Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League survival hopes suffered multiple blows over the weekend, beyond just their defeat to Sunderland.
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It’s fair to say the last few days haven’t boosted Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of remaining in the Premier League whatsoever.
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Defeat to Sunderland in Roberto De Zerbi’s first game in charge was certainly not great, but it was made worse by West Ham United’s 4-0 win over Wolves, Nottingham Forest picking up a big point against Aston Villa, and Leeds United beating Manchester United at Old Trafford.
All of Spurs’ relegation rivals gained on them, with Leeds now six points ahead, Forest three ahead and West Ham two ahead.
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Even before all of those games were played, Spurs had suffered a blow to morale with the news that Mohammed Kudus has suffered an injury setback and may require surgery.
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But it only got worse on Sunday, as Cristian Romero also picked up an injury against Sunderland, and Sami Mokbel has since reported for the BBC that the defender is out for the rest of the season with knee injury.
Romero has a high-grade partial tear of his medial cruciate ligament, and he’ll miss up to eight weeks of action.
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Spurs will now prepare for a game against Brighton, who closed the gap to the European places over the weekend with a win over Burnley. As it stands, Brighton are six points off the Champions League places, two points off the Europa League spot, and one point off the Europa Conference League.
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Fabian Hurzeler’s side are unlikely to come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium looking for anything other than their fourth Premier League win in a row.
Meanwhile, Leeds will play bottom club Wolves and Nottingham Forest will play 19th-placed Burnley. West Ham have to play away to Crystal Palace, but the Hammers will be riding a high after that 4-0 victory last week.
Nothing seems to be going Spurs’ way at the moment. What a shame.