Has any individual Premier League game this season proven as damaging for one team as Tottenham's 4-1 loss to Chelsea on Monday? Not only was Spurs' unbeaten start to the campaign smashed by their rivals in a storm of red cards, but Ange Postecoglu's side must now face a tricky run of games without some of their most talismanic players.
Among those could be James Maddison, who has withdrawn from the England squad after suffering an ankle injury in the first half of that defeat. Ange Postecoglu has since confirmed that one of his star players is now a doubt for the remainder of Tottenham's fixtures in 2023, as CBS Sports reported earlier on Friday.
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"A lot worse than we thought," Postecoglu said of the injury, "he came off with the ankle injury, and next day wasn't great so we sent him off for a scan. Probably into the new year for him."
The former Leicester playmaker has, perhaps, been the player who best exemplifies Postecoglu's transformative impact at Spurs over recent months. Made vice-captain before he had even made his competitive debut, he has taken on the creative mantle left by Harry Kane with ease. No one on the team creates more chances per 90 minutes than Maddison, who averages 2.92, while his combined non-penalty expected goals (npxG) and expected assists of 0.58 is his best mark in a Premier League season.
An extended absence would constitute a hammer blow for Spurs, who are second in the table after 11 games ahead of Saturday's trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers. A tricky run of fixtures lies ahead of them after the international break, where Tottenham will face Aston Villa, Manchester City, West Ham and Newcastle in successive games. Taking on those opponents without their leading creator would be an altogether greater challenge, particularly at a time when Micky van de Ven is also set to be missing for an extended period with a hamstring issue. Postecoglu placed the recovery time for him at "a couple of months into the new year". They will also have to do without his central defensive partner Cristian Romero for three games after he was sent off against Chelsea.
That 4-1 defeat itself could well prove to be the pivot point of their season, robbing Tottenham of two key players for such an extended spell. As Postecoglu acknowledged: "It's maybe the first time in my career where we've had such a disruption from one game."
A difficult run of fixtures without key players may yet be the measure of Spurs, whose rise to second in the table was all the more remarkable given that they have the Premier League's seventh best non-penalty xG mark and its eighth best record defensively by the same metric (though the latter was warped by their cavalier defense when down to nine men against Chelsea). The coming weeks will, then, offer a major test as to whether Spurs can hold on to a top four berth, particularly when they face two of their likely rivals for that spot in Aston Villa and Newcastle. In what could be games decided by fine margins, Postecoglu would dearly love to have Maddison available.
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