“Tottenham Hotspur!” sang the Chelsea fans en masse. “It’s happened again.” It’s the Battle of the Bridge revisited, the moment Spurs’ season fully went into reverse as in 2016. It’s a Bridge too far. It’s calling time on Spurs’ dreams for another year. Their fans accepted it, many slipping meekly and early into the west London night like deflated guests sidling out of a party that had turned raucous.

They rightly remain largely supportive of their head coach, Ange Postecoglou, for all the unaddressed flaws in his team, the set-piece open-house policy or risky high-line. They like his commitment to attack, the change in mood after the negativity of the tenures of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, albeit far more successful managers elsewhere. 

Postecoglou chimes with the club legend of 'to dare is to do'. They also understand that he lost his best player, Harry Kane, to Bayern Munich and lost significant players to injury, not least Destiny Udogie. The Italian’s absence, along with Ben Davies’, meant that Emerson Royal started at left-back and was given a torrid time by Noni Madueke. That’s not Postecoglou’s fault. He’s also inherited deficiencies in a squad that needs more investment by the board. Micky van de Ven and Brennan Johnson have certainly been smart buys. 

Balance is required when assessing Postecoglou. It’s legitimate to question elements of his philosophy but patently premature to question his future. It’s his first season in the world’s most demanding league. With four games remaining, Postecoglou has steered Spurs to 60 points, the same tally as last season’s total. Working from the starting point that Postecoglou remains the right man for Spurs, close scrutiny is totally justified, especially as fourth place, and Champions League qualification, is now surely beyond them. Early-season hopes have evaporated. 

Spurs are seven points adrift of Aston Villa with only one game in hand now following deserved defeat at the Bridge. It’s been a brutal five days for Postecoglou and his players. They lost at home to Arsenal, lost the possibility of a fifth Champions League spot following co-efficient-boosting midweek results for German clubs, and now lost 2-0 to Chelsea. It’s happened again, just as they began promisingly against Chelsea at home in November before suffering a meltdown, wrecking their unbeaten start to the season. They’ve won only two in 15 against Chelsea. Resilience remains an issue. 

They lost to goals from set-pieces, Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson scoring following free-kicks. It’s happened again. That’s 16 conceded from dead-ball situations. It’s crazy. It’s almost as if Spurs wilfully, repeatedly neglect a very obvious vulnerability, and this is where Postecoglou deserves criticism. 

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“The definition of madness is repeating the same action over and over, hoping for a different result.” That sums it up and Albert Einstein wasn’t even a football fan. He was more into sailing, chess and the theory of relativity but he’s right. What Spurs are doing is a form of madness, and it’s rectifiable. Postecoglou has to employ a set-piece specialist. Nobody at Spurs will appreciate having to learn from Arsenal, but they need to. Their set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover, has helped Arsenal score 22 times from set-pieces. I once sat in on one of his sessions at Brentford and his attention to detail was incredible. Jover also instructed players to stand up and talk through clips, discussing the plan and their own movement. 

Marginal gains matter. So the set-piece frailty has inevitably intensified focus on Postecoglou and his philosophy. Too cavalier? Time for a more roundhead approach? Spur