end of a cycle.

“Whatever noise there is, now or in the future, that shouldn’t diminish that desire. Everything in my professional life has come through a struggle.

“Hopefully, we have worked our way into a position where we can make an impact for during what has been a disappointing season for us. I just think there’s a real determination to take this opportunity.

“I just think you can’t win the argument of convincing people.

“I think you wrote that even if we win it, I am gone anyway. That’s just the general sentiment of the people.

“If you try to use that as a motivation, you are not going to win anyway. It’s got to be something more in it for us.

“For us, what’s most important is that we have been through a tough time, but we are still in a position to make an impact.”

Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt prediction:

This is a massive occasion for a Spurs side that has nothing else left to play for this season, other than some pride at the tail end of a torrid campaign.

Lifting the Europa League trophy would render everything that went before it water under the bridge – at least in the short term – and would allow Ange to live up to his promise of winning something in his second season.

We think they’ll set themselves up perfectly with a high-scoring win against the Germans on Thursday.

They’ve scored two or more in 10 of 11 Europa League home ties, a trend which started in 2020 and has continued this campaign.

They even struck twice against Roma earlier in the competition, a team who are far better than Eintracht and were fortunate to escape without a hammering, let alone a 2-2 draw.

Perhaps the standout stat is the fact that Eintracht have conceded two or more goals in their last 30 losses away from home.

We’ve got no hesitation in saying Spurs should win this match and find the net at least twice.

Tottenham Hotspur team news

Destiny Udogie and Micky van de Ven started Sunday’s win against Southampton on the bench, presumably so they’d be well-rested for Thursday’s game.

Udogie will replace either Djed Spence or Pedro Porro as Van de Ven comes in for Ben Davies.

Ange’s side may be otherwise unchanged with Vicario in goal and Cristian Romero in defence.

Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison and Rodrigo Bentancur were all withdrawn before full time and the latter has served a European suspension.

Brennan Jonhson’s brace ensures the Welshman will remain in the team with Son Heung-min likely to flank Dominic Solanke on the other side, even though Wilson Odobert has seen plenty of minutes recently.

Tottenham Hotspur expected line-up

Vicario – Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie – Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison – Johnson, Solanke, Son

Eintracht Frankfurt team news

Eintracht have plenty of experience in their ranks, though 21-year-old goalkeeper Kaua Santos was unexpectedly called into action recently.

The Brazilian has turned in a couple of man-of-the-match performances in the absence of 18-year veteran Kevin Trapp.

There’s Premier League experience in the backline with former Leeds United pair Rasmus Kristensen, who is on loan, and Robin Koch expected to start.

The German side have shuffled the pack a lot in recent weeks, even switching formations during an ongoing injury crisis.

However, we expect to see a 4-2-3-1 with Mario Gotze, Hugo Larsson, Jean-Matteo Bahoya and Hugo Ekitike in attack.

Eintracht Frankfurt expected line-up

Kaua Santos – Kristensen, Theate, Koch, Brown – Shkiri, Tuta – Gotze, Larsson, Bahoya – Ekitike

Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt: How to watch and listen

Thursday’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Eintracht Frankfurt will be shown live on TNT Sports Ultimate and TNT Sports 3. Live commentary will be on BBC Radio 5 Live Sport Extra.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Eintracht Frankfurt stats:

– Spurs beat Frankfurt 3-2 on aggregate when the sides met in the Champions League during the 2022/23 season.

– Tottenham have a checkered past facing German teams, winning 11, drawing two, and losing 11. They’ve lost their previous four meetings, conceding 14 goals.

– This is Tottenham’s best performance in a European competition since reaching the Champions League final during the 2018/19 season.

– Tottenham are on a run of 10 wins and one draw in Europa League fixtures at home.

– Frankfurt have played seven two-legged ties against English opposition. Nottingham Forest remain the only side to beat them twice, back in the 1967/68 season.

– Frankfurt are unbeaten in 21 of 23 Europa League matches.

– Incredibly, the Germans have conceded two or more goals in their previous 30 losses away from home.

Tottenham have reportedly ‘approached’ Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner, while they also want to bring one of his Eagles stars through the door.

Spurs are having a woeful season by their usually lofty standards. Only once in the last 14 seasons have they finished outside the top seven in the Premier League. That was two seasons ago, and Ange Postecoglou turned things around in his first season at the club, engineering a fifth-placed finish after Tottenham came eighth the season prior.

The Australian boss talked a big game about always winning something in his second season, yet his side are currently 14th in the Premier League, and their only chance of silverware is in the Europa League.

Pressure on Postecoglou is ramping up, amid the belief that if that trophy isn’t lifted, his head will be on the chopping block.

Amid the ‘concern’ over the manager, TBRFootball reports Spurs have ‘made an approach’ for Palace boss Glasner. It’s stated that enquiry is to gauge what Glasner is ‘currently thinking about his future’ with his situation ‘far from concrete’.

It’s believed the Eagles boss is ‘currently stalling’ on a new contract as he ‘awaits an answer’ from Steve Parish on the club’s ‘long-term plans’.

Glasner is not the only Palace man being looked at by Tottenham. A separate TBRFootball report states Spurs are ‘huge admirers’ of left-back Tyrick Mitchell, and have ‘decided to push for his signature’ this summer.

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He’s said to be considering his options, given he’s currently competing for the left-back spot with Ben Chilwell.

As such, it’s conceivable that Spurs could land two Palace men this summer. Glasner is unlikely to say no to the chance to sign Mitchell if he does head through the door at Tottenham.

Mitchell has played all 30 of Palace’s Premier League games so far this season, so his manager is clearly a fan, and with the Spurs board already fans of the left-back, the move could be one everyone gets on board with.

Liverpool lost when it no longer mattered as, in a way, did Southampton. Meanwhile, Fulham, Villa, Wolves and very grudgingly Spurs take their places in the winners’ circle.

Winners

Aston Villa

Could have been forgiven for taking their eye slightly off the boil ahead of a Champions League quarter-final trip to Paris but, whatever strife they’ve had trying to balance domestic and continental action after European games, there was no evidence of that before the biggest one of the lot.

A 15-minute blitz took Villa into a commanding two-goal lead that Forest could not claw back despite a much-improved second-half showing after they’d abandoned a disastrous back-five experiment that left an entire defence lost and confused and entirely unsure who was marking who, if indeed anyone was marking anyone at all. Man United can relate, at least.

A fine Saturday for Villa became an even better weekend, with Chelsea and Man City each picking up only a single point to keep Unai Emery’s team in with a very real chance of another crack at the Big Cup even in the unlikely event they don’t win it this season.

The January transfer window was an obvious difference-maker for Villa, and only Liverpool have more Premier League points since it closed, confusingly, in February.

It’s a climax to the season alive with possibility on three fronts for an in-form Villa. But they really might live to rue that terrible goal difference.

Fulham

There’s plenty of debate currently about whether the Premier League this season has been good or bad. We are firmly in the ‘bad’ camp, not because we’re here to have a pop at anyone but because on a fundamental level when you know for sure who’s going to win the league and which three teams are getting relegated with about a third of the season left to play as we did this campaign, that is Not Good.

What we will accept is the argument that in the round there has been perhaps a levelling rather than drop in quality. Some big teams have got hilariously worse, while the Premier League’s ‘middle class’, pockets bulging from TV riches, have been able to pounce on the folly of those bigger teams and close all the gaps.

So while we have a runaway leader and cast-adrift bottom three, there has perhaps never been a smaller quality gap between second and 17th. The combined gaps between first and second and 17th and 18th now stand at 23 points. The points-span covering absolutely everyone who isn’t going to win the league or go down is only 30.

And absolutely nobody better sums up this idea of a 16-team mid-table than Fulham, who are a very good team indeed to sit roughly in the middle of this season’s Middle 16 but have got themselves there in the oddest of fashions.

What Fulham have essentially achieved is to render the opposition meaningless. It makes almost no statistically significant difference who Fulham are playing, or indeed where they are playing them.

This is a team that has taken four points off Liverpool but only three off Ipswich and Southampton combined. They have lost 4-1 at home Wolves, yet won at Chelsea and Newcastle.

They had bits of this egalitarian approach in place last season, where they took four points from Arsenal but one from Burnley.

But they’ve perfected it this year. Most pleasingly, their 48 Premier League points are split down the middle between those won against teams in the top half and those in the bottom half. They’ve got 26 home points and 22 away.

Their longest winning run in the league this year is two games, as is their longest losing streak. They did at one point draw three games in a row, yet even then they merely proved the general thrust of what we’re saying here because those three draws came against Arsenal, Liverpool and… Southampton.

Wolves

The relegation battle briefly flickered back into life when Ipswich were still leading Wolves 1-0 deep into the second half.

There was a very real prospect of a 12-point gap being cut in half in just four days, and that would inevitably have set arseholes twitching even if in all likelihood Wolves would still have been fine.

Two late goals later, and the relegation battle is once again deceased. Bereft of life, it rests in peace.

But having now surely secured survival, the big question now is where Wolves go from here? They have a smattering of really quite wonderful players for a team in 17th and a manager who is starting to get a tune out of them relatively consistently.

Nobody has more points than Wolves’ 13 across the last six games. They always did look the odd one out when there was a clear bottom four; in the short term they could yet spend the rest of this season proving themselves still the odd one out among their new table neighbours Spurs, West Ham, Everton and Man United. It’s a distracted Spurs at home next for a team that can now play with absolute freedom.

But our minds start to wander to next season and what kind of Nottingham Forest-style freakery we might get from a midlands-based team, reinvigorated by the mid-season arrival of a Portuguese manager and surviving a pretty serious flirt with relegation.

Tottenham

Avoided the embarrassment of the Spursiest hat-trick ever as Southampton failed to add their names to Ipswich and Leicester among the litany of teams to have won at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season.

Spurs were far from convincing in a 3-1 win over the now-relegated Saints, and did nothing to suggest they are a team about to pull a season-saving Europa League triumph out of their arses, yet beggars cannot be choosers and for this version of Spurs a win is a win is a win.

But this is a broken team under a broken manager, whose complaints against VAR remain as valid as ever but have assumed the distinct position of crutch, something crowd-pleasing to focus on instead of the fact that the injury crisis has ended with no tangible improvement in Spurs’ performances or results, and perhaps worse still the growing signs that even the misguided purity of Angeball has been fatally compromised.

Still, at least when he’s making pointed hand gestures about VAR he isn’t attempting to gaslight an entire fanbase.

Spurs sent Southampton down on Sunday, but there remains an alarmingly real prospect for someone to do likewise to Spurs next season unless something changes.

A glance at Spurs’ recent results and seven remaining fixtures gives a non-zero chance that this was their final win of the season. We fully expect that sometime around the October international break we’ll be saying things like ‘Spurs haven’t beaten a current Premier League team since February’.

Here endeth the gloomiest ever entry in the ‘winners’ section.

Brennan Johnson

We remain quite sure he’s nothing more than a Temu Raheem Sterling, but he’s played himself right into contention for Tottenham’s season-defining games over the next couple of Thursdays after scoring his 10th and 11th league goals of the season.

It’s more Premier League goals than Luis Diaz or Raul Jimenez or Evanilson or Kai Havertz or Nicolas Jackson or Bruno Fernandes or Jarrod Bowen or Cody Gakpo or Phil Foden or indeed any other Spurs player has managed this season.

It’s not nothing.

Ange Postecoglou

Prompting the same club to sack two managers in the same season, you’ll never sing that.

Crystal Palace

Secured a rare Premier League double over A23 rivals Brighton to put the midweek blip against Southampton behind them and, as well as moving within seven points of their first ever 50-point Premier League season, have now positioned themselves such that a win over Newcastle in their game in hand next week could lift them right into European contention.

Newcastle

Not normal to find yourselves in the winners’ enclosure on a weekend where you don’t even have a game, but these are not normal times for the Carabao Cup winners.

A lovely bunch of weekend results in which the only team now above Newcastle to win was Aston Villa, who beat another team above them anyway, sets the Magpies up beautifully to add Champions League qualification to that long-craved silverware.

If Eddie Howe’s side can take care of business in their three games over the next 10 days against Leicester (straightforward), Man United (ditto) and Palace (admittedly less straightforward) they will be sniffing a shot at third place, never mind merely scrambling their way to fifth.

Losers

Southampton

A long-certain relegation now rubber-stamped in record time with an awkward-looking road back, and the final nail hammered home by a half-baked and half-arsed Spurs team that only very briefly appeared in any real danger of Spursing themselves in this one.

The relegation isn’t even the worst thing. That’s been coming for months, now. Spurs’ current navel-gazing uncertain miserabilism meant this was one of Southampton’s more plausible routes past 11 points. It now seems like it’s all eyes on Leicester next month.

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Aaron Ramsdale

Three relegations with three different clubs in six years.

Ipswich

Fitting really that Ipswich’s own relegation was effectively confirmed in a home game that promised much but in the end delivered only more disappointment.

It’s not just that Ipswich have managed only seven home points all season – although it is also definitely that – but the fact those points haven’t even come in the most decisive fixtures.

Beating Chelsea is lovely and very good, well done for that, but it’s an absurd win to have as your only one at home all season.

Ipswich have now emerged with a solitary point from their three six-pointer home games against the teams who have spent most of this season in their orbit while also being thrashed by Tottenham and well beaten by Everton back when things felt decidedly bleaker in the blue half of Liverpool.

Liverpool

Look, if you’re going to look completely knackered and newly short on ideas about what to do about that, then do so when you’re 11 points clear with seven games to play of a pursuer who absolutely cannot be trusted to pounce even if you do completely collapse in a shattered heap.

Nothing is f*cked. It’s going to be okay. Liverpool are still going to win the league. But there’s also no doubt that the season is ending in a weird fashion for them.

In the space of four games around the international break, Liverpool have seen two clear routes to silverware end and now suffered a first Premier League defeat in a game they’ve led since the 2022/23 season.

Given that formidable record under both Klopp and Slot of pressing home any advantage, the sight of Fulham turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead across 14 error-strewn first-half minutes has to be cause for longer-term alarm.

The futures of the Contract Three are a big factor in why these Liverpool foundations suddenly feel so fragile, but not the only one as the sense grows that even with a new manager this season has represented the last hurrah of something brilliant rather than the exciting start of a new cycle.

The Contract Three

Trent Alexander-Arnold is injured, Virgil van Dijk is making wholly uncharacteristic errors surely born of utter exhaustion, while Mo Salah has stopped producing anything much at all after months and months of goal-and-assist numbers never before seen in the Premier League.

Van Dijk looks alarmingly attackable at the moment, with Fulham really doing nothing more this weekend than finishing what Beto had started in midweek.

Salah won only one of his eight duels against Fulham, while two of the (still ludicrously low) six Premier League games in which he’s contributed neither a goal nor an assist have now happened in the last five days.

Nottingham Forest

Seems churlish and is churlish to criticise pretty much anything Forest have done this season, but if they were to end up missing out on Champions League qualification at the end of this season they may look back with particular rue on the decision to start with a back five at Villa Park.

They were the better side by miles in the second half at Villa, but missed a string of chances and, with only Jota Silva’s goal to show for their efforts, have missed an opportunity not only to cement their own top-five standing but put a significant dent in Villa’s chances.

The draws elsewhere for Chelsea and Man City mitigate the impact to a pretty significant extent, but also only exacerbate the feeling of a squandered chance against a Villa side who were always going to have to hedge their bets to some extent between Saturday’s game and the upcoming trip to Paris.

A narrow defeat at a team as good as Villa shouldn’t be the one that defines any season, but the largely self-inflicted nature of it at such a pivotal time of the season leaves a definite sting.

Manchester

The drabbest, most sorrowful of derbies between a United side in genuine danger of finishing below even Spurs and a City one now likely to find themselves outside even the expanded Champions League spots by the morning.

We’ve already managed to put together far more words than is sensible or necessary on a game of such utter drudgery, and you will get no fresh ones here. You can’t make us.

Brighton

The international break can be a burden for all, but there’s nearly always a team for whom it comes as a complete season-wrecking momentum killer. This year, that team appears to be Brighton.

Before the international break they were enjoying a seven-game unbeaten run that included FA Cup successes against both Chelsea and Newcastle and a march towards Champions League contention in the league.

Since the international break they have scored one goal in 300 minutes of football, gone out of the FA Cup and lost back-to-back league games against Villa and Palace to drop back into the mid-table pack.

The good news is that at least it’s Leicester up next.

Bournemouth

Now find themselves inside the bottom three on the form table. Takes something special to do that this season of all seasons, but especially when that two-points-from-six-games collapse comes on the back of a run of eight wins and four draws in the previous 13.

Chelsea

On December 8, Chelsea beat Spurs 4-3 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

In eight Premier League away games combined since that nonsense they’ve cobbled together exactly the same number of points and scored fewer goals.

The fact they are still seemingly heading for the Champions League despite themselves is a black mark against every single team currently below them in the table.

According to reports, Tottenham Hotspur have joined Aston Villa in the race to sign England international Noni Madueke from Chelsea.

The 23-year-old progressed through the ranks at Spurs but left to join Eredivisie outfit PSV Eindhoven as a teenager.

Madueke returned to England during the 2023 January transfer window, joining Premier League giants Chelsea for a fee in the region of £28.5m.

The England international has 17 goals and seven assists in his 76 Chelsea appearances in all competitions but is linked with an exit ahead of the summer transfer window.

Last week, a report from GiveMeSport claimed Aston Villa are ‘leading the race’ to sign £30m-rated Madueke with Chelsea ‘beginning to give indications that they will entertain offers when the transfer window reopens in the summer’.

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There is said to be ‘increasing confidence that Chelsea are prepared to cash in if a strong bid that allows them to make a marginal profit is tabled’ with Aston Villa ahead of Newcastle United.

Now, a report from Football Insider claims Spurs are also in the running to land Madueke as they are ‘plotting a surprise move’.

Chelsea are reportedly prepared to sanction his exit with head coach Enzo Maresca having ‘doubts’ about the winger for one reason.

‘Spurs are among a number of clubs across Europe keeping a close eye on his situation at Stamford Bridge.’

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‘This comes as Enzo Maresca has doubts about where the winger fits into his system and is prepared to sanction his exit at the end of the season.

‘Sources say Spurs are now interested in bringing him back to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and could make a move to sign him this summer.’

Former Premier League scout Mick Brown claims Spurs could also make a move for Crystal Palace standout Eberechi Eze this summer.

“We talk about Bruno Fernandes at Man United, Marcus Rashford at Villa, Alexander Isak at Newcastle, and at Palace that player is Eze,” Brown said.

“If they can get the ball into him often enough, he can do something nobody else in that side can.

“It’s because of that they’re determined to keep him at the club, he’s a difference maker and they’d miss him if he left the club this summer.

“They want to keep him and I don’t expect he’s the type of player to force through a move unless Palace’s asking price is met.

“Tottenham have been interested for a long time and he’s their type of player.

“If Eze has the opportunity to move to a team like Tottenham, I think he would be open to that, and it’s not slight on Palace and what they’ve done.

“So that move wouldn’t surprise me, but it will only be on Palace’s terms and they want to keep him.”

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has issued an update on Ange Postecoglou’s future at Tottenham Hotspur as he is in a “dangerous situation”.

Under Postecoglou, Spurs are enduring a miserable season as they have lost 16 Premier League games and sit 16th in the table after 30 matches.

Injuries have impacted Tottenham this term, but their performances in most matches have been far from good enough as they have massively underdelivered after narrowly missing out on Champions League qualification last season.

Postecoglou is among the favourites to be the next Premier League manager sacked, with Tottenham’s Europa League run the only saving grace in a dire season.

Spurs face Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League quarter-finals and Romano believes the “whole sense of the project could change” if they win this competition.

“It’s not over yet, but it’s a dangerous situation, the one of Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham. I know Spurs fans are not happy with the current situation. It’s really poor in terms of points. 34 in 30 games in Premier League,” Romano said on his YouTube channel.

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“In the Europa League, it’s a different story. Now, there is an important clash with Eintracht [Frankfurt]. So the Europa League is saving the season at the moment for Tottenham and Postecoglou.

“If Tottenham win the Europa League, this could change the whole sense of the project. Next year, they would be in the Champions League finally, so it would be really important.”

However, Romano insists Spurs are “expected” to “replace Postecoglou” if they do not win the Europa League and he’s ruled out one potential replacement.

“Otherwise, the expectation is that there is a very concrete and strong chance for Tottenham to replace Postecoglou at the end of the season,” Romano added.

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“Tottenham started exploring the managers’ market. Tottenham are informed on the situation of Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth with a release clause in his contract.

“Tottenham know everything about that and nd he’s a candidate. Iraola is doing fantastic at Bournemouth, and for sure, he’s highly rated internally at Tottenham. So it’s one of the possibilities.

“Another coach appreciated is Marco Silva, who has spent years at Fulham doing very well, sometimes not with crazy investments, but with a good squad, and he was able to make them perform in an excellent way.

“There are links with Simone Inzaghi, but I can guarantee that Inzaghi is completely focused on Inter and he’s not having any concrete conversation with Tottenham at this point. But in general, the Tottenham job is something interesting to follow.”