SPURS IN FREE FALL AS BLUES RISE UP

Damaging setback to Ange's top-four hopes

- Mike Walters

THERE are only three things this enigmatic Tottenham Hotspur side cannot do.

They cannot defend set-pieces, they cannot beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and now, surely, they cannot get in the Champions League next season.

As Spurs' dismal record down the Fulham Broadway stretched to just one win in 38 league and cup visits during the Premier League era, the writing was not just on the wall for manager Ange Postecoglou.

It was trailed in plumes of smoke across the brooding west London sky: with Liverpool and Manchester City still to finish in the top four.

Postecoglou has restored enjoyment to Lilywhite heartlands, but like all his predecessors in the past 30 years, Tottenham's optimism here disappeared like shipping in the Bermuda Triangle.