Tottenham Hotspurs has surprisingly been on hot form this season with the appointment of Australian manager Ange Postecoglou mostly to applaud.

Despite losing English marksman Harry Kane before the start of the season, Postecoglou has been able to transform the Spurs team with players like Hueng-Min Son, Yves Bissouma, and Cristian Romero seeing a resurgence of form having endured a frustrating 2022-23 season on the domestic front.

Through his vigorous tactics and rather interesting style of play, Postecoglou has already led Spurs to their best-ever start after 10 games in the Premier League era. With 26 points from those matches (W8 D2), the Australian has accrued the most points by a manager in their first 10 games in the competition’s history.

Such achievement didn’t come unnoticed as the former Celtic manager won three PL manager of the month plaudits. Spurs forwards Hueng-Min Son and James Maddison won the PL player of the month awards respectively in August and September too.

Now, I had predicted Spurs to finish 8th this season, and I have been made to eat my words as Spurs kicked off to a great start. But was I wrong to foresee them struggling? No, and they might very well suffer like I envisioned them to.

As of this moment, Tottenham has lost 2 games in a row, they have crucial players injured, and some currently facing suspension. To add onto that, AFCON is closely looming by too, meaning the absence of instrumental players like Yves Bissouma and Sarr.

Could all this signal a downfall for Ange Postecoglou’s exciting and yet blossoming Spurs team?

Micky Van De Ven, whom has been Romero’s trusted Center Back pairing, is confirmed to be out till next year after coming off in the Chelsea vs Tottenham match with a hamstring injury.

This injury comes as a huge blow due to how Van De Ven has been instrumental to Tottenham.

Accrued for how he rarely ever panics under pressure in build-up and for his calmness out of possession, Van De Ven provides the perfect counterbalance to Cristian Romero’s more aggressive approach to the game. And with him missing, Spurs’ ability to start play from the back is under scrutiny as they don’t possess backup as calm and collected as he is.

His partner in crime Cristian Romero will be missing out in action for a while too as he picked up a red card against Chelsea. Having been handed the joint vice-captaincy by Ange Postecoglou this summer, Romero is going to be a big miss as a leader too, something Tottenham lost in former captain Harry Kane.

To make things worse, Newly-signed fullback Destiny Udogie also picked up a red card against Chelsea, leaving Pedro Porro as the only trusted player in Ange’s usual starting back four.

Now how much damage does this pose to this yet blossoming Spurs side? Could the likes of Eric Dier, Ben Davies, and Emerson, basically ruin the season for Spurs this early on?

In my opinion, yes. And this is why… If you are going to be rivalling City, Liverpool and Arsenal for the title, there are some games which are supposed to be must-wins no matter what, and I don’t think Spurs can win some of those games with Dier and Davies at the back. Bear in mind that both Eric Dier and Davies are makeshift center backs, they aren’t exactly skilled like Romero or Van De Ven.

Teams like Wolves, Bournemouth, and Sheffield actually have a chance against Spurs when there’s Dier at the back. And those are the games Spurs should be using to tally up their points and level up with Man City.

There’s also an issue of creativity as James Maddison has been confirmed to be out possibly till next year. He joins the likes of Richarlison, Ivan Perisic, Sessegnon, and Manor Solomon on the sidelines.

Most Spurs fans will be hoping to see him back on the pitch before Christmas as he has been a revelation and a bargain for them. Bought from Leicester City for just under 50 million quid, Maddison has been the main supply for Spurs upfront, assisting 5 and scoring 3 in 11 games.