Tottenham sunk to an unprecedented low after surreal Atletico Madrid defeat

A fever dream. An out of body experience. Whatever Tuesday night was at the Metropolitano, it wasn't reality.

Those first 20 minutes were unlike anything so many have ever seen, even if we found ourselves in a similar position at St. James' Park three years ago. The eventual 6-1 defeat cost Cristian Stellini his job in the wake of Antonio Conte's departure.

Igor Tudor is seemingly cosplaying as Conte's former assistant, with the man hired to firefight the Lilywhites out of danger only thrusting this broken club further into the mire.

European excursions have offered solace over the past couple of years, and the extent of our domestic misery meant plenty were genuinely looking forward to the first leg of our Champions League round of 16 tie against Diego Simeone's Atlético Madrid.

As Stellini did on Tyneside by switching to a back four, Tudor tried something new. A goalkeeper change has been advocated, and Antonín Kinsky came in for his Champions League debut. However, instead of emerging as Tottenham's hero in the Spanish capital, the Czech became the symbol of our cartoonish mess.

Tottenham have lost six games in a row for the first time ever

A slippery night for the team in black cost Kinsky his starting position after barely 15 minutes. His first tumble directly led to Atléti's opener before Micky van de Ven was caught on a banana peel, allowing the majestic Antoine Griezmann to run through and score.

The most egregious mistake, likely stemming from the earlier mishap, forced Tudor into an unprecedented substitution. Kinsky's ambitious left-footed pass out to the right went nowhere, leaving Julián Alvarez, not in a merciful mood, to score into an empty net.

Guglielmo Vicario was readied. Now, we're all wondering whether Kinsky, just 22, will ever recover. This felt like Loris Karius in the 2018 Champions League final. He never played for Liverpool again.

Vicario was powerless to prevent a fourth soon after his introduction, with Atléti reaching that tally in the first half of a Champions League game in their history.

Thankfully, that was as bad as it got. The remaining 70 or so minutes were pretty competitive, with Tottenham striking twice and Alvarez scoring his second. The dynamic of the tie could've been drastically different had Richarlison beaten Jan Oblak with a header just moments before the hosts found the back of the net for a fifth time.

The 5-2 defeat means Tottenham have lost six games in a row across all competitions for the first time in club history. We've quite literally never been this bad.

A three-goal deficit isn't insurmountable, but many will view next week's second leg as merely an obligatory outing ahead of the biggest game of the season to date. Nottingham Forest visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 22 March in a relegation six-pointer.

After overseeing four straight defeats and a trip to Anfield up next, surely Tudor won't be in charge by the time that fixture rolls around.