Tottenham's 2025/26 season: How catastrophic campaign unfolded as Spurs narrowly escape Premier League relegation

Tottenham Hotspur may have avoided relegation on the final day, but it has been a truly miserable season littered with embarrassment.

The world's ninth-richest football club came scarily close to suffering its first relegation in 49 years in a campaign where they lost six games in a row for the first time and went on a 15-match winless league run.

Here, Sky Sports looks at how such a disastrous campaign unfolded and nearly ended in humiliation…

A sorry summer

"One thing is 100 per cent sure, we will lose football matches."

Thomas Frank's first press conference as the new Spurs head coach in July set the tone for the season.

The Dane had replaced Ange Postecoglou, who had been sacked despite ending the club's 17-year trophy drought with Europa League glory. The win in Bilbao looked to have killed off the 'Spursy' tag - but Frank immediately revived it.

In his first competitive game in charge, Spurs blew a two-goal lead late on against Paris Saint-Germain to lose the UEFA Super Cup on penalties.

Yves Bissouma was left out of the game in Italy due to poor timekeeping - and there would be more disciplinary issues for Frank to come.

The frustration at missing out on more silverware was then quickly compounded in the summer transfer market as Eberechi Eze dramatically joined north London rivals Arsenal after he had looked set to join Spurs.

It was another huge setback after Tottenham had missed out on Morgan Gibbs-White earlier in the window as Nottingham Forest blocked the deal.

Little did Spurs know back then the damage those two would go on to cause.

Injuries decimate Spurs again

Eze and Gibbs-White had been pursued because of James Maddison's near-season-ending injury after the influential midfielder suffered a full rupture of his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a pre-season friendly against Newcastle in early August.

Following his comeback earlier this month, Maddison revealed that an external specialist did not recommend surgery on his partial ACL tear in May before he fully ruptured it three months later.

Without Maddison and long-term injury absentee Dejan Kulusevski, plus the summer departure of club legend and captain Heung-Min Son, Spurs had a creativity issue.

The arrival of Xavi Simons for £51m from RB Leipzig was meant to fix it, but the Netherlands international struggled to hit the ground running, with his first Premier League goal coming in December.

Simons would eventually succumb to the Spurs injury curse after he suffered an ACL injury in April's win at Wolves.

That made it a league-high 27 players injured for the campaign, according to Transfermarkt, making it a second consecutive season disrupted by injuries.

Tottenham suffered the second-most injuries in the 2024/25 season with 41, according to PremierInjuries.com, and lessons were clearly not learned as the injury crisis continues to grip and cripple the club.

Levy's shock exit

If the injuries came as little surprise to Spurs fans, then the exit of chairman Daniel Levy did.

His shock departure in early September, which ended his near 25-year reign at the top of the club, gave rise to rumours of Spurs being for sale.

But these were emphatically shut down by majority shareholders ENIC - run by the Lewis family Trust - as chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and director of football Johan Lange were tasked with filling the leadership vacuum left by Levy.

Despite the off-pitch shake-up, Spurs continued an encouraging start under Frank. Their 3-0 win at Everton saw them end October sitting third in the Premier League, five points behind leaders Arsenal.

It is a position which now seems scarcely believable.

A nightmare November

November started with a limp home defeat to Chelsea, which saw Spurs booed off and was described by Sky Sports' Jamie Redknapp as "one of the worst performances" he had seen from Tottenham.

The defeat worsened for Frank, too, after defenders Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence ignored his request to applaud the fans as they walked straight past him, which you can relive below.

Another abysmal loss followed at north London rivals Arsenal as Spurs summer target Eze was gallingly the hero for the Gunners as he showed what they missed out on with a devastating hat-trick in a 4-1 win.

But a nightmare November had one last horror story as a 2-1 home defeat to Fulham sparked tensions between fans, Frank and the players.

Frank branded Tottenham supporters "unacceptable" for booing goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after his howler saw Fulham go 2-0 up inside six minutes - watch both the blunder and Frank's interview below.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium had become toxic - and it was just the tip of the iceberg.

Frank's Arsenal cup as unrest worsens

There was no new year cheer for Frank at his former club, Brentford, as he was booed by frustrated away supporters following a drab goalless draw.

"Boring, boring Tottenham", the visiting fans had chanted as Spurs did not register a shot on target until stoppage time.

But the scenes in west London were tame compared to what was to come on the south coast six days later.

Before the 3-2 loss at Bournemouth, Frank was pictured on the pitch drinking from an Arsenal-branded cup. Surely this had to be AI? But it was indeed real.

It is the image that has come to define Frank's disastrous time at Tottenham.

At full-time at the Vitality Stadium, several players were involved in heated exchanges with away fans before Spurs captain Cristian Romero then appeared to take aim at the club's hierarchy for "lies" in a now-edited social media post, which was supported by team-mates Richarlison and Pedro Porro.

It was a wretched night on and off the pitch at Bournemouth, which you can relive by watching the videos below.

Frank eventually sacked after underwhelming January window

The misery continued in Spurs' next Premier League game with a shocking 2-1 home stoppage-time loss to West Ham, who ended their 10-game winless league run.

Frank felt the full fury of the Spurs faithful, who chanted "sacked in the morning" at him, and he was booed off in uncomfortable scenes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which you can watch below.

It should have been the end for Frank, but somehow it wasn't.

The ineptitude of the Spurs hierarchy was further highlighted in the club's January transfer business.

Conor Gallagher was the big-name signing, but Spurs needed more than that, especially after selling last season's top scorer, Brennan Johnson, to Crystal Palace.

While the £35m sale was good for all parties, Spurs did not replace Johnson, and it was a decision that was made even more baffling when Mohammed Kudus suffered an injury two days after Johnson's exit.

A lack of winter transfer activity, with Gallagher and Brazilian teenage left-back Souza the only signings, left an injury-hit Spurs severely short.

Frank, meanwhile, limped on as the Champions League provided relief with Spurs achieving a top-four finish in the league phase. Domestically, though, it was a completely different story.

The ill-discipline that had dogged Frank's reign reared its head again as Romero was ridiculously sent off (watch below) in the 29th minute at Old Trafford, ultimately costing Spurs a 2-0 loss at Manchester United.

That defeat would be the first in a club-record six-game losing streak.

The second loss in that run, a 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle, ended Frank's woeful eight-month reign with the club sitting five points above the drop in 16th after two wins from their last 17 games.

Tudor quickly gets the chop

Igor Tudor's surprise appointment as Frank's successor on a deal until the end of the season did not feel right - and it proved to be an utter disaster.

Upon his arrival, a picture of a team-bonding dinner emerged, but unfortunately, there would be more team dinners than Premier League wins under the Croatian.

His seven-game tenure started with an embarrassing 4-1 home loss to Arsenal, with Eze once again the hero as he scored twice.

A loss at Fulham was followed by a 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace, which felt like the first time those not connected to the club realised that Spurs were genuinely in a relegation battle.

The Champions League last-16 clash against Atletico Madrid was a chance for Spurs to get away from their domestic troubles - but the first leg in Madrid only deepened the crisis.

A chaotic 5-2 loss saw goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky embarrassingly substituted after just 17 minutes following two howlers. It was a decision that shocked Paul Merson on Soccer Special and you can watch his reaction below.

Defeat made Tudor the first Tottenham boss to lose his first four games in charge.

Even amid the gloom, there was a comical moment before Tudor's only Premier League point in the 1-1 draw at Liverpool, as the Spurs boss seemingly confused club staff member Allan Dixon for Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. Watch the hilarious moment below.

The Anfield draw and a 3-2 home win over Atletico Madrid in the second leg kept Tudor in the job ahead of a crunch relegation six-pointer against Nottingham Forest.

Thousands of Tottenham fans lined the streets to welcome the team bus as white and blue smoke filled the air.

But it did not have the desired effect as Spurs were humbled 3-0 by Forest, with summer target Gibbs-White scoring the second to make the loss even more painful.

A week later, during the March international break, Tudor was given the chop to end a miserable 44 days in charge. He left having done more harm than good.

De Zerbi's rescue act amid controversial VAR calls

Roberto De Zerbi became Tottenham's third head coach of the season - but his task was made even tougher when they dropped into the relegation zone for the first time after West Ham's thrashing of Wolves two days before his first game in charge.

However, there was no immediate new-manager bounce as Spurs lost yet again with a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland to leave them two points from safety.

Then came a 2-2 home draw against Brighton, which felt like a defeat as a stoppage-time equaliser extended Spurs' winless league run to 15 matches and stopped De Zerbi's side from moving out of the bottom three.

Kevin Danso's mistake in the 95th minute, which allowed Georginio Rutter to equalise (watch below), would become a theme of Spurs shooting themselves in the foot in the run-in.

Nonetheless, Spurs finally earned their first league win of 2026 with a nervy 1-0 victory at already-relegated Wolves - although they remained in the drop zone after West Ham's stoppage-time home win over Everton.

Then came the win that changed everything. The 2-1 victory at Aston Villa, arguably their best performance of the season, moved them out of the relegation zone.

But despite West Ham's losing run, Spurs could not secure safety through a combination of mistakes and controversial VAR calls.

Leading 1-0 at home to Leeds, Spurs were on course to go four points clear, only for goal scorer Mathys Tel to turn villain as he recklessly overhead kicked Ethan Ampadu in the head to allow Leeds a penalty equaliser.

Spurs were then denied a stoppage-time penalty in the 1-1 draw after Maddison went down under a Lukas Nmecha challenge as VAR felt he made contact with the ball, but Maddison disagreed.

VAR would again be called into question in the defeat at Chelsea, but only after Randal Kolo Muani sloppily gave the ball away to gift Chelsea a 2-0 lead.

At 2-1, Spurs were left incensed when Marc Cucurella pulled down Van de Ven at a corner, only for the ball to be deemed not in play by VAR and no penalty was given, meaning Spurs missed the chance to earn a point to prevent a final-day escape.

It all came down to the final 90 minutes of the season. Spurs, belatedly, and with the help of a toothless Everton side, stepped up to deliver the win they needed. Palhinha, like at Wolves, was the match-winner again, but it was De Zerbi who got the biggest cheers during the final lap of appreciation.

The long-suffering Spurs supporters could finally celebrate. But for De Zerbi, the hard work continues this summer. After back-to-back 17th-placed finishes, Spurs cannot allow themselves to be in this mess again.