{"id":593685,"date":"2026-05-20T03:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593685\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:36:09","slug":"tottenham-relegation-fight-fine-margins-leave-spurs-fighting-for-survival-on-final-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593685\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham relegation fight: Fine margins leave Spurs fighting for survival on final day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richarlison had given Robert de Zerbi’s disappointing side hope, after Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos gave the hosts a deserved two-goal advantage, when Chelsea<\/a>‘s combative left-back Marc Cucurella unceremoniously dragged Spurs defender Micky van de Ven to the floor.<\/p>\n

It came as Mathys Tel prepared to take a corner and Spurs demanded a penalty that never came, their disbelief doubled when Cucurella was cautioned over the incident.<\/p>\n

Video assistant referee (VAR) checks detected his foul came seconds, maybe even one second, before the ball came into play, meaning a penalty could not be awarded.<\/p>\n

Referee Stuart Attwell could only take action against Cucurella with a yellow card, and once VAR confirmed the ball had not been kicked there was no room to initiate a review and subsequent spot-kick.<\/p>\n

Former Chelsea<\/a> and England striker Daniel Sturridge told Sky Sports: “One second difference and it is a guaranteed penalty. Cucurella is so lucky.”<\/p>\n

It was the tightest of calls.<\/p>\n

Spurs boss De Zerbi refused to dwell on it, but said the Everton<\/a> game was arguably “more important” than the club’s Europa League final against Manchester United<\/a> last season, which they won in Bilbao.<\/p>\n

He added: “It is not my business. My business is to focus on preparing the next game and to get the points we need because Sunday is the final for us.<\/p>\n

“This game is important, more than playing for a trophy. Last season ended with playing for a trophy. We play for something more important than a trophy because of the pride and history of the club.<\/p>\n

“You can win a trophy but it does not change anything. The most important thing is the pride and dignity of the club, so that we can go on holiday, in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

“We have to stay alive. Sunday against Everton<\/a> is a big day for us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richarlison had given Robert de Zerbi’s disappointing side hope, after Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos gave the hosts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-593685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}