Evening Standard
·26 Januari 2025
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·26 Januari 2025
Anti-Levy sentiment growing with Spurs facing up to a relegation battle after Leicester defeat
Tottenham's dreadful Premier League form continued as they squandered a lead to lose 2-1 to struggling Leicester in north London.
Richarlison marked his first league start of the second by opening the scoring with a well-taken header but Spurs imploded in a four-minute period after the break.
Jamie Vardy levelled within seconds of the restart from Bobby De Cordova Reid’s cross and moments later Bilal El Khannouss strode forward and finished from the edge of the box. Spurs had chances to level, with Pedro Porro’s free-kick striking the crossbar, but could not find a way back into the game.
Here are three Spurs talking points from the game…
This was another bleak day for Spurs, perhaps the bleakest yet in a season where you can never be confident that the club have reached rock bottom.
After last weekend’s 3-2 loss to Everton, a side with one win in 12 league games, Spurs went down at home to a team with just one victory in their previous 14 top-flight fixtures.
This will go down as the week when the concept of ‘Dr. Tottenham’ went from gallows humour from supporters to a mainstream concept.
It is no longer an exaggeration to consider Leicester as Spurs’ potential relegation rivals, such is the alarming rate of their decline; Ange Postecoglou’s side are in freefall, with one win in 11 league games and sliding ever close to the drop zone.
It is increasingly difficult to avoid the sense that Ange Postecoglou is running out of time to save his job
AFP via Getty Images
After a dreadful first half at Goodison Park last weekend, Spurs were undone in a four-minute period at the start of the second half, in which they twice conceded.
Both Leicester's goals were the result of dreadfully sloppy defending and a jaded Spurs, who were missing 10 players to injury again, laboured to get back into the game at 2-1 down in a sloppy and low-energy performance.
But the players looked exhausted, the majority of Postecoglou’s depleted squad running on fumes and Pape Matar Sarr, who started the game despite struggling to train in the week, clearly not fit.
As poor as Spurs were, it remains difficult to cast too stern a judgement on the manager and his players when the squad is stretched so thin but, regardless, it is increasingly difficult to avoid the sense that Postecoglou is running out of time.
An apathy of hopelessness has taken hold of large swathes of the Spurs fanbase - and who can blame them? - but when fans did find their voice, it was invariably to vent at Daniel Levy.
Leicester’s second goal was met by a volley of ‘We want Levy out’, followed by cries of ‘Daniel Levy, get out of our club’ from around the ground.
Frustration at the chairman has generally been restricted to the travelling fans during this bleak mid-winter but now anti-Levy sentiment appears to be growing.
While the players and Postecoglou cannot be considered blameless for a dreadful slump, there is a compelling case that Levy and the board are primarily responsible.
Supporters turned on Levy and the board as Spurs lost 2-1 at home to Leicester
Getty Images
After signing just one first-team ready player for Postecoglou in the summer (as well as offloading several senior squad players), Spurs are still to sign an outfield players after 26 days of the transfer window, in spite of the manager’s repeated calls for “help” for his exhausted squad.
It has been blindingly obvious for months that Tottenham’s squad simply could not cope with the schedule and the pile up of major injuries to key players, so waiting until the end of the month to act (or not acting at all) should not have been an option in this window.
Four-minute spells like the one Spurs suffered at the start of the second half are understandable when the players are out of their feet, running through treacle.
While Postecoglou will eventually be the fall-guy if Spurs cannot quickly address their freefall, supporters are justified in turning the heat on Levy and the board.
As Spurs searched for a leveller in the second half, Porro looked - somewhat surprisingly - to be their biggest threat.
Just after the hour the right-back’s fierce 30-yard free-kick skimmed off a head in the wall and rattled the crossbar, with goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk well beaten.
A few moments later, Porro burst through Leicester’s defence and found himself free inside the box, with Archie Gray unmarked and screaming for the ball in the middle.
Spurs are just eight points above the relegation zone after four straight defeats
AFP via Getty Images
Instead, Porro took on a low-percentage shot himself from the angle, predictably finding the side netting and prompting furious howls of frustration from the single-tier South Stand.
A free-kick an inch too high and a poor decision in the box from a jaded player; suddenly these feel like the fine margins by which Postecoglou’s job might depend.
Given Leicester’s quality and form, if Spurs had levelled with 30-odd minutes to play, they might have had a chance to turn the game on its head again.
As it was, Porro’s efforts proved the closest they came to an equaliser, along with a Dejan Kulusevski effort which was well saved.
Such is the precariousness of Spurs’ situation, you genuinely wonder how big these moments will prove to the bigger picture.