Here are our Tottenham talking points after their relegation battle defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Sunday
A day that started in the bright sunshine with 10,000 fans lining the Tottenham High Road to cheer the team bus on its way to the stadium ended with clouds hanging over Spurs.
Igor Tudor had matters beyond football to deal with in the aftermath of the 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest as he had been informed about the death of an immediate family member. That meant his assistant coach Bruno Saltor faced the media and said: "It's a personal family issue and obviously it's a difficult moment for him. I'm just trying to support the best way we can."
The Spaniard had to explain a football display that fell apart due to poor substitutions, errors off the pitch and on it and some costly refereeing decisions.
The Spurs supporters had more than done their part. They were organised, united and covered the street outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a way that evoked memories of the incredible Europa League trophy parade just 10 months beforehand.
When the team bus came down White Hart Lane and turned left a huge cheer broke out among the thousands there, blue flares were lit and the players got the best welcome they could possibly ask for.
Saltor was watching from his seat on the coach and said afterwards: "It was quite emotional for everyone on the bus and that's what we need because right now, all of us, we have the same goal and that is to fight until the end of the season and stay in the Premier League as this club deserve."
Inside the stadium the fans sang, they unfurled flags and they roared on the team at every turn. There was nothing more they could do. Yet once again they were let down.
The team selection from Tudor was uninspiring from the start, not harnessing anything about what made Wednesday night's win feel different from what had come before.
The key absence was two-goal Xavi Simons, who Tudor had told football.london on Friday was a 'beautiful surprise' with how creative and aggressive he was.
With Micky van de Ven playing at left-back and Pedro Porro as a right winger, it was a team half full of defenders and it showed. It was a side selected not to lose rather than to sweep to victory and that is a tactic that never ends well for Tottenham. To not dare usually means to not do, or utter do do if you will.
Despite all of that, while Spurs were not exactly creating a conveyor belt of chances they were still the better team in the first half.
Archie Gray hit a sublime cross-field pass into Mathys Tel's path and the young Frenchman saw his effort deflected wide of the left-hand post. Richarlison sent a header across the face of the Forest goal from Tel's corner before visiting striker Igor Jesus nodded a Kevin Danso long throw on to his own crossbar.
Richarlison, who was later flagged offside and appeared marginally to be, then fired a low cross inches away from the sliding Dominic Solanke's toe. The injured players were on the touchline shouting the team on, Wilson Odobert on crutches and James Maddison constantly leaping up to dish out instructions to Djed Spence down that flank.
Yet all the huffing and puffing was for nothing when every Spurs player missed Morgan Gibbs-White's corner and Jesus got away from Spence to head into the net in the 45th minute. The hosts had 13 corners in the game while Forest had three and scored from one, which summed up the situation.
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It was the 18th goal Tottenham have conceded in the final 15 minutes of a first half this season, more than any other club in the Premier League. If there's a damaging time to concede, the north London side will find it and they have not won a single one of the past 31 league matches they have conceded first in.
There was still time though before the interval for Tel to see his shot from outside the box tipped on to the crossbar by goalkeeper Matz Selz and Cristian Romero appeared to be sent tumbling in the box as he tried to head in the rebound.
The fans took their frustrations out on referee Michael Oliver and his officials at the half-time whistle with potential penalty calls for challenges on Pape Matar Sarr and Van de Ven also dismissed quickly, with a few clear yellow cards for Forest players decided against throughout the opening period.
Yet Spurs had still been the better side and reinforcing that message would have been the way to go at that point.
Instead Destiny Udogie and Lucas Bergvall, who had played 24 and 16 minutes since early February and January respectively were told to start warming up in the half-time break.
As everyone waited to see who would be coming off, there was no little surprise when Van de Ven did not reappear for the second half along with Spence. Van de Ven had clattered into the advertising hoarding so maybe he was injured?
"No, it was a sub with the intention to give more dynamic in the left side and have more legs going forward. I thought that was like a tactical sub," Saltor told football.london, not entirely seeming convinced himself.
The plan to give more dynamism to the team was to take off two of its fastest players. It was a huge error - a performance-stifling decision and a true head scratcher.
It's still unclear whether Udogie actually came on for the second half, so poor and rusty was the Italian's display, one low ball to the sliding Bergvall in the Forest box aside. The Swede offered some enthusiasm but neither presented any successful case for replacing Van de Ven and Spence.
Forest looked more likely to score as Spurs lost control of the game. Guglielmo Vicario, playing through the pain for the final time before his hernia surgery next week, saved well from the unmarked Neco Williams' header.
However, the Italian will feel he should have done better with Gibbs-White's goal on 62 minutes which went through him.
To blame Vicario though would be excusing everyone else in the build-up, Pedro Porro allowing Callum Hudson-Odoi to breeze past him and then Romero wandering back into his own box as if on a Sunday stroll with the dog.
It all left Gibbs-White completely free to score and he celebrated with his hands to his ears after being booed throughout the game by the home fans after the move that never happened to Tottenham last summer.
That failed transfer now feels like a sliding doors moment for the north London club and perhaps even Thomas Frank might still be in charge had it happened.
Or Gibbs-White may just have ended up injured. For every single outfield member of Tottenham's first team, barring newcomer Souza, has now suffered illness or injury this season with Tel becoming the final one to fall as he came off with what looked like a groin problem.
That finally brought Xavi and Randal Kolo Muani on to the pitch, although bewilderingly meant taking Richarlison, one of the team's best in the air, off as Spurs had an attacking corner.
None of the substitutes made any difference. The game was gone and the confidence built up in the rest of the week had dissipated.
Many of the fans who had given their all had seen enough and began heading for the exits. Only those glutton for punishment remained to watch Taiwo Awoniyi beat Danso to poke home Williams' cross to strike the final blow in the 87th minute.
It was only then that a service-starved Solanke woke up to have a couple of shots saved by Selz.
It was far too little too late and those same fans who cheered the team on to the pitch, booed them off it with the team winless in 13 matches and still the only side without a Premier League victory in 2026. Spurs are closing on the club record tally of 16 league matches without a win from the 1934-35 campaign.
Forest came into this game having travelled from Denmark in the early hours of Friday morning with less preparation and recovery time than Spurs yet ended walking away with a comfortable victory.
Saltor told football.london why he thought Tottenham lost this latest game.
"It's the small details. I thought for 44 minutes in the first half we were the better team. Any mistake that we make, any small detail goes against us and we're not able to capitalise on the opposition's mistakes and probably that affected the team," he said.
"That's our job as coaches, to keep helping the players. As you can see, the players, they care and they are 100% trying their best, but at the moment, it's not enough. We need to minimise any mistakes because we know that we're going to concede a goal."
He added: "The players got affected by the rhythm of the game and we couldn't find that rhythm to create more chances. The first half, the first 44 minutes I thought were good, really good, creating chances, getting into the box. In the second half, probably, we were unable to deal with the weight of the game."
It can't go unnoticed that the Spaniard pointed out that Spurs were the better team in the first half yet a double change was still made to derail that. Tottenham lost any control of possession with those substitutions.
Tottenham are now 17th in the table and could find themselves in the relegation zone by the time they next step on to a pitch on April 12 at Sunderland if West Ham beat Wolves at the London Stadium two days earlier. Tudor had said on Friday that this wasn't a six-pointer against Forest but rather a four-pointer. However, if Tottenham's stronger goal difference has now been eroded by a six-goal swing.
Romero thanked the fans on Sunday for their efforts and said: "It's painful, it's a bad day, but the most important thing is to go away to national teams, come back here and have seven finals."
Spurs have their joint-lowest points tally at this stage of a league season, alongside the 1914-15 campaign if that one was adjusted to three points for a win.
They are in a complete mess and have used up their one card of asking the fans for their help by leaping on to the supporters' efforts and then not delivering themselves. Can they ask again? The fury after the third goal with the pained Vicario and the team getting booed suggests not.
What happens next in the dugout is difficult to untangle. Tudor has understandably bigger things on his mind right now than football and three weeks is little time to deal with the loss of someone close.
Tottenham must decide on their next move as well during this time ahead. Just seven games remain and they do not look capable of winning matches when it matters.
Can anyone improve a squad lacking in leaders at this late stage though? It is a club full of questions but no answers.
Would they have been better to stick with Frank until the end of the season? What would season three have been like under Ange Postecoglou and would it have been better than this horror show of a campaign?
Would this mess have happened under former chairman Daniel Levy or did he play his part in the downfall? Would taking some short-term or longer term gambles in the winter window have prevented the football and financial disaster on the horizon?
Should they have turned earlier this season to one of their own from within in Matt Wells before he left for his first managerial role across the Atlantic where he has won three of his opening five MLS matches with the previously struggling Colorado Rapids?
Do they turn to another Spurs man who knows these players well in Ryan Mason or to any of the older heads from the past touting themselves for the position? Do they switch attention to one of the other interim candidates they reportedly passed over for Tudor like Marco Rose or Edin Terzic?
Do they try to throw huge amounts of money at a permanent and available hire like Roberto De Zerbi, with a relegation release clause for the Italian, even though that would close off their other summer options if they stay up?
Or do they just stick with Tudor, if the Croatian wants to stay amid such a difficult moment in his personal life, and hope there can be more displays like the ones against Liverpool and Atletico rather than Sunday's second half mess? Will they get big players like Mohammed Kudus and Rodrigo Bentancur back after this three-week break just when it matters?
The biggest question of all is will Tottenham Hotspur be a Premier League team next season? The answer to that is looking more clouded than ever.
