What’s another Premier League loss to a team in 15th place? For Tottenham Hotspur, the answer is both “not much” and “a sign of incoming apocalypse.” Despite having more money and talent than plenty of teams above them on the table, Spurs continued their lost season on Sunday, traveling to Wolverhampton and coming away with a 4-2 defeat to Wolves, one of the few teams below the North London side in the standings. There’s not much difference between 15th and, say, 13th, where Tottenham would have been with a victory, but on the eve of the most important match of its season, this side looks ready to limp to an underwhelming finish.
Tottenham was dire on Sunday in the West Midlands. One could make the case that Wolverhampton’s first two goals were fluky, and in a way, they were. After about 90 seconds, Spurs goalie Guglielmo Vicario decided, perplexingly, to punch a free kick rather than catching it, and the rebound fell to Rayan Aït-Nouri, who bounced a volley perfectly past the entire Tottenham defense and Vicario for a quick opener. And then, in the 38th minute, a messy bit of in-the-box defending culminated with Vicario punching the ball away from his goal and directly into his own defender, Djed Spence, whose unlucky positioning allowed the ball to dribble into the back of the net:
Is it a fluke that Tottenham would go down 2-0 in an away game during a season where losing away games has been its one true specialty? A jarring stat: Tottenham has now lost more away matches (10) than 18th place Ipswich Town, who has looked overmatched for most of the campaign (though the Tractor Boys did lead Chelsea away 2-0 on Sunday before hanging on to a draw for pride’s sake). Tottenham controlled most of Sunday’s possession—63 percent, to be exact—but couldn’t turn that control of the ball into goals until it was, perhaps, far too late.
When Spurs did convert, it was never to equalize the scoreline. Trailing 2-0 for about 20 minutes on either side of halftime, some form of hope came in the 59th minute, thanks to a fluke going the other way. Swedish midfield sub Lucas Bergvall grabbed the ball just on the far side of the halfway line and turned on the jets, drawing in enough Wolves defenders to be able to slot a little ball to Brennan Johnson, who then hit a spicy cutback across the box that Mathys Tel hit off of Nelson Semedo’s back and into the goal.
It was somewhat unlucky for Wolves (Semedo missed the initial clearance quite badly, so it wasn’t completely down to luck), as the hosts had been more dangerous to start the second half, but they never panicked. Five minutes later, striker Jørgen Strand Larsen restored the two-goal advantage, thanks to some lackadaisical defending from Cristian Romero that allowed Aït-Nouri to steal the ball just outside of the box and feed an easy through ball to Strand Larsen, who will never score an easier goal than this:
Spurs got one last lifeline late, as Richarlison brought the deficit back down to one goal in the 85th minute, latching on to a rebounded corner to head in Tottenham’s second. Once again, though, perhaps confident in the knowledge that they were playing a better, smarter game, Wolves stayed calm and restored its advantage two minutes later, via a returning Matheus Cunha, who sealed the three points in the 86th minute with a heads-up jump of the ball, taking it away from a very casual Bergvall before out-racing the Tottenham backline to score a simple one-on-one:
While one can credit Tottenham for not fully wilting in the face of yet another disappointment, this was not the match that the side likely wanted before another key away match coming this week, its most important of the season. Tottenham’s only remaining salvation could come in the Europa League, where a trophy would be doubly euphoric. First off and more immediately, it would give Tottenham its much-sought-after first major trophy since the League Cup in 2008. Second, and almost as importantly, it would book Tottenham a mostly undeserved ticket into the Champions League next season, returning to the top continental competition after a year away. With the way that clubs like Aston Villa and Newcastle United have climbed into perennial Champions League contention, as well as Nottingham Forest’s shock ascension this season, Tottenham’s spot in that tournament has never been less assured, and its performance this season has made it beyond impossible to achieve qualification through the league.
And so, Tottenham’s fate relies on beating Eintracht Frankfurt in the second leg of its Europa League quarterfinal, a tie currently even at one all after the first leg in North London last week. Beating the third-place Bundesliga side won’t cure all that ails Tottenham, and it almost certainly won’t save Ange Postecoglou’s job. He’ll have to guide Spurs to a further semifinal victory against either Norway’s FK Bodø/Glimt or Italy’s Lazio (Bodø/Glimt notched a surprising 2-0 win in the first leg of that quarterfinal), and then lift the trophy in the final against one of Rangers, Athletic Bilbao, Lyon, or fellow Premier League under-achiever Manchester United.
Similarly to United keeping Erik ten Hag following last season’s FA Cup final victory, Spurs might be more encouraged to keep Postecoglou if he accomplishes what managers like Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho, and Nuno Espírito Santo couldn’t. Maybe the club should part ways with the Greek-Australian manager, anyway; no amount of Champions League qualification can paper over the cracks that have broadened this season under Postecoglou, mainly in defense. However, soccer is at the end of the day about results and trophies, and so Big Ange has to know he’s managing for his job not in the Premier League, where the 4-2 defeat is just another insult atop an injury-riddled season, and instead in the wilds of the Europa League, where one slip-up should seal his fate, and a few more victories might be enough to let him try again next season.
