And so after the highs of Thursday night, Tottenham turn their attention back to the Premier League — a competition in which they have seemed cursed this season — and to a match dubbed online as ‘El S**tico’ in some places and ‘El Cra*ico’ in others. Whichever you prefer, you no doubt get the picture.
A London derby against West Ham on a sunlit Sunday afternoon ought to be an occasion both sets of fans feels they can get well up for. Instead, West Ham supporters seem at the end of their tether with Graham Potter’s struggling Hammers, perhaps preferring the thought of starting the summer holidays a month or two early and already with full focus on next season and righting the wrongs of this torrid campaign.
For Tottenham? Here is a league match sandwiched unhelpfully between the two most important games of Spurs’ season.
The most important, that is, until, as expected, they reach the Europa League final, which will then itself become the most important.
Spurs have occupied this strange place for weeks now — a succession of season-defining Thursday nights against AZ Alkmaar (away), AZ Alkmaar (home), Eintracht Frankfurt (home), Eintracht Frankfurt (away) and Bodo/Glimt (home) having all been potentially terminal nights but Spurs through them all unscathed.
The away leg in Norway against Bodo/Glimt on Thursday is now all that stands between Spurs and a European final for the first time in six years.
All the while, they have continued to lose in the league. To Fulham, to Chelsea, to Wolves, to Nottingham Forest, and last weekend to Liverpool to crown them champions. Of 34 league matches, they have, almost impressively, lost 19.
Tasting defeat to West Ham would surely be a new low. They have offered little-to-no evidence of improvement since Potter replaced the sacked Julen Lopetegui in January and were 2-1 up at Brighton after 88 minutes last Saturday and still conjured up a way to lose. Spurs are favourites and should beat them at the London Stadium.
Ange Postecoglou has said he hopes people believe Tottenham are taking the Premier League as seriously as Europa League matters, but they patently are not. How could they be? And, what’s more, why should they?
He has rightly acknowledged the “golden opportunity” to do “something special” and so will make a raft of changes this afternoon to offer a rest to key men expected to get the job done in Norway on Thursday. Plus Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison and Son Heung-min are injured and Dominic Solanke will likely not be risked. This is not the priority.
All that said, Postecoglou continues to speak candidly about Tottenham’s need to “break through” the historic trope that looms — the suggestion of ‘Spursyness’, of frailty, of an inability to win when it really matters.
It matters most on Thursday, of course, not at the London Stadium. But Postecoglou has said of Tottenham’s Premier League run-in: “We can enjoy it if we can improve and get some wins. That is the challenge.”
Even with a much-changed team and with all eyes on Thursday, defeat to a West Ham side quite this low on confidence would be an indictment on the eve of such a huge game. And those individuals selected will treat it as an audition for the trip to Norway. Best be up for it, then.
