Tottenham Hotspur see title hopes crumble as star duo out until 2024

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 06: James Maddison of Tottenham Hotspur goes down with an injury during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on November 06, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 06: James Maddison of Tottenham Hotspur goes down with an injury during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on November 06, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Tottenham’s 4-1 loss to Chelsea was a big blow in the London club’s hopes of staying in the Premier League title race. While still second in the table, what happened in the match turned the tides against Spurs and will throw them some severely unwanted adversity.

Spurs will lose Christian Romero for their next three matches as his red card foul was deemed as serious foul play. Destiny Udogie, who was also sent off against Chelsea, will serve only a one-game suspension for his red card.

There are two more pressing situations, though. Both James Maddison and Micky van de Ven were forced into being substituted after suffering injuries during the match against Tottenham Hotspur. Maddison could not continue after suffering a knock on a contact play in the Chelsea half. More worryingly, Micky van de Ven seemingly pulled his hamstring running back into the Spurs’ half and went down to the ground in a lot of pain.

Both players have now had assessments on their injuries, and ahead of their match against Wolves on November 11, Ange Postecoglou provided an update on both players [via Fabrizio Romano].

"“Van de Ven will be out for couple of months, looking to the New Year”.“Maddison, it’s a lot worse than we thought. Probably into the New Year”."

Postecoglou also noted that Richarlison is out for weeks, as The Top Flight had covered.

Former Leicester City player James Maddison had a phenomenal start to the season with his new club, and his absence will be indescribable for Tottenham. Maddison has eight goal contributions in 11 Premier League matches.

Micky van de Ven was fitting in nicely to the Tottenham defence and consistently showing his elite level of speed, playing in Postecoglou’s high line.

It will be hard for Tottenham to keep their current pace without both of these players, but if, at the very least, they can keep themselves in the top-four conversation until January, Spurs fans have to be happy with that.