Tottenham Are One Point From Disaster: How Spurs Turned a Big-Six Season Into a Relegation Nightmare

Tottenham’s 2025-26 league season has gone from disappointing to genuinely surreal. Sunday’s 3-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest was not just another bad afternoon — it was a six-pointer in the relegation fight, and Spurs lost it badly. Forest got goals from Igor Jesus, Morgan Gibbs-White, and Taiwo Awoniyi, completed a league double over Spurs, and jumped above them in the table. Tottenham are now 17th, just one point above the relegation zone, heading into the international break.

The result also put another ugly number on the board: Spurs are now 13 Premier League matches without a win, and Reuters reported they have taken only five points from a possible 39 during that run. That is not just bad form — that is historically bad form for a club that started the season expecting to chase Europe, not survival. Another report noted the streak matches a club record from 1912, which tells you how deep this has gone.

What actually happened this season?

A lot, and almost all of it was bad.

Tottenham started the season under Thomas Frank, but the club sacked him on February 11 after the slide kept getting worse despite January backing in the market, including the signing of Conor Gallagher and the addition of John Heitinga to the coaching staff. Reuters reported that when Igor Tudor was appointed on an interim basis two days later, Spurs were already hovering only five points above the relegation zone.

The managerial change has not fixed the league problem. There have been moments that briefly made people think a turnaround was coming — a draw at Liverpool and a Champions League win over Atletico Madrid were both treated like possible turning points — but every time Spurs have had a chance to climb out, they have followed it with another collapse. Sunday against Forest was the clearest example yet: strong early pressure, missed chances, then complete unraveling once the first goal went in.

The defensive side of the season has been especially ugly. Against Forest, Spurs were widely criticized for losing their shape and allowing Gibbs-White far too much space on the second goal. More broadly, they have looked like a team that cannot absorb pressure, cannot manage momentum swings, and cannot trust itself when the game turns emotional. That mix of panic and resignation was a major theme in post-match coverage.

And injuries have absolutely played a role. Tottenham have spent huge chunks of the run-in missing or managing first-team players, with various reports listing absences or doubts around names such as Udogie, Bissouma, Maddison, Bentancur, Bergvall, Kulusevski, Odobert, Romero, Van de Ven, Palhinha, and Gallagher at different points. Injuries do not excuse everything, but they do help explain why Spurs have looked disjointed for months.

Is there any bright spot at all?

A few, but you have to squint.

The first is that Tottenham are not in the bottom three yet. That matters. As bad as this run has been, they still control their fate because they remain above West Ham. The second is that there have been signs of life from some younger or less established attackers, and there have been occasional flashes under Tudor that suggest the squad has not totally quit. Coverage after the Forest defeat noted Spurs actually began well, created chances, and hit the woodwork before collapsing again. That is not a compliment, but it does suggest the team is not completely dead on its feet.

The other bright spot, oddly enough, is that the schedule still leaves them a route to survival. After the international break, Spurs begin a critical run starting with Sunderland, and reports also flagged upcoming games against Brighton and Wolves as part of the final stretch. These are not glamorous fixtures. They are survival fixtures. And right now, that is the reality.

Will they actually be relegated?

They absolutely can be relegated. That is no longer clickbait. It is a real possibility.

Spurs are one point above the drop, winless in the league all calendar year, and just lost at home to one of the teams they were supposed to beat in order to create breathing room. That said, they are not relegated, and there are still seven matches left. So the honest answer is this: Tottenham are in serious danger, but they still have enough time to save themselves if they can produce even a small run of competent results.

So what’s the next move?

In the short term, the club has a brutal decision to make during the break: stick with Igor Tudor and hope stability helps, or panic again and make yet another coaching change. Given the timing and the chaos another switch would cause, my read is that they probably ride with Tudor through the end of the season — but that is an inference, not a reported decision. What is reported is that he is under pressure already, and that criticism around the appointment has grown fast.

Longer term, Tottenham need a reset that starts with defensive structure and emotional control. The talent gap between Spurs and true relegation-level sides is still real, but talent has not mattered because the team has looked mentally fragile and structurally broken. The next move cannot just be “buy another exciting attacker and hope.” It has to be about building a team that can survive bad moments, because this season has shown they currently cannot. That part is my analysis — but it is grounded in what we have all watched for months and what Sunday’s disaster underlined again.

This season was supposed to be about building something under Thomas Frank. Instead, it has turned into one of the darkest league campaigns in modern Spurs history. Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Forest did not create the crisis — it just ripped away the last excuses. Tottenham are no longer flirting with disaster. They are living in it.