Postecoglou and Maresca battle for early Premier League sack race running as Spurs, Chelsea refuse to act

Ange Postecoglou and Enzo Maresca look like increasingly poor fits for Spurs and Chelsea; it may be a sprint start in next season’s Premier League sack race.

There is an entirely feasible alternate reality in which there is more riding on these final few weeks of the season than a series of teams taking it in turns to manufacture increasingly ridiculous ways of tripping over themselves in the race for Champions League qualification.

It would have admittedly required a few outlandish outcomes: Ipswich seeing out wins instead of capitulating late on; Chelsea losing to the Tractor Boys; and Spurs not being Spurs.

For almost 80 minutes at Portman Road the first two ingredients were sorted on this particular weekend. Ipswich might be grateful that Spurs held up their end of the bargain against Wolves for just 85 entire seconds, ensuring expectations remained in check despite what was almost a memorable ransacking of Stamford Bridge.

The gap between 18th and 17th could have been three points with six games remaining. Ipswich just had to hold on for victory last weekend against Wolves – whose slump would continue with defeat to Spurs – before joining Manchester City as the only teams to complete a Premier League double over Chelsea this season. Leading both those games late into the second half and emerging with a draw and a defeat sums up their campaign.

As it is, Ipswich are 14 points from safety and the identity of the side they are ostensibly but ultimately fruitlessly chasing has changed. With Wolves extending the longest current winning run of any Premier League team to four at home to a hilariously hapless Spurs and West Ham narrowly failing to stop Liverpool’s title coronation, the Hammers were leapfrogged and slipped to a place above the relegation zone.

It is largely academic at this stage beyond the illustrious Premier League prize money table; the three promoted teams are going straight back down and have known their fate, whether subconsciously or otherwise, for months. But it is truly stunning that Spurs sit just two points above that dropzone, the two sides directly below them who have sacked their managers this season now within touching distance.

Six of the bottom eight teams have changed coaches in 2024/25 and while there is little doubt Kieran McKenna remains by far the best option for Ipswich, the opposite seems true of Ange Postecoglou and Spurs. It was clear long before a 17th Premier League defeat of the season but no less ludicrous that he has not paid for such rank underperformance with his job.

The customary post-match needle will struggle to mask a truly miserable defeat. Spurs are a cataclysmically poor team but their proneness to individual incompetence is staggering: two of Guglielmo Vicario’s three dreadful first-half mistakes were punished; Cristiano Romero was caught for Jorgen Strand Larsen’s goal; and Matheus Cunha caught both Lucas Bergvall and Ben Davies lacking for a clinching fourth.

There were goals for Mathys Tel and Richarlison and the empty threat of a comeback in between but little more should be expected from a meeting between sides whose Premier League fixtures this season had produced 205 goals in 62 games before Sunday.

The placing of any remaining eggs in the Europa League basket is completely understandable but it is also no excuse for amateurish indifference in the Premier League. It is difficult to decipher whether attitude, application or ability is the problem for Spurs domestically but it is very probably a combination of the three and that damns Postecoglou.

That second Wolves goal alone should force Daniel Levy into action: a deflected, looping cross somehow granting Marshall Munetsi a free header on the edge of the six-yard box, Larsen missing it and a panicking Vicario punching the ball in off Djed Spence.

One or two such costly errors from different players in a game can be forgiven, but four leading to goals from half the team can only reflect horribly on the manager.

Postecoglou remains the only coach Enzo Maresca has faced twice or more this season with the Chelsea boss winning the second meeting. McKenna, rumoured to be the preferred candidate by many at Stamford Bridge this summer, was the latest to expose that really quite bizarre blind spot.

Chelsea remain the only team to lose away at Ipswich this season and that 2-0 Tractor Boys triumph in December was almost repeated. Julio Enciso and Ben Johnson assisted one another with George Hirst causing havoc in the absence of substitute Liam Delap.

Maresca did at least play arguably his best players but claiming a single point from a likely relegated team in this tight Champions League race is disastrous. With such a difficult run-in – four of their last six opponents are 8th or higher and Everton and Manchester United are the exceptions – this was comfortably their best opportunity to establish a head start.

It was unnecessarily squandered even with Jadon Sancho’s wonderful equaliser, foundations upon which Chelsea could not build towards a winner.

And unlike Spurs and Postecoglou, Maresca cannot cling to Chelsea’s European distraction for salvation. The Conference League provides a back door only into the Europa; the Champions League is the express objective.

As it is, with both sides desperate to try and make their bold, brave decisions work, Postecoglou and Maresca could simply be preparing for a sprint start in next season’s Premier League sack race instead.