The question of what has gone wrong at Tottenham this season doesn't have one clean answer — it has about eight of them, all interconnected, all feeding into each other in a way that's made the whole thing harder to fix. But if you want to understand why Spurs are where they are right now — fighting relegation in April with no wins in 2026 — there are a few threads worth pulling.
Start with the manager situation. Ange Postecoglou came in with a clear philosophy and a genuine belief in attacking football. There was a period last season where it actually looked like it was working. Then injuries struck. Then defensive frailties that were always there became impossible to paper over. The football got predictably good and predictably bad at the same time — exciting to watch, but brittle. And brittle doesn't survive a Premier League season.
The board's decision-making in the transfer market hasn't helped. Spurs brought in players, but not the right ones in the right positions. The defensive reinforcements were inadequate, the midfield options thin, and the reliance on Son Heung-min — who at 33 cannot be expected to drag a team through a season on his own — became too obvious too quickly.
Then there's the Arsenal factor, which the headline captures perfectly. Watching your north London rivals genuinely compete for a Premier League title and a Champions League semi-final while you're looking anxiously at the bottom three every week — that is its own kind of psychological weight. The gap between the clubs, which narrowed so promisingly a couple of seasons ago, has widened again. Arsenal are operating at a fundamentally different level right now.
Son has spoken about the squad's resilience and their determination to stay up. He's the right person to lead from the front. But even he looked drained in recent weeks, a player carrying a burden that shouldn't be his alone.
Five games left. Spurs need probably nine points to be safe. That means winning three of their last five — a run that includes difficult away fixtures. It's possible. It's not comfortable. And it should never have got this far in the first place.
Something fundamental needs to change at that club over the summer, regardless of what division they're in.
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