Despite Antonio Conte’s summer departure being widely accepted as an inevitability, Tottenham can still rescue this season. Even if finishing fourth last year has not resulted in much happiness this campaign, the financial rewards for club, playing and coaching staff are considerable.
Newcastle’s win at Nottingham Forest had further upped the ante but at Southampton, as so often with the Tottenham of 2022-23, questions of motivation will have to be raised. Pape Sarr thoughtlessly and unfortunately giving away a penalty in the dying seconds, swinging a leg into a flying Ainsley Maitland-Niles was part of a piece, an individual error redolent of a collective sag.
