Why Fulham and Crystal Palace will completely change the course of Tottenham's season - opinion

Tottenham still haven’t won a league game in 2026, and if that run continues any longer, Igor Tudor will have some big decisions to make.

The interim manager was unable to stop the rot at the weekend, with a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal pushing Spurs closer to the relegation zone.

Igor Tudor now has a couple of huge Premier League games coming up that he will know are absolutely must-win fixtures; up next is Fulham, before a home tie against Crystal Palace.

We have a good idea of what to expect from Spurs for that clash with Fulham. But, will the Lilywhites get the win they desperately need, or will we see a nightmare scenario unfolding for Spurs and Tudor over the next couple of weeks?

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Two must-win games for Tottenham that’ll impact Champions League hopes

While the odds of Spurs going down are still pretty low, they are increasing week by week. Indeed, it’s no secret that if positive results aren’t achieved against Fulham and Palace, it will well and truly be panic stations in North London.

Beyond the obvious impact losing one of, or even worse, both of these London derbies would have on Tottenham’s Premier League campaign, the knock-on effect for the Champions League would be huge.

I think it’s safe to say most fans are not all that focused on continental football right now, but putting together a strong run in Europe would still be desirable.

However, if Spurs do drop points against Fulham and/or Palace, we can surely expect Tudor to write-off the Champions League and devote all his and the players’ energy into Premier League survival. And to be honest, could we blame him?

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This season can still end on a positive note for Spurs

Still, there is still a tiny bit of hope that this season could end up being ever-so-slightly positive for Spurs.

As we said, there’s the Champions League knockout stages to look forward to. Let’s be optimistic here: results in Europe have been great so far, and there’s every chance that can continue. Wouldn’t it be nice to get to the latter stages of this competition, regardless of what’s happening domestically?

Turning our attention to the league, Spurs still have 11 games to play. While fans don’t fancy Tottenham to pick up that many points, there are still a massive 33 points on offer.

I’m not saying Spurs will get that many, or probably even close to that, but they could. Even a haul of 20 points, roughly speaking, would take Tottenham to 49 points for the season.

That would be 11 more than last year’s points tally, and would have been enough to finish 13th in 2024/25. It’s obviously not good enough, but all things considered, that would be relatively acceptable – as long as this kind of season never, ever happens again.

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