An Earful from Ange

I know we always joke about Chelsea being the ultimate chaos fixture, and that something weird is bound to happen no matter what the result—the result bit is unfortunately far more consistent, with Chelsea doing the league double on us for the second season running. But I for one would prefer to have just one normal match against these London rivals.

But even with a near-fight on the pitch and the usual VAR drama, perhaps the most intriguing occurrence happened on the touchline with Ange Postecoglou cupping his ear in defiance towards the away support after their vocal criticism of his substitutions. It was an incident that deserves its own section because of the potential implications, so let me quickly recap the actual match itself first.

In this issue: Chelsea recap | Manager talk | Previewing Southampton | News from around the Lane

Then we need to look ahead to another immediate match in league play, with the outcome potentially determining our opponent's Premier League survival (or not).

PL Matchday 30 recap | Chelsea 1 - 0 Tottenham

Fernández 50'

Another Premier League loss, another too-easily-given goal, and another blunted performance in the attack. One of the more frustrating aspects of this season has been the habit of not losing so much as beating ourselves.

I will add a caveat here that the officiating didn't help; we were denied a potential penalty as well as a corner kick late in the game that could have proved crucial. But if you're relying on help from the officials in this league you're already on the back foot.

We failed to establish control early on in the match, with erratic moments from pretty much all of the backline and the goalkeeper included. We were fortunate that Chelsea looked just as low on quality in their own attack to keep us in the game even after the unfortunate goal was conceded.

The game threatened to devolve into a brawl just before halftime when Cristian Romero provoked Trevor Chalobah by shoving Levi Colwill, who was doing some shrewd time-wasting, delaying a Spurs free kick. Rodrigo Bentancur, rarely one to display good judgment, got involved in the fracas and was lucky to avoid a yellow card; Romero and Chalobah were not as lucky.

Chelsea struck early in the second half when Enzo Fernández was left shockingly unmarked for a free header. Micky van de Ven was seemingly intended to track him but abandoned him to double up on Romero's mark, Nicolas Jackson (who had been admittedly wily all game). Destiny Udogie could have picked up Van de Ven's slack but reacted too slowly to reach Fernández and get up for the aerial duel in time.

They nearly doubled their advantage just six minutes later through Moisés Caicedo, but it was ruled out after an interminable VAR check for offside.

Caicedo got his revenge, in a way, by drawing a foul on substitute Pape Sarr in the buildup to the latter's surprising goal from well outside the box, ruling it out. My initial reaction was delight that the shot actually went in, but I immediately worried that VAR would intervene on what looked in real time to be a foul, and indeed it did. I suppose I can see the argument that Caicedo was looking for the foul by turning his knee toward the oncoming Sarr, but you can't get around the fact that there was contact.

Son Heung-min had one of the few decent chances of the game but it was by no means an easy shot, sliding in as he was after initially slowing down his run to meet Brennan Johnson's cross. Van de Ven, of all players, had also had a couple of chances, only one of which he got on target. We only had two shots on target in total, with Sarr's ruled-out goal obviously excluded.

So in the end, although we had probably done just enough to deserve a draw, it was a fourth successive loss to Chelsea—all four coming under Postecoglou's tenure.

I suppose I should share the starting lineup for posterity, so here it is.

Starting XI:

I will be discussing the controversial part of the double substitution in the 64th minute later on in the Manager Talk section, so read on for that. But the other player who exited alongside Sarr was Wilson Odobert, who continues to show a lot of promise but has some defensive vulnerabilities and looked slightly overwhelmed by the occasion of the derby. Easy to say with hindsight, but I think I would have preferred Johnson's experience for this fixture.

I also feel concerned about why Archie Gray is playing such limited minutes of late when Udogie isn't doing enough to maintain his spot—at least in the defensive sense. I did like what we saw from him going forward in this match, but now that we're back to having our preferred centerback duo the explanation of lacking chemistry with the rest of the backline can no longer be used to shrug off his defensive errors.

On a final lineup note, I thought Dominic Solanke was cutting a very frustrated figure at the point of the attack—or more often, dropping well behind the wingers to hunt for scraps of possession. Speaking of relationships on the pitch, the midfield is clearly not getting Solanke involved in the game enough, rarely opting to pass to him over the wingers. It's no coincidence that our attack has become far too predictable to opposition defenses.

SAtP Player of the Match: Lucas Bergvall

Bergvall was the only member of the midfield who looked fully locked in and likely to create a goal—so of course he was the first to be subbed off. Of course.

Notable & quotable:

• This was our second scoreless game in a row, both in Premier League play.

• We picked up the most yellow cards in a game (5) this season since matchday 4, the home NLD.

• As heard on the View from the Lane podcast, we have picked up the fewest number of points from London derbies this season of all the clubs involved.

Manager talk: Ange in the endgame?

I want to start this off by saying that I have stubbornly tried to remain Ange In regardless of the poor results; I genuinely believe that it's hurting the club in the long term to keep making so many short-term decisions and never give any manager a chance to work through difficult stretches of games, build trust with their squad, and see their "project" out to completion.

However, no manager should be given completely free rein and be immune from consequences. Sometimes as a fan, you have to change your mind after receiving new information, and I feel like I've seen enough now over his second season to feel like Ange Postecoglou no longer deserves to be protected from a potential sacking simply because the thought of another protracted manager search is personally unappealing. I would love to see a manager stay in their post at Spurs for longer than 18 months, but I don't think it necessarily needs to be Ange anymore.

Of course, none of us can know what the board are truly thinking about Postecoglou's employment, but it does seem like he's under a fair amount of pressure from the run of poor results in recent months. It's possible that only thing keeping him from being sacked is the fact that we're still alive in the Europa League. But after what happened during the Chelsea game and the fallout from his post-game comments, the upcoming Southampton game could now become the ultimatum.

Let's rewind. In the 64th minute of the Chelsea match, Ange makes a controversial call to take off one of the top performers to that point, Lucas Bergvall, and replace him with Pape Sarr. It was a double substitution, with Wilson Odobert also making way for Brennan Johnson, but it was Bergvall getting yanked that drew audible ire from the away support.

You don't know what you're doing.

I've written many times in this newsletter about how that kind of negative chanting is not to my personal taste as a fan, but I've also gone on record as saying that the only kind of fan speech that should be actively curtailed is that which is abusive or discriminatory—which, unfortunately, our away fanbase has also engaged in frequently this season, so I'm definitely not saying the people who were antagonizing Ange are totally innocent. But I do think it was their prerogative to voice unhappiness with the in-game management, even if they expressed it more pointedly than I would have. It's also important to point out that the criticism was aimed at the decision to take Bergvall off, not a statement on Sarr.

But Ange seemed to interpret it that way, badly misreading the situation; when Sarr appeared to have scored an equalizer just five minutes later, he cupped his ear toward the away fans as if to mock them for their earlier chanting. His behavior was made even more churlish when the goal was disallowed. It wasn’t the most impressive shot in the first place and a better keeper would have saved it, so it was not exactly a triumphant example of Sarr's skill to throw back at the fans.

I'll be honest and say that I didn't notice the petulant gesture on the broadcast because I was too busy cheering at Sarr's improbable shot miraculously going in, much as I'm sure most of the away fans didn't receive the message either.

The media did pick up on it, though, and made a point of asking Ange about it after the game. Now, this is where we verge into subjective territory, because I've seen plenty of folks online who accept Ange's explanation, that he was merely encouraging the away fans to cheer louder. I am rolling my eyes just typing that out, so needless to say I don't buy it. If you've ever spent time around a chronic liar, Ange's body language in that interview will look uncannily familiar. But again, it's a matter of interpretation. My opinion is that he realized what a bad look it was and went into damage-control mode.

Because genuinely, it's not a good precedent for a manager to be getting into public disagreements with the club's fanbase over perfectly reasonable criticism about the in-game player management. Now, if Ange had made a symbolic gesture against the fans' racist abuse of Son in recent games, for example, that would be a different matter. The away fans would have deserved to be ridiculed for that. This ear-cupping scenario was not that. It was petty and unnecessary, especially at a time when tensions are already high in and around the club. I agree with this read on the moment from The Athletic's Jack Pitt-Brooke.

It left Postecoglou looking remarkably prickly and thin-skinned, if in a moment of triumph he had chosen to belittle his own supporters, rather than rallying behind their shared goals.

Frankly, it brought to mind the antics of José Mourinho, and then the interview was reminiscent of Antonio Conte's surliness. One of the most refreshing aspects of Ange's tenure at Spurs—at first, at least—was his penchant for candor in press conferences while keeping calm and measured. He comported himself in a way that made me feel proud to have him as our manager, and I could enjoy reading quotes from the press conferences without constantly cringing. I thought this kind of behavior was beneath him. And as one of the most visible representatives of the club, he has a professional imperative to rise above the sundry discourse of the fanbase and stay focused on the things that are actually in his control and need his urgent attention; fan sentiment is not one of them.

This whole incident has made me question Ange's professionalism and also his integrity. If he had admitted that his gesture was one of retaliation and admonishment it still would have been unfortunate that it happened, but at least we could move past it as a fanbase with an apology. But rather than take responsibility for his provocative actions and apologize, he chose instead to equivocate about what his "intention" was—a move right out of the non-apology playbook. Whether you believe his supposed intentions to encourage the away support to celebrate Sarr or not, it doesn't change the outcome of his gesture, which has further fanned the flames of discontent in the fanbase.

Even more galling, when given the chance to do the right thing in his pre-Southampton press conference, he was still unwilling to own up to the truth.

Look, I made a mistake last night in that I celebrated a goal.

Sure, Ange, People are upset that you celebrated a goal. Totally.

He seems to think the incident was not that serious, but the issue is that it's having a cumulative effect with all the other times he's disappointed us this season. And although I've been willing to defend him long past the point that many other fans would, I have to admit this was a final straw for me. Add this latest insult to the growing list of grievances:

• various questionable lineup and rotation decisions, particularly around the cups and rushing players back from injury
• his mind games with Djed Spence at the beginning of the season when the injury crisis was raging and we really could have used him
• the absolutely appalling way he handled the Rodrigo Bentancur racism incident
• our league table position, which speaks for itself even with the extenuating circumstances of the season

I take no pleasure in moving into the Ange Out camp, and I do so very reluctantly knowing that good managers willing to come to Tottenham don't grow on trees, but here we are. As Mr. Darcy once said, "My good opinion once lost is lost forever."

I think that if the club hadn't already been burned by sacking a manager a mere week before an important cup game (well, the literal final in the case, not the first leg of a knockout tie as it would be in this case) previously, Ange would already be out the door. But he has that reprieve for now with the chance of a trophy still technically a possibility to salvage the season.

But who knows... if the Southampton game goes south (no pun intended), and the home crowd also turns him, the calculus could change.

And for the record, Ryan Mason has never said anything to embarrass us in his multiple interim stints. We could do worse than give him a chance to redeem that League Cup final loss and reinvigorate the team to Europa League glory. It's not likely, sure, but neither is Ange getting the fanbase back onside at this point. I can honestly say I'd prefer to see Mason take over again temporarily and reassess in the summer when more managers might be available. At the very least, the vibes can't get much worse.

Previewing PL Matchday 31 — Southampton

So, uh, speaking of the next game... it might be the ultimate trap fixture.

Not only do we have the most important game of our remaining season coming up on Thursday (the crucial home leg of the Europa League quarter-final with Eintracht Frankfurt)—suggesting that there will be heavy rotation for this league game—but our opponents are going to be in pure desperation mode trying to stave off becoming the earliest relegated team in Premier League history. Anything less than a Southampton win will see them heading back to the Championship next season.

In other words, there's a greater than zero chance that we blow this one because it matters less to us than it does to them. It would be the third PL loss in a row for Spurs and we would stay in 16th place to end the matchday, having already been pipped by West Ham and Everton before kickoff thanks to their draws earlier today.

Or, Ange could surprise us by playing a relatively strong lineup in an attempt to build up some form and momentum ahead of the Frankfurt game. I don't have a huge amount of faith that he will opt for that strategy since he's bungled many of the games preceding cup matches already this season. On a positive note, one of the rare examples when we won a game before a cup match was the reverse fixture with Southampton, when we blew them away with a 0-5 scoreline at St. Mary's Stadium. The fact remains that the Saints really are that bad.

We could use some good news right now, so here it is: Micky van de Ven is okay! It was only a cramp that took him out of the Chelsea game early. The rest of the injury report is the same as it was midweek, with Richarlison having a slight chance of featuring in the matchday squad against Southampton.

Southampton have a decent amount of players out injured, but let's be real, I'm more concerned about our #6 going missing than I am about any threats on the Saints' squad, fit or not.

News from around the Lane:

• If you're avoiding the senior Men's team right now out of despair or spite, you could go support the Women's Academy U21s in the semi-final of the Capital Cup, taking on Dulwich Hamlet. Opportunities to see the Women's Academy teams play are few and far between (especially since the games are never streaming on SpursPlay), so genuinely, if you're at all interested I'm sure they would really appreciate having some fans in the stands. Find the matchday info here.

• On the flip side, the Men's Academy U17s are playing against Charlton Athletic in the Premier League Cup final on April 11, and that match is being streamed on SpursPlay. This is another one that fans can actually attend, so get out there if you can and cheer in my stead.

• And one quick international break update: Jess Naz has been called up to the Lionesses from the standby list after Lauren James departed camp early with an injury.

Well, I feel better for having got all of that off my chest about Ange. Apologies if it made you feel worse reading it! But one way or the other, we're all going to get through the end of this season and go again next year, as we always do. Hopefully by this time next week we're still feeling relatively hopeful about our chances of claiming a trophy before it's all said and done.

No matter what,

COYS

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