Opportunity Lost for Tottenham but Spurs Season Not Over Yet

Things had fallen pretty well on Saturday for Tottenham Hotspur to move up the table, however, a loss to Arsenal missed an opportunity missed. While Tottenham did lose an opportunity, the season is not lost that challenge is just steeper. So what was lost, besides the game to Arsenal this past weekend, and what’s next for Spurs?

Tottenham Missed Moving Day

Forget north London bragging rights, the three points lost hurt a lot more than it being any derby at this point in the season. While Arsenal’s chances of finishing top-four went from 3% to 4%, Tottenham’s dropped from 24% to 15% according to fivethirtyeight.com. Even the15% would have been lower if not for the results everywhere else.

West Ham, Aston Villa, and Everton all lost during the weekend and Chelsea only drew. With three points Tottenham would have been in fifth place ahead of West Ham on goal difference, just three points back of Chelseas of fourth place, with a game in hand!. Instead, the Lilywhites lost the match, now Tottenham is in eighth place, six points back of Chelsea with three teams between.

Yes, Tottenham still has a game in hand on Liverpool and Chelsea, but not on Everton and West Ham who will have to drop points again for Tottenham to get past them. At this point, it is not just the Champions League but also 5th and 6th place and the opportunity to qualify for the Europa League that should be part of Tottenham thinking.

Maybe the worst thing was the Manchester United and Leicester City both won

While the other teams competing with Tottenham  – outside of Liverpool – all dropped points, the teams in second and third place both won. Instead of staying within single digits of third place, the Spurs now find themselves 11 points back of Leicester City in 3rd place and 12 of 2nd place United in the Premier League table.

The Lilywhites still have matches against both teams and single digits to make up with double digits of games to play seemed doable. However, a double-digit deficit with a single digit’s worth of games to play is quite different. Now any further losses will make even more of the top four mathematically unavailable, thus limiting Spurs’ chances further.

In the end, – outside of a magical moment from Erik Lamela – Sunday was just a disappointing day all around for Spurs. They lost points, they lost ground and lost an opportunity all while losing to their rivals. It does not get much worse than that for a team and their fans, hopefully, brighter days are ahead and the goals we set out for can still be achieved.