Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou position precarious with Spurs season hanging on cups | OneFootball

Arsenal defeat and ‘unacceptable’ performance raises question of how much longer slump can go on

Ange Postecoglou’s post-match comments at the Emirates suggest the time for excuses and explanations is over.

The Spurs head coach even uncharacteristically appeared to criticise the officials in the defeat to Newcastle in their previous league game, raging about the lack of "a fair and even playing field" following a contentious handball decision.

Spurs have now taken just five points from the last 27 available in the Premier League

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Instead, he slammed his side’s “passive” display as “unacceptable”, and demanded an improvement in their form, starting at Everton on Sunday.

“The reality is that our results and our form in the league has been nowhere near good enough,” Postecoglou said. “That needs to change.”

Postecoglou’s Spurs have now won just once in nine League games since beating Manchester City 4-0 in November - and that was a stroll against bottom club Southampton.

They have taken just five points from the last 27 available, also including draws with Fulham and Wolves, with only Saints and Leicester, currently 19th, managing fewer in the same period. It is relegation form, which has left Spurs 14 points adrift of fourth place but just eight clear of the drop zone with 21 games played.

The fixture list has not been kind, with Spurs’ six defeats since the Etihad coming against the current top five and eighth-placed Bournemouth.

They have also, of course, been decimated by injuries and four of Postecoglou’s back five and his preferred holding midfielder, Rodrigo Bentancur, were all missing against Arsenal (the equivalent of Mikel Arteta’s side being without David Raya, Gabriel, William Saliba, Riccardo Calafiori and, say, Thomas Partey).

Injuries or not, however, the grim reality is that Spurs are tracking for their worst-ever finish in the 20-team Premier League era.

“Not acceptable. Too many losses this year. Too many games getting away from us. It needs to stop,” Postecoglou added.

His comments felt like a tacit admission that he is under mounting pressure to dramatically improve their form, with Spurs' season, as well as perhaps the Australian's future, now hanging on the cup competitions.

Leandro Trossard scored the winner for Arsenal as Spurs lost 2-1 at Emirates Stadium

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Spurs face Hoffenheim and IF Elfsborg in the Europa League on the next two Thursdays, needing results to climb into the top eight and avoid an unwanted two-legged play-off, but it increasingly feels as though their season may live or die on a four-day period at the start of next month.

They take a 1-0 lead to Liverpool for second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on February 6 before an FA Cup fourth-round tie at Aston Villa a few days later.

Success is the cups is not necessarily a guarantee for Postecoglou if League form does not pick up - Daniel Levy infamously sacked Jose Mourinho six days before a League Cup final - but they offer another route to European football next term, as well as an end to the club's long and painful trophy drought.

While the cups remain in play, Spurs could still have a successful, transformative and historic season.

Lose to Liverpool and Villa, though, and it will feel like a long three-month stretch for Postecoglou to the summer, with only the Europa League still on the table.

Levy, the Spurs chairman, has never previously been content to write off League seasons but the club is committed to a rebuild under Postecoglou and conscious that injuries have been a huge factor in results.

There is also a case that it is already too late for Spurs to achieve anything more than a mid-table finish, with double digits between themselves and Bournemouth and gatecrashing the European places likely to require an outstanding run in the second half of the campaign.

Does that make Postecoglou's position safer - with seemingly little chance of rescuing the League season, even with a managerial change - or more precarious still?

Whatever the case, Postecoglou's side are making losing into a bad habit and teams in such grim ruts are rarely been able to turn it on for one-off cup games.

Even if the top-flight is a lost cause, picking up in the League feels crucial to changing the mood and helping Spurs to keep progressing in the knockout competitions, ensuring their season, and perhaps Postecoglou's project, can remain alive.

As the manager himself admitted, Tottenham's current form “can’t be accepted by anyone at the club” for much longer.