Is the Dr Tottenham curse real and why is it happening? – opinion

Over the last month, Tottenham Hotspur have shown the two contrasting sides of what the team is capable of. The good: beating Manchester City and Aston Villa. And, the bad: losing to Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town. So, what is going on?

Tottenham Hotspur fixing winless runs for other teams

We are now 11 games into the Premier League season, and every team in the division now has at least one win under their belts.

Both Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town can thank Tottenham Hotspur for helping them bring their own winless runs to an end.

Ange Postecoglou’s side lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace last month, at a time when the Eagles had not managed a win in their first eight matches.

Then, this weekend, Spurs fell to a 2-1 defeat against Ipswich, ending the Tractor Boys’ winless run and completing the set of Premier League teams needing their first victory of the season.

Many have now labelled this pattern of results as the impact of Dr. Tottenham, meaning the Lilywhites have come along and cured the issues plaguing the teams they’ve faced.

Is there a mentality issue at Spurs?

There are a number of potential reasons for this pattern emerging in Tottenham’s season, and while it’s hard to pin down exactly what the issue is, we can certainly theorise.

First of all, and perhaps the most worrying cause for this is that the Spurs players have a real mentality problem. Either they go into these games against teams that are struggling and think they’ve already got the win in the bag, or they’re terrified of the idea of being the first team to lose to them.

If either of these are correct, then Postecoglou has a serious problem within his squad, and it’s the same old accusation many have thrown at Spurs over the years.

Scheduling could be the problem for Tottenham Hotspur

Another issue, and one that would be slightly more palatable for Spurs fans, is that this could all be rooted in the way Tottenham’s fixture list has lined up this season.

Tottenham lost to Palace and Ipswich on the Sunday following a Thursday night Europa League game. Is there a case of fatigue or some kind of European hangover affecting Spurs? Perhaps so, though Postecoglou did play down that idea after the Ipswich defeat (Football.London).

There’s also the matter of Tottenham losing prior to an international break, something the team has now done in the previous five fixtures directly preceeding international fixtures.

Whether players have one eye on the national team, or think they can slink away after a poor performance and deal with the repurcussions a fortnight later, we simply do not know, but again, both would be very concerning if true.

Whatever the problem, Ange Postecoglou needs to get to the bottom of it quickly, or this season is going to go to waste very quickly for Tottenham.

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