Legend has it that scientists were originally going to call the idea of Chaos Theory – ‘The Tottenham Hotspur Theory’.
That’s of course not technically true, or even slightly true for that matter, but you could make an argument for the north London club being a fascinating case study for those chaos theorists to investigate, for in N17 anything can happen.
Spurs are a club of paradoxes. They are the second top scorers in the Premier League while only four sides have conceded fewer than Ange Postecoglou’s men in the competition, yet they lie in 11th place in the table and are widely considered to be too open and defensively vulnerable.
This season Tottenham have scored 16 goals against some of the big boys in Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa, yet they’ve struggled to find a way past teams they’re expected to score against like Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Leicester, Fulham and Bournemouth.
Sunday’s game against Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was another rollercoaster. It had everything except the three points it seemed the hosts were heading towards in the first half, despite the overwhelming belief before the match that the high-flying Blues were going to hand them a heavy defeat.
This was a chaotic encounter that brought seven goals, a surprise return, some unsurprising injuries – including to one who returned, a controversial challenge, two incredibly stupid penalty-gifting tackles, key missed chances and a huge tifo that ended up being used by the Spurs fans in the south stand for around 17,500 paper aeroplanes.
This was probably the most animated Ange Postecoglou has been on the sidelines all season as he wrestled with the chaos in disbelief at times.
The Australian is currently like a boxer trying to fight the opponent in front of him, only to keep getting stunned by sideways punches that come from others leaning over the ropes around him.
On Sunday it looked like the god of injuries was going to be merciful for a change with both Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven available. The Dutchman was set to return in midweek at Rangers but had trained so well and wanted to play, that Postecoglou, with the go-ahead from the medical staff, went for it.
It all started so well. Dominic Solanke quickly showed that when you actually give the £60million striker the ball in a good position he’s likely to score.
Marc Cucurella slipped and Brennan Johnson raced away with the ball down the right flank and Solanke did well to get in front of his man to power the cross home in true poacher fashion. He did not hesitate to celebrate against his old club.
Just five minutes later it was 2-0 to Tottenham. Cucurella slipped once again, Johnson picked up the ball once more and passed it inside to Pedro Porro. The Spaniard fed Dejan Kulusevski and the Swede dribbled inside and struck a terrific low effort through the tightest of spaces and inside the right-hand post.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was rocking, the fans were singing Postecoglou’s name and Chelsea were on the ropes.
It was all too much positivity for Spurs to handle. So Romero had to leave the action, with a quad injury rather than the toe problem he’d just recovered from.
Jadon Sancho took full advantage a couple of minutes later, cutting in from the left wing into the space the aggressive Romero would have pushed into and burying a clinical shot off the base of the right-hand post from outside the box.
The two teams traded chances with Cole Palmer missing a kick at one end and then Son Heung-min curling an effort just over at the other, following good interplay with Solanke.
Chelsea were always going to carry a threat and Fraser Forster made a double save from Palmer and Pedro Neto only for Pape Matar Sarr to send a header against the visitors’ crossbar from Son’s corner.
Solanke couldn’t quite set his feet on the run to knock home a Son ball into the six-yard box at one end before Radu Dragusin executed a brilliant sliding challenge in the Spurs area to deny Nicolas Jackson.
The first half also brought a dangerous challenge from Moises Caicedo high on Sarr’s shin that was not too dissimilar from the one that resulted in Romero being sent off in the corresponding fixture last season.
This time thought Caicedo wasn’t even booked and after the briefest of checks VAR did not disagree.
A Premier League statement soon followed, stating: “VAR checked for a potential red card following a challenge by Caicedo on Sarr and confirmed the referee’s call of no serious foul play.”
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher claimed Chelsea “got away with a huge one” after what he felt was an “unbelievable” decision.
Postecoglou said after the game: “I think it’s kind of where we’re at with the current state of football, where people are just frozen to make big decisions. I think referees don’t want to make them because they’ll go to VAR and VAR doesn’t want to intervene, so you’re kind of left in no man’s land. There’s a couple of decisions I thought today that definitely went against us.
“I thought the linesman put his flag up bizarrely for Deki when he was through, I don’t know what for. Those are things that are out of our control. We can’t do anything about that. Hopefully the powers-that-be work that out.”
Half-time arrived though with Spurs still in a good position and carrying plenty of threat. Chelsea started the second period well, Forster making a great reflex save from Sancho’s deflected shot, and then the Tottenham curse struck again.
Brennan Johnson had informed the coaching staff that he was feeling unwell at half-time but was determined to keep going. He lasted only eight minutes before slumping to the turf, holding his side.
Once again an enforced Tottenham change was swiftly followed by Chelsea scoring a goal, this time entirely through one player pressing the self-destruct button.
That player was Yves Bissouma and it’s not the first time he’s done it. The 28-year-old picked up three suspensions last season for two red cards and reaching five yellows.
Before this campaign he was suspended for a game by the club after being filmed using nitrous oxide.
On Sunday, an hour in, the experienced midfielder launched into a late challenge in the Spurs box on -yes you guessed it – Caicedo, who was fortunate to still be on the pitch. It was a brainless challenge with the Chelsea midfielder heading towards the by-line and Bissouma was never going to reach the ball first.
There were no complaints and his team-mates looked bewildered. Palmer stepped up and sent Forster the wrong way from the spot.
It was a crucial moment that flipped the momentum in Chelsea’s favour and once again it was Bissouma continuing his theme of bad decisions. To double the daftness, it was his fifth yellow card of the season, which means he will miss the game at Southampton next weekend.
The Mali international apologised via his Instagram story later on Sunday evening: “I’m so sad for that mistake. It’s burning me because we lost the game today from this mistake. I feel sorry for my team-mates, staff and fans. I take all the responsibility for that one. I’ll learn from this one. It’s time now to show the real me. Thanks for all the support.”
The problem is that Bissouma is 28 and he should be one of the inspiring leaders of this group. In truth, he’s just not and were it not for Rodrigo Bentancur’s suspension, he would be more likely playing in the Europa League matches than in the Premier League.
The midfielder has got all the talent in the world and the ability to dominate matches, but his game is too inconsistent as are his decisions on and seemingly off the pitch.
Tottenham have Archie Gray who could eventually be a long-term option in the role and Postecoglou has been using Lucas Bergvall in the position in the past two matches, with the 18-year-old Swede tidy once again when he came on against Chelsea.
There is also the option to sign Real Betis’ 23-year-old defensive midfielder Johnny Cardoso next summer. The USA international currently has a hamstring injury, showing that even just having an option for Spurs to buy you can bring an injury.
At this stage, Tottenham would likely accept a decent bid for Bissouma next summer. He’s only started 44 Premier League matches out of a potential 91 in his three seasons since arriving from Brighton for £30million. The problem is whether he would want to leave, for any move would likely be a step down and he will only have a year left on his deal next summer, putting him in the position of power.
Yet despite Bissouma’s error, Tottenham could still have gone back into the lead on 68 minutes. Solanke played a great ball over the top into the run of Son. Destiny Udogie went for it but got a call from the captain to leave it and suddenly stopped, holding his hands in the air.
Son raced into the box but curled it wide of goal, a potential pass across to Timo Werner also a possibility. You would back the South Korean to bury that shot normally after racing into the Chelsea area.
The Chelsea players stopped at Udogie’s movement and later complained about his involvement, but the Italian never touched the ball nor impended them reaching it so the goal would likely have stood.
It was another pivotal moment in the game and Son took it all on his shoulders after the game.
“We conceded very sloppy goals. It feels like we lost because of these small details. On such a big stage, you need to step up and score in these moments,” he told Sky Sports. “I feel like I let the team down and I feel very sorry for the team.”
He continued: “We can’t concede goals like this. We can’t dive into this situation. I can stay here all day talking about the mistakes but I’d rather blame me with the chance and I’d rather take the blame.
“I had a bit of a different thinking when I was running to the ball. I’m also human and I miss. I feel the pain because it’s such an important moment of the game. The team tried.
“We’ve got to stick together in such difficult moments, it’s very important and it’s why we need big support.
“The players are very young and they need support more than before and more than we had. The fans were always supporting amazingly but I think it’s time the players also need to step up. We need some big support and big cheering up.”
Son’s miss was punished just five minutes later. A bit of Palmer magic led to Chelsea’s third goal, as he turned three players on Tottenham’s left side inside out before his deflected shot bounced across the box and Enzo Fernandez, one of two players unmarked behind Porro, lashed the loose ball past Forster.
Soon after came enforced substitution number three when Van de Ven had to go off, hopefully with nothing too serious.
Postecoglou explained the three Spurs exits during the game to football.london.
“Romero is just obviously hugely disappointing. He felt something in his quad. He trained really well. He wasn’t the one I was worried about, to be honest, but, you know, it’s just the way the season’s going for us unfortunately. So we just have to wait and see,” he said.
“Brennan just didn’t feel well. He didn’t feel well at half-time, but he wanted to give it a go, but he just wasn’t feeling 100% so I had to take him off.
“And then, well, the plan was always for Micky to play 60/70 [minutes] today. Obviously, I thought Romero would be okay to play 90, but Micky, probably 60/70. So we were always going take him off. He didn’t feel anything significant. He just felt tightness, but we were always going to take him off anyway.”
Things got worse for Spurs on 82 minutes when Sarr lunged in for no real reason in the Spurs box on Palmer, who was dribbling away from goal towards the corner flag. The Chelsea star picked up the ball and hit a Panenka penalty down the centre of the goal into the net.
Again no Spurs player could protest against the penalty being awarded. At least Sarr has youth and inexperience on his side, unlike Bissouma, and hopefully the 22-year-old will learn from the moment.
Tottenham kept pushing on with – to their credit – no resignation of impending defeat. Werner picked out James Maddison with a good ball and the midfielder turned into the Chelsea box but lifted his shot over from a good position.
Werner then found Son with a reverse ball and the skipper was denied by Robert Sanchez from close range.
Bergvall was involved in a one-two with Maddison from a short corner in the final moments before the latter got down the by-line and picked out Son well to fire home. It was too late though for Spurs to find a way back.
It was a derby defeat but probably not the one some were expecting. There was no disconnect between Postecoglou and his players or the fans. His name was sung loudly around the stadium at a couple of points and his team gave everything to try to get the result.
“When I look at today’s performance I don’t see them lacking confidence or belief. It’s probably the other way,” the Spurs head coach said. “Both penalties we conceded were borne out of desperation.
“I think they are desperate to turn our season around and are really disappointed how it has gone. When you’re in that mood you kind of lose that composure and discipline you need. It’s not like we are hanging on in games, we wouldn’t play like we did today if there was a lack of belief and confidence.
“When you get into this situation we are in, there is also a sense of desperation from the players and I thought that cost us today.”
The Australian added: “I don’t sense anybody is feeling sorry for themselves. It is a tough moment because there are all these tools you can possibly use as a manager when you are going through tough moments to turn things around and our limited resources from a playing perspective at the moment doesn’t allow us to do that so you have to find other ways.
“It’s not through a lack of effort. The players are constantly out there because we can’t rotate. They are giving everything they can. It diminishes performances as well because they probably need a rest but we can’t give them a rest.
“I think it is something we need to tackle head on and keep pushing on. There is still plenty to play for us between now and January just to make sure we keep performing.
“I still sense within this squad there is a real conviction in what we are doing and if we maintain that we will turn our season around and hopefully at some point we hit some smoother waters in terms of some of the things that are happening at the moment. Some of it is self-inflicted and hopefully we can get some more consistency.”
The results have not been good enough for Postecoglou and seven defeats in 15 will sting, as will just one win in Tottenham’s past seven matches. However, you would hope that those above at the club are understanding of the remarkable injury situation.
Postecoglou’s tough training sessions and football might lead to hamstring injuries at times but on Sunday he lost Romero just 15 minutes in to an unrelated quad injury and Johnson to illness early in the second half. Add to that Bentancur out through suspension, Guglielmo Vicario out for three months after a challenge by Manchester City’s Savinho and even young Mikey Moore still dealing with the after effects of the virus he had, and there’s plenty that Postecoglou had no hand in.
The three hamstring injuries – Richarlison, Wilson Odobert and Ben Davies – would be more manageable in isolation.
The players certainly still seem to be buying into Postecoglou’s way and Romero was strong in his defence of the Australian in an interview after the match with US-based Spanish-speaking media outlet Telemundo that went online on Sunday before being taken down later in the evening.
“He’s a great coach. We saw it in the first season. In this second one we’ve suffered a lot of injuries,” said the defender. “Players are the first one to be criticised, then if we lose 10 games, the staff can be changed but nobody talks about what is actually happening.
“We are very happy with this staff, me and my colleagues. We love how they work and the football they try to play. We’ll try to move on quickly.”
There was a suggestion on social media after the match, with screenshots of the subsequent notification, that Romero, or whoever runs his X account, had briefly reposted then removed that repost of a user comment, that had replied to quotes from that interview and stated that the Argentine had clearly signalled that he would leave if Daniel Levy sacked Postecoglou.
Regardless, the Tottenham players appear to still be firmly behind Postecoglou’s rebuild of the club and that is key.
When players look to scapegoat a manager, the old cliched leaks always arrive at the media’s door. Either training is too tough, too stale or not of the level required or the manager doesn’t connect with them and they’re too cold, aloof and stand-offish. With Postecoglou’s style of keeping his distance apart from key moments, that would likely be the first thing any unhappy or underplayed player would get out there.
From above there needs to be understanding not only of the huge injury problems facing Postecoglou’s squad but also the realisation that the last summer transfer window, with the influx of teenagers other than Solanke, lends itself to a longer term view rather than a panicked short-term one as difficult as that usually is for Tottenham.
Postecoglou needs reinforcements in January. There are exciting strands of what he’s trying to put in place already embedded in the club and the highs this season have been terrific but the lows have been dismal with clear signs of fatigue among overused players, which in itself makes the Australian’s relentless football difficult to execute.
His team is running on fumes and football.london asked Postecoglou how frustrating it was to constantly be battling against uncontrollables.
“Yeah, it’s just the space we’re in at the moment, We just don’t seem to get that sort of ability to just gain some traction. Every time we’ve seem to, something comes along and disrupts us. People keep referring to the City game, and we lost Vic straight afterwards for three months, so it seems like we’re just not able to do that,” he said.
“But like you said, they’re uncontrollables. My role is to try and maintain the course of the things we can control and keep making sure we’re focused on continuing to grow as a team. I always feel with these things that at some point they even themselves out and if you do the right things, they’ll come back to you.”
The Spurs boss will turn to the 18-year-olds Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall out of necessity in the weeks ahead rather than bringing them in at the right pace, while another 18-year-old Yang Min-hyeok could have more of a role than originally envisioned when his transfer goes through on January 1 simply because of the missing Richarlison and Odobert.
Using such young players will only continue the inconsistency and it all needs to be taken into account when it comes to Postecoglou, his future and not falling into the old Tottenham trap of blaming the manager.
