Sir Alex Ferguson's pre-match pep talk at Manchester United once involved three simple words. 'Lads, it's Tottenham,' the Scot said, poking fun at the fragility of the north Londoners.
Times have changed and Tottenham are now a different animal in the Premier League, though on Saturday night, it felt as if Nuno Espirito Santo's Wolves embraced that Fergie mindset.
They sensed a vulnerability in Mauricio Pochettino's side. Not for the first time this season, Spurs supporters were left squirming in their seats and begging the referee to blow his whistle.
Tottenham won at Molineux but this was far from convincing, and Pochettino has work to do to shake this habit of inviting punishment in the dying moments.
After 67 minutes, they led 3-0 against a newly promoted Premier League club. After 79, it was 3-2 because of two penalties conceded through carelessness.
After 90, their players emerged victorious but exhausted. The fans felt the same, having witnessed late collapses in the Champions League and Carabao Cup.
Life as a Spurs supporter is not easy. Life as a Spurs goalkeeper, when faced with waves of attacks in the closing stages, is no picnic either, as Hugo Lloris explained.
'We need to learn,' he said. 'We have to be more clever with the ball and without the ball. It is not the first time this has happened in the Champions League and in the league that the opponent created chances in the last minutes of the game.'
Pochettino added: 'We have shown in the last few years that Tottenham have a way of playing and we try to respect the plan, but I think there are a lot of things to learn.
'The disappointment is massive to concede two cheap (goals). I don't talk about the penalty — we need to (look) a little bit before.'
Pochettino was referring to Kieran Trippier's attempt at a nutmeg in his own corner ahead of the first penalty, which kicked off the Wolves revival.
Premier League debutant Juan Foyth, just 20 years old, left with the unwanted headlines after giving away both spot-kicks but his team-mate did him no favours.
As for Wolves, they could have given up when 3-0 down but gave it a go, with Raul Jimenez and Ruben Neves scoring a penalty apiece. A wrongly disallowed goal left them feeling hard done by.
On another day, they might have punished Tottenham and had supporters reaching for that word 'Spursy' again. On this occasion, Pochettino's side only just got away with it.
Noybdot
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COYS COYSCOYS
Fadceopsy
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Wolves fans are having to re-evaluate their season. A couple of weeks into this season they thought Europe was a cert, now staying in the prem is their aim. I knew after their first game against 10 men Everton they would struggle in the prem.
You’re dead wrong
Fadceopsy
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Wolves fans are having to re-evaluate their season. A couple of weeks into this season they thought Europe was a cert, now staying in the prem is their aim. I knew after their first game against 10 men Everton they would struggle in the prem.
After being cheated by the ref the past 2 games? It’s a long season
Morganfreeman
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Wolves fans are having to re-evaluate their season. A couple of weeks into this season they thought Europe was a cert, now staying in the prem is their aim. I knew after their first game against 10 men Everton they would struggle in the prem.
yumaster
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Lamela been spurs best player on the season for me
missyou
1
Wolves should of had at least a draw. First wolves goal nowhere near offside. What makes it worse is for these teams it means more as it be the decide between being relegated or staying up. VAR needs to come in to balance out fair decisions all round.
theaction
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Spurs need to buy a couple of defenders in January.
fashionman
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Wolves the better playing team by miles. Spur won by luck alone no skill whatsoever.
especially
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Kieran Trippier has allowed the World Cup hype to affect him...instead of attending to defensive duties he is now constantly out-of-position, spends most of the game staring at his team mates despairingly for no reason...tried to nutmeg Leo Bonatini and it caused Foyth to concede a penalty. It was the mindless idiocy of a player totally full of himself and his stupid personal battle with Bonatini which all consumed him to the detriment of the team.
norloser
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Lamela's goal was pure class. The 1-2 with Son, the way he chested the return down, the close control and finally the nutmeg. And the set up for Kane's goal was again class. Considering the year out he is now fulfilling his potential of 5 years ago. Just hope he stays injury free.
Ellaalabt
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Happy for Wolves fans you have a team to be proud of after some tough years so much talent and intelligence and entertaining to watch. Played football no hoof. Gave my Spurs a tough time. I had the misfortune to watch Cardiff recently and I was shocked at the industrial football Warnock has them produce. Cmon the old gold.
Yamahai
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Pochetino useless tactics nearly cost Spurs again. They were lucky not to draw of even lose!
Mkuchu
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VAR should be the norm; a perfectly good goal ruled by ANOTHER inept official.
teigher
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I am sick of Tottenham being in control of a game,and ending up either nearly losing or chucking it away in the final minutes.Are they lacking in fitness so they all are all too tired by then, or don't they know how to close a game down ? This seems to be an all to familiar feature of our game this season.It's ridiculous that we've got to be 4 nil up before supporters can relax.Poch must sort this out quickly.
rucksackers
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Spurs will have to fulfil their home league fixtures at Wembley. They will infringe league rules if they try to play at the new ground this season. Legal action is likely to follow. It makes me sick how they flagrantly flaunt the league regulations. A points deduction is the only suitable equitable punishment. It will happen.
Bertrams
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Wolves played very well but let's not forget that at one point they found themselves 0-3 down at home.
KuGoo
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The Mane ‘goal’ was debateable he was clearly offside when the ball was played in and it’s not at all clear when he became ‘active’ again etc.
derived
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No mention of the disallowed goal for Wolves that was not offside, same as Mane's for us, these ref's and linesmen are chronically bad nowadays and need bringing to task at these obvious failures, they are ruining games, I am sure Simon Long supports Arsenal
Jeremiaher
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This season it is going to be tough for top 4 finish for any team.. Arsenal improving, Chelsea on fire ,lfc wants tittle, tottenham no push overs, its going to be a race
Brown83
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5 team title race. Come the end of the season it will be this Liverpool Man City Chelsea Arsenal Spurs
collection
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Class click-bait article to wind up Spurs fans.
eyebrow
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an opportunity to big up the talent creativity and endeavour of an exciting Wolves team under an excellent coach.Instead lazy 'journalism' (sic) repeating some tired old meme.
tantrum
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Spurs have aways played attacking football which means traditionally we've had teams where the majority of players aren't that great at defending.This may give people the impression we're soft,and I think there were times when the make up of our teams has been too attack minded.I'm going back to 1955,but I don't want to see a side that grinds out 1-0 wins! I wouldn't pay to see that.
numeral
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What an unfair article, ignoring the fact Spurs have loads of injuries and are playing 3 games in 5 days with a 20 year old making his debut in the heart of defence!
MadimetjaSane
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Remember this Wolves side held Man City, give them credit for being so positive and playing attacking football. Also remember that Spurs were missing, Rose, Vertonghen, Sanchez (rested), Wanyama & Dele. We lost Dembele after 7 minutes and Eriksen was only fit enough for the bench.
They held the Rags too
actually
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but fergie played a different spurs, this team is so much better than united
ingenious
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Remember this Wolves side held Man City, give them credit for being so positive and playing attacking football. Also remember that Spurs were missing, Rose, Vertonghen, Sanchez (rested), Wanyama & Dele. We lost Dembele after 7 minutes and Eriksen was only fit enough for the bench.
blackmoon
2
Sometimes an article is news, sometimes comment. This one is just trolling. Pathetic.
Africana
2
Class click-bait article to wind up Spurs fans.
greece
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an opportunity to big up the talent creativity and endeavour of an exciting Wolves team under an excellent coach.Instead lazy 'journalism' (sic) repeating some tired old meme.