Tottering Cold-Spurs at sixes and sevens

Champions League finalists for the first time four months ago, Tottenham are again making history in Europe’s top club football competition. The wrong kind of history.

Tottenham were picked off repeatedly by Bayern Munich in a humiliating 7-2 loss yesterday, the first time the English team have conceded seven goals in a home match in any competition in its 137-year history.

Another team in trouble are Real Madrid, who have failed to win at least one of their first two games in the group stage for the first time in Champions League history. To avoid defeat against Club Brugge yesterday, the 13-time European champions had to fight back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2.

Tottenham slumped to the biggest margin of defeat by a team from England playing at home in any European competition.

Adding insult for Tottenham was the sight of Serge Gnabry, a former player at fierce rival Arsenal, scoring four of the goals for Bayern with clinical finishing. All of them came in a wild second half in the Group B game featuring six goals in total.

“Every single touch went in,” said Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.

While it was a statement win for Bayern, who had not been widely regarded as one of the Champions League favourites amid something of a transitional season for the German club, the manner of the defeat exacerbates the concerns surrounding Tottenham and Pochettino.

Pochettino is in his sixth year as manager, leading to fears that Tottenham have gone as far as they can under the Argentine.