This weekend, Leicester City can clinch the Premier League title with a win on Sunday, while Tottenham Hotspur watch on helplessly, unable to affect the race any longer. Not too long ago, Spurs were snapping at the Foxes' heels in the title race, but Leicester slowly pulled away despite the London club only losing twice in their last 15 matches. How were Leicester able to open up that gap, you ask?
Late mistakes cost Tottenham Hotspur their title shot
Without their late-game meltdowns, Tottenham could be the ones potentially celebrating this weekend instead of waiting in dread to see what Leicester do.
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Simply put, late mistakes cost Tottenham dearly.
Twice this season Tottenham played Leicester, and twice they dropped points on late goals. In August, a last-gasp win became a last-gasp draw when Spurs' defense went to sleep after scoring in the 81st minute, allowing Riyad Mahrez to score almost immediately off the restart. In January, it took a breakdown on a corner kick in the 83rd minute for Robert Huth to score and give Leicester a crucial victory.
That represents three points dropped by Tottenham directly against their title rivals -- five if you assume that Spurs could have pulled out a late win in the January match -- a sum that would prove to make a huge difference if those results had gone their way. With that three-point swing, Tottenham would have 72 points, while Leicester drop back to 73, making this still very much an open title race going down to the wire. A full five-point swing could have seen Spurs at 74 points, three ahead of Leicester with little time left to close the gap.
That hurts.
Spurs didn’t just have late-game struggles against Leicester. Twice this season, Arsenal have scored after the 75th minute to steal draws against Tottenham, and West Brom scored in the 73rd minute last weekend to snatch a point of their own. Twice this season, against Newcastle and Stoke, Spurs have thrown away late two-goal leads to drop points -- against Stoke way back in August, the match ended in a draw, but against Newcastle in December, that late collapse cost them all three points. All in all, Spurs have dropped a painful sum of 14 points after the 70th minute in the league this year.
That’s a lot of points just tossed away. You can’t reasonably expect for Tottenham to have earned all of them -- no one is ever perfect, after all -- but when you look at where Spurs could have been if they had held firm in even just a few of those matches, their fans must be shaking their heads in disappointment at the lost opportunity all those late collapses represent. With the gap as close as it is, just a couple of friendlier results could have made all the difference for Spurs’ title dreams.
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