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That’s so Spursy: Tottenham Hotspur fall 2-1 to Anderlecht in the Europa League

By on October 22, 2015

It is widely understood that the word “Spursy” originated as a loving cliché to describe a technically, possession-oriented football team; a neat little flick from David Ginola or cool-as-you-like finishes from Teddy Sheringham, Jurgen Klinsmann or Gary Lineker. Even when Tottenham Hotspur weren’t serious title contenders, Spursy defined their ability to maintain a core of classy players.

It’s unclear exactly when the sarcastic, negative connotations attached themselves to the word. Perhaps after Spurs earned a place in the Champions League in the 2011/2012 season, only for Chelsea to beat Bayern Munich on penalties in the final and snatch the spot right out of Tottenham’s hands. Or, the following season, when they earned a club-record points tally in the Premier League only to see Arsenal make a late surge and leapfrog them into fourth. Much like the definition of the word itself, the details of how the good turned sour is hazy but nevertheless, it entered the football lexicon.

Four consecutive seasons languishing in the Europa League is very Spursy. To have failed to make it past the Quarterfinals in any one of those campaigns so far despite concerted effort isn’t just unlucky or ironic, but signaled something fundamentally wrong at the club. Hence, the very Spursy cycle of three managers in just as many years.

This season, as their squad is brims with young talent, the club has played some of the most vibrant football seen at White Hart Lane since the days of Gareth Bale, the 4-1 trouncing of Manchester City being the best case-in-point. Mauricio Pochettino has his side noticeably fitter and sharper than when he took over the club. A comfortable seventh place position in the Premier League table has perhaps masked the buzz about their team.

Today, Pochettino’s men had a chance to take control of their Europa League group visiting an Anderlecht side that lost their last European outing 1-0 to Azerbaijani outfit Qarabag. Yet their recent form was thrown out the window and Spurs surrendered an early lead in just the thirteenth minute before Anderlecht went on and turned the game around. In keeping with Tottenham’s finishing this season, Harry Kane scuffed a golden opportunity to equalize late on and the result impairs Tottenham’s hopes of qualifying and makes a trip to Azerbaijan, just two days before their meeting with Chelsea, a vital game for Pochettino. Tottenham’s fresh, bright team were haunted by the same old demons. That’s so Spursy.

Before a sweat could even be broken, Tottenham found themselves harried in the lead as two lucky deflections put Christian Eriksen in on goal and the Dane tucked a cool finish into the bottom left corner.

Yet the early lead put a curious twist on Tottenham’s mentality and they suddenly looked vulnerable in the lead. Eriksen snatched at a chance soon afterwards and Silvio Proto thwarted an Erik Lamela break through on goal but in the thirteenth minute, Guillame Gillet was afforded space from a corner to bring the ball down and smack a dipping volley into the bottom right corner from fifteen yards.

Spurs held their ground in the first half but looked considerably less convincing in the second period. Although Kane did a good job to hold off his defender at the end of a long ball in the sixty-ninth minute, he hit a low shot from a tight angle right at the goalkeeper. Five minutes later, Anderlecht completed their comeback as Stefano Okaka tapped home a sitter. The home side should have had another from Ibrahima Conte’s low effort from the edge of the box but it was saved by Hugo Lloris.

Pochettino, usually very lukewarm in front of the press, cut a very displeased figure after the match. “Angry, frustrated, disappointed – I don’t know which is the best word to describe me,” Pochettino said, per The Guardian. “We need to realize that we need to compete in every game, in every single minute, in each different game, in each different competition.”

Homepage photo credit: By Paulblank (http://www.postproduktie.nl/voetbal.htm) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.