Premier League Debrief Extra: Spurs' Nightmare Continues

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1:18Eleanor Oldroyd:This is the Football Daily Podcast with Eleanor Oldroyd.

1:23Oliver Glasner:A dismal night for Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium saw them beaten 3-1 by Crystal Palace, leaving them 16th in the table, just a point above the relegation zone. Jonathan Pearce and Glenn Murray were watching and this was the sound of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the full-time whistle.

1:40Jonathan Pearce:This is the Football Daily Podcast with Eleanor Oldroyd. What a win for Crystal Palace. What a win for Palace. Takes them to 38 points and surely safety. but now you can hear the boos ringing out from a half-empty Tottenham-Oxford Stadium. Their team has been beaten again at home by three goals to one. They are a point above Nottingham Forest and West Ham having played the same number of games with fixtures like Liverpool away, Sunderland away, and Informed Wolves away, Villa away, a stubborn Leeds at home, Chelsea away, and Everton here at home where they'll be hoping they don't need points to stay up.

2:20Jonathan Pearce:Tottenham are in trouble, deep trouble, beaten here, Glen Murray 3-1.

2:25Glenn Murray:Yeah, they are indeed, they are without doubt in a relegation fight. That was their game in hand, they haven't made amends. I think the most disappointing thing about this evening is they went ahead, they had the opportunity to take the game on, to get three points. They've done the hard work by getting their noses in front, but Mickey van der Ven given that penalty away, that red card just swings the game completely and from that point on Crystal Palace were really good, they managed the game extremely well but the damage was done in the stoppage time of the first half wasn't it, scoring in the 46th and the 52nd I think minute because we had a lot of added time didn't we so that was when the damage was done, I mean if you can just get over that line and get in at half time at 1-1 then it's a completely different picture, you can have a word with your players, you can get a game plan together, how are we going to go forward, but when you ship two goals in the stoppage time of the first half and then all of a sudden the game's gone, the situation's gone, the fans have left, and from that point of view it just got worse and worse, and I've never seen a Premier League ground look so empty, so long to go in a fixture.

3:37Jonathan Pearce:Well, I mentioned some of the heroes of the fast, I know Clive Allen is here today, I wonder what he's thinking, he plays an ambassadorial role, so does Gary Mabbit, my old Elmley Junior School chump from Bristol days. What must they be thinking? Ellie, what must they be thinking? The Palace fans are left to cheer their heroes and there aren't many Tottenham fans to console their fallen heroes. They've been beaten here and well beaten.

4:01Oliver Glasner:What a dark, dark night for Tottenham Hotspur. Jonathan, Glenn, I mean, Glenn, this feels like a pretty seismic moment for Spurs tonight.

4:11Glenn Murray:Yeah, I mean, let's not get carried away. It's just one fixture, it's a loss, it's a game they had the opportunity to win by getting in front, it's a game that they would have loved to win, but ultimately it's only three points, they haven't fallen any further down the Premier League, there's huge games coming up, next one's against Liverpool as far as the Premier League is concerned, and then an even bigger one when it comes to Nottingham Forest, now that is a huge fixture when you get a look where both football clubs are, it's at home, it's against Nottingham Forest they need the fans to be on board regardless of the situation the club needs to be united pulling in one direction to starve off possible relegation

4:56Oliver Glasner:Possible relegation Jonathan, I mean it would have felt unthinkable this time last year, wouldn't it? Even when they were struggling in the league, they were still on that incredible role in the Europa League but what has happened to this club this great club that you've talked about throughout this evening

5:13Jonathan Pearce:Well, I think the roots of this season were last season. You just look at, they picked up 39 points in the whole of 2025. They picked up now 43 points from a possible 159 now. They've had 12 league wins in 53 games. This is relegation form laid down last season. The managers just keep shopping and changing. There's no stability here. You know, what legacy did Daniel Levy leave? Is this the right standing manager? I don't think you'll find many supporters of Igor Tudor in this stadium now. Should Thomas Frank have been given more time? The questions, I think, Ellie, do go back to last season. And they do go back over several years to what's happened at this football club.

6:01Oliver Glasner:Just focusing on the game that we've just witnessed, Glenn, you can see, can't you, there are turning points in any sporting occasion, in any game, there was the point where on about the half-hour mark, Palace have a goal disallowed, Spurs go up the other end and score. You think, right, OK, this is their moment. This is the point for them to push on, take advantage of the way that the tables have turned and instead they go down the other end, Mickey van der Ven gets himself sent off. Was that the point? Was that the point, really? What kind of story does that tell about Spurs and where they are?

6:38Glenn Murray:Well, I mean, that's tough because it's a personal decision in a split second and he felt as though he could get away with a little tug there. Unfortunately, he couldn't and he gives a penalty away and he gets a red card. I mean, if you ask Micky van der Ven now and he had his time again, he'd probably let Ishmael Asar go and if he scores, he scores. And if it becomes 1-1, then you've still got 11 men on the pitch to compete against Crystal Palace. But this is a game of split second decisions and Mickey van der Ben thought in that moment that it was the correct thing to do. Reflecting on it, it probably wasn't.

7:15Glenn Murray:But yeah, there was a few moments in the game, turning points, and I, for one, without doubt, thought that when Crystal Palace got a goal ruled out, rightfully, it was the right decision, it was the factual decision. By only centimetres, you think, oh, do you know what? It's another chance for Spurs. and I said about the reaction in that time and they reacted immediately, they scored a goal, it was a good play, Archer Gray puts it in for Solanke, he puts it in the back of the net, all of a sudden there's a little bit of buoyancy, a little bit of belief, a bit of positivity around the stadium and then the wheels just come off, like I say, Mickey Van Der Ben pulls him back, it's 1-1 and then I think the damage was done in stoppage time, like I kind of wrapped up after the full-time whistle went, that conceding two goals in that situation, Igor Tudor brought two players on, he'd reshuffled his pack, whether they fully were understanding of what the manager wanted and kind of the formation that he wanted them to play in that moment by bringing two centre midfielders on, I'm not entirely sure, only the players will be able to tell you that, but to concede two goals in that manner at that time in the game, in such a crucial time in the game, is really disappointing from a Spurs point of view because if you get in at half-time at 1-1, do you know what you can say?

8:40Glenn Murray:Let's batten down the hatches. Let's be difficult to beat at the very least. Let's get a point out of this game. Let's put a little bit more space in between us and the chasing pack of the relegation zone. That wasn't the case. Unfortunately, they imploded.

8:54Jonathan Pearce:You think of the managers that have been here. Bill Nicholson, who won eight trophies in 16 years. Terry Venables, the great names they've had. And there's just a little, there's a poignancy about this week because they play Atletico Madrid in the Champions League this coming week. In 1962-63, they beat Atletico 5-1 in the European Cup Winners' Cup. They became the first British side to win a European trophy and they play them again this week. And this club is far from those glory, glory days. Jimmy Greaves scored two in that final, John White and Dyson were the other scorers, Terry Dyson. They just have wonderful players.

9:34Jonathan Pearce:This gives me no joy whatsoever at the moment. It's sad. I think this is sad.

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11:00Oliver Glasner:Let's get some reaction now. Let's hear from the Tottenham manager, Igor Tudor, speaking to Rob Nothman.

11:05Eleanor Oldroyd:Well, Igor, it's been a tough evening. That can't have been easy to watch. A lot of Spurs fans despairing. What hope can you give them?

11:14Igor Tudor:I understand them. They, of course, have this disappointment. So we are, what I can tell this moment, that we need them. They need to stay. I hope they stay with us. I'm sure that we stay with us. So, difficult game after the red card. Everything changed. So we conceded these three goals in a very short period. Until that, it was one good start. We had this good result, but red card changed everything. So I keep working, still nine games to play. I saw today a very good second half, will to do something, to run, to fight, so still nine games to play. What is the biggest thing that you need to fix now?

12:02Igor Tudor:Everything we need to fix, everything. It's not one detail, it's a question of the team, but I will tell you now one thing, maybe it can sound very strange, I believe more now after this game than before. Why? Because I saw something, I saw something in the team, as I said before a lot of problems I don't want to repeat anymore a lot of problems today without defenders we need to play with Sosa who never play and if so three, four players on the bench so we always spoke about this so players give everything I don't have nothing to tell the moment is what is it but it will change it will change

12:39Eleanor Oldroyd:You've been in football a long time how can you explain that a team that wins a European trophy last season is in the position that Spurs is in now? Because it happens in the football. Football happens, so there are two totally different competitions.

12:57Igor Tudor:This is a Champions League tournament, it's a tournament with five, six, seven games. The league is a totally different thing.

13:05Eleanor Oldroyd:And I know you've just arrived, but are you confident that you are going to be able to turn this around?

13:10Igor Tudor:We'll be back. We'll be back. come better games when we be complete when we choose I said now to the players the boat is going one direction who want to stay there can stay who don't want to can jump out and I think we'll be good I believe

13:33Oliver Glasner:Let's bring in Tottenham fan Chris Cowlin How are you feeling Chris?

13:37Chris Cowlin:Extremely disappointed and to be honest I'm lost for words of what I've seen tonight and you want fight, you want desire and most importantly we need points and we need to get out of this mess and how are we going to do it because what is an easy game for us in the Premier League right now it seems that whoever we're playing, whoever we're facing, we're coming up against these struggles especially at home.

14:01Oliver Glasner:You've been in the stadium tonight, Chris, haven't you? So what was it like? What was the atmosphere like where you were?

14:07Chris Cowlin:Well the atmosphere at the start of the game, the Spurs fans as per usual are up for this match and you know we're desperate for points so of course the fans are you know very much behind the players but Igor Tudor now has come in you know for these three matches three defeats nine goals conceded the way that we are conceding these goals of course the Spurs fans are extremely disappointed and angry and you know at half time hundreds if not thousands of fans left the stadium because they've just seen too much and it's too much for a lot of people and it is the real reality now of Spurs might get relegated if we don't get out of this mess in the next nine games.

14:47Oliver Glasner:Can you remember a time like this as a Spurs fan where you've seen the stadium with people streaming away at halftime?

14:55Chris Cowlin:No, certainly not. And when we moved into this stadium in 2019, this was meant to be a game changer for us. This was meant to be the springboard for success and us always competing for top honours and top trophies, etc. I've never known a time like this and it is extremely sad to see.

15:13Oliver Glasner:What happens with the managerial position?

15:16Chris Cowlin:Do you know what? I wouldn't be at all surprised if they kept him. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he left after the three games because this is Tottenham we're talking about. We've gone through so many different managers since 2019 of moving into this stadium. Six permanent managers, four interim appointments and Spurs have gone round in circles. But this is about the next nine games. this is about our future now of Premier League status. And if we don't fuck up our ideas very, very quickly, we could find ourselves in the Championship because we are the only team to not have won a Premier League game in 2026.