Five Fixtures That Could Send Spurs Down: The Relegation Reckoning Arrives

Tottenham's latest capitulation to a title-chasing local rival merely confirmed what we already knew: they are genuinely terrible. So terrible, in fact, that they could plummet straight out of the Premier League and into the Championship.

What once seemed unthinkable has gradually become a distinct possibility. Their record tells the damning story: two wins in the last 18 league games, with none in the last nine. They remain the only top-flight team without a win in 2026, their only consolation being that they've scored more goals than long-relegated Wolves. Four points clear of West Ham currently, but the Hammers have closed the gap by nine points over their last six matches.

The consensus is crystallising: this could genuinely happen. So here are the five pivotal encounters that will determine whether Spurs limp to another season of underachievement, or whether they face financial catastrophe and an unwanted Championship adventure.

March 1: Fulham v Tottenham

Few teams in the Premier League are more gloriously unpredictable than Fulham. They specialise in chaos—disrupting title races with bewildering inconsistency, capable of stringing together wins and losses in utterly baffling patterns. Their recent 3-1 victory at Sunderland (whose only previous home defeat was a 1-0 loss to Liverpool) exemplified their capacity for the unexpected.

Against the bottom-six sides they'll face in coming weeks, expect Fulham to win two and lose two. But which games? Impossible to say. You certainly can't assume they'll roll over for Spurs.

For Igor Tudor's men, this feels like a genuine must-not-lose. The Arsenal match already felt like a free hit—a chance to impress his ideas on a defence that barely seemed interested on Sunday. But lose here, and the new-manager bounce evaporates. Spurs will enter the final ten games having squandered their last available card, left hoping for divine intervention rather than tactical acumen.

March 5: Tottenham v Crystal Palace

A week ago, Palace were wallowing alongside Spurs at the bottom of the table. Two wins have transformed their outlook entirely, which means this isn't quite the six-pointer it appeared to be.

The optimistic reading: Palace have shown Spurs the escape route, proof that even the bleakest situations can turn around quickly. The pessimistic reading: one fewer potential victim remains. The truly bleak reading: if Spurs are still winless in 2026 after these two games, they don't play again for ten days—and then it's at Anfield.

Both teams show a curious geographical preference. Palace sit seventh in the away table while languishing 15th at home. Spurs occupy eighth away but a dire 18th at home—level on points with Burnley. They've already won 1-0 at Selhurst Park in December, their most recent league victory. Logic and form both suggest an away win here wouldn't shock anyone.

March 22: Tottenham v Nottingham Forest

This could be the single most significant six-pointer remaining in the entire relegation battle. Both sit above West Ham currently, but neither are playing anywhere near the Hammers' standard. There's every chance that by kick-off, this becomes a 17th versus 18th clash with no guarantee which team finishes above the drop zone.

Forest have already sought a new-manager bounce twice this season—now potentially a third. That Dyche-Frank 3-0 demolition at the City Ground earlier this campaign remains Spurs' lowest ebb. Easy to say with hindsight that Frank should have departed immediately; equally easy to say it immediately after the final whistle.

A grim irony hangs over this fixture: Spurs look precisely like the sort of team that would benefit most from playing against themselves. Seems unfair that everyone else gets that opportunity.

Both teams are objectively, provably dreadful at football. Hilariously, this clash arrives just days after their European exits—unless Forest conjure something improbably brilliant in Turkey, which given their comic ineptitude cannot be entirely dismissed.

April 25: Wolves v Tottenham

These final two fixtures remain subject to television rescheduling, and they'll almost certainly move—everyone loves a lowest-common-denominator slapstick farce, after all.

With only four rounds remaining after this one, Wolves' mathematical relegation will likely be confirmed by then. That could work either way: freed from consequences, they might wreak havoc across the final weeks. Their trip to Burnley on the final day particularly promises the daft, high-scoring irrelevance the calendar apparently demands.

But first, a month earlier, they host Spurs in a match that very much matters. Spurs will probably need victory, which is precisely when Tottenham have historically done bizarre things against Wolves.

The stat is irresistible: since Wolves returned in 2018/19, Spurs have managed just five wins, three draws, and seven defeats across 15 league meetings—18 points at 1.2 per game. Over the same period, their Manchester City record reads seven wins, three draws, and six defeats—24 points at 1.5 per game. Even that includes two league losses to City in the first season.

At least this fixture is at Molineux, where three of those five wins occurred. Though the caveats are enormous: their last three visits have all ended in defeat, including a memorable 4-2 mauling when Wolves briefly became the country's best team, plus a game surrendered from a 1-0 lead heading into stoppage time.

May 9: Tottenham v Leeds

By the time this 36th game arrives, it might not matter for either side. Leeds could already be safe. Spurs could already be down. That both scenarios feel significantly more plausible than "Spurs already safe" really does say something.

If it matters, expect a fascinating collision between movable object and resistible force. Spurs' home record combined with Leeds' away record currently produces the sort of numbers (19 points from 28 games) that would concern even Burnley.