I recently laid out the stakes for the end of Tottenham’s season in this post. Basically it breaks down like this. The only thing left for this season is a top four finish that would give us a Champions League spot. The four games standing in our way are Watford, West Brom, Newcastle, and Leicester. We beat Watford (in ugly fashion). Today, we lost to West Brom 1-0.

West Brom are dead last in the league right now by the way.

I’ve long said and believed this about Tottenham. Spurs is the kind of team that will beat Real Madrid in the Champions League but will also lose to – I don’t know, just off the top of my head – West Brom or something.

I know my team.

I often wondered why British commentators seem to favor the Big Four in the Premier League. Traditionally that’s Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal with Manchester City nicking a spot in there in recent years. Despite any success Spurs would have, I felt like the commentators would be dismissive.

I’m starting to think that they just know of which they speak. Tottenham has always been about attractive soccer. That was their stock in trade. But attractive soccer and winning soccer are not the same thing. As I wrote in my last post about Spurs, they don’t have the killer instinct. Manchester United wins in big spots because they have the killer instinct. They want to win.

It’s not that Spurs don’t want to win, it’s just that if it isn’t happening, they don’t do anything about it.

They are also capable of incredible meltdowns. Two years ago, on the last game of the season, they just needed to tie the already relegated Newcastle to finish second in the league and finish about Arsenal for the first time in some twenty odd years. They lost to a ten man Newcastle 5-1.

Today’s game was the kind of game that makes me say, “Why do I watch sports?” I could tell we weren’t going to score. West Brom created a force field around the goal and we couldn’t penetrate it. Harry Kane, Dele Alli, and Christian Eriksen were completely ineffective.

There wasn’t anything particularly bad about the game, I just knew a draw was the best we could hope for.

But then, in injury time, there was a scramble in front of goal and Jake Livermore – a former Tottenham player – pushed the ball into the back of the net. It was an ugly goal from a desperate team and it was like a dagger to the heart.

There are two games left this season. Tomorrow, if Chelsea wins, they gain three points and come within two points of taking fourth spot from us this season. But if that happens, we’ll also be only one point behind Liverpool for third.

Why do I watch sports? I guess on some level because deep down I hope for a good outcome. It’s this deep-seated optimism that is often frustrated and makes me cynical. You can’t turn away from a car crash but you can’t turn away from a success story either.

Why do I watch sports? Because I just have to see how this ends.