When were Tottenham last relegated? Spurs slump mirrors last fall toward the drop | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur are facing the real threat of relegation from the Premier League for the first time.

The North Londoners are one of six ever-present top-flight teams in the Premier League era, butdefeat to Crystal Palace on Thursday night leaves them mired in trouble.

The numbers make for grim reading. Spurs sit 16th in the table and are just a point above the relegation places. An 11-game winless run is the club's longest to start a calendar year in 91 years, while Spurs have picked up just seven points from the last 42 available in thePremier League.

That wretched run of form could cost the club its top-flight status. It's been 49 years since Spurs last dropped out of English football's top division and their current plight has echoes of that infamous campaign. During the 1976-77 season, Spurs won just three of their final 12 games to finish bottom of the table, two points from safety.

The damage had been done earlier in the campaign. October saw 12 goals conceded in successive defeats to West Brom and Derby, while a run of four straight losses in February cemented their place in trouble.

This was a Tottenham team dubbed 'too good to go down'. Spurs had won two League Cups and the UEFA Cup between 1971 and 1973, while the North Londoners finished the previous season ninth. Their side contained talents including Pat Jennings, Steve Perryman and a teenage Glenn Hoddle. It was not enough to keep them up.

The current Tottenham team are also fresh from a European triumph, following their Europa League win under former manager Ange Postecoglou last season. Though less than a year ago, that high feels a distant memory right now, as a struggling side battle desperately to avoid the drop.

Should Spurs slip into the Championship, it would represent, arguably, the biggest shock relegation witnessed in Europe's top five leagues this century.