Tottenham's nosedive towards the relegation zone has forced their fans to think the unthinkable.
Relative to financial security, sporting expectations and basically any other metric you could care to mention, this Tottenham season has more than a fair shout at being the worst by any team in English football history.
Spurs supporters have been ringing the alarm bells for months, but their distress signals had often fallen on deaf ears. With the business end of the season having arrived, rivals have now woken up to the club's plight, but, to continue to borrow Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor's analogy, many of them have only come to revel in watching the ship sink.
Did the club's downward trend start with the lack of spending that accompanied the stadium move? Mauricio Pochettino's sacking five months after the Champions League final defeat in 2019?
Something more recent perhaps: The series of ill-advised managerial appointments that started with José Mourinho and left them with Igor Tudor's 44-day reign? The behind-the-scenes upheaval highlighted by the Lewis family's ousting of Daniel Levy at the start of this season? The fact that most of their players are always injured? There's certainly plenty of blame to share around.
The most important thing now, however, is not to work out how all this misery started -- it's how it will end.
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Why Tottenham will get relegated
What had once seemed like another lost season in the annals of Spurs' recent history, has turned into the worst in living memory.
For so much of the run-in, it's been tough to envisage where Spurs might get the points that will save their season. Their win over Aston Villa on May 3 may have changed the mood in north London, but there's still plenty of work to do for Spurs to ensure they're competing in the top flight when August rolls around again.
With Nottingham Forest and Leeds United now mathematically safe, Tottenham's only rivals are West Ham.
Spurs missed the chance to move four points clear of their London rivals on Monday as they drew with Leeds.
Robero De Zerbi's team now face a trip to Stamford Bridge -- a ground they've won once at in the Premier League ever -- before hosting Everton at another ground they can't win at: the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Burnley's weekend draw with Villa means no team in the league has a poorer points return at home this season than Spurs.
When Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham team started dropping like flies last season, it was largely put down to his famously intense training methods, but the trend has continued long after the Australian's summer exit from the club.
This year, it's not only been the frequency of the injuries that's been the problem, it's also their seriousness, their timing and the identity of the players who've suffered them.
Take Spurs' lack of attacking threat, for example -- their performances have been turgid for almost the whole campaign. Spurs amassed an xG of just 0.05 in a 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea in November which turned a sizeable portion of the Spurs fanbase against Frank. Their 4-1 away defeat to Arsenal two games later saw Frank's team produce a marginal improvement: 0.07xG.
The impact of James Maddison, who made his long-awaited return against Leeds, and Dejan Kulusevski's injuries on these figures is unquantifiable but the fact the creative duo haven't played a minute of football this season due to their respective knee injuries will not have helped matters at the attacking end of the pitch.
Now that Xavi Simons has shared their fate, Spurs are a team bereft of creativity.
Of all Spurs' first-team players that have been at the club for the entirety of the campaign, only one -- Mathys Tel -- has not missed a game through injury.
How much of that is bad luck and how much of it is poor squad planning is open to debate, but injuries have arguably been the biggest limiting factor on Spurs' hopes this term.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, only Chelsea (7) have received more red cards in the Premier League this season than Spurs (4).
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Why Tottenham won't get relegated
Despite all the doom and gloom, there is still some hope for Spurs fans to hold on to.
Chief among them is their apparent improvement under new head coach De Zerbi who appears the first Spurs manager this season able to get a tune out of the team.
He is helped by the fact their future is in their own hands. Their Premier League safety could be confirmed if West Ham lose at Newcastle on Sunday and Spurs win at Chelsea two days later.
If West Ham were to draw at St James' Park, De Zerbi's men would effectively need a draw in west London to stay up due to their vastly superior goal difference.
Postecoglou's team finished 17th last year with 38 points. It was a campaign that saw a record-low points total (26) needed to avoid the drop.
This season, Spurs are likely to need around 40 points to survive -- but after picking up eight from their last 12, one win could be enough for Micky van de Ven and Co.
After weeks of unfavourable projections, the Opta supercomputer has swung back behind Spurs, rating them as now having just an 18.70% chance of going down, compared to West Ham's 81.30%.
- Tottenham's Conor Gallagher: Roberto De Zerbi has 'brought the team together'
Which fixtures are most likely to decide the relegation battle?
May 17: Newcastle vs. West Ham
May 19: Chelsea vs. Spurs
May 24: Spurs vs. Everton, West Ham vs. Leeds
Information from ESPN's Global Sports Research contributed to this story
