Guglielmo Vicario was outstanding in Tottenham's 4-0 win at Manchester City on Saturday, making a string of fine saves to earn Ange Postecoglou's side a rare clean sheet and help condemn the champions to their biggest-ever defeat at the Etihad.
Remarkably, Vicario played an hour of the game with a broken ankle, which required surgery on Monday and is expected to sideline the goalkeeper for months.
The 28-year-old Italian needed treatment after landing awkwardly in a challenge with Savinho but felt able to play on, and it was not until after the game that his ankle swelled up painfully. Spurs and Vicario were surprised when a scan on Sunday revealed a broken bone.
The news is nothing short of a disaster for Spurs, taking the shine off their landmark win over City, which has changed perceptions of what might be possible for Postecoglou's side this season.
Postecoglou will now have to rely on veteran Fraser Forster, at least until January when the club could sign a new goalkeeper.
Vicario is not just a brilliant shot-stopper, he is the starting point for Spurs' entire game-plan under Postecoglou, which relies on high-risk short-passes from the goalkeeper to bait the opposition press, and a goalkeeper capable of sweeping up behind the advanced defensive line.
Postecoglou demands his goalkeeper plays short in almost every scenario and Vicario's speed of thought, quality on the ball and pace off his line are crucial to Spurs' approach.
"It's part of the way we want to play our football," Postecoglou said in October, when asked why his side almost never play long. "The shorter pass means you're going to start off with possession. We don't want to give away possession.
"The kind of team we are, we want to set things up so we have control of the game and the shorter pass guarantees that and from there you move your way forward.
"A big part of our build up play is to manipulate oppositions as much as we can as we move up the park rather than go long to a contested ball and hope we get the second ball. We're just not that kind of team."
Forster is only 36 but he belongs to a different generation of English goalkeepers, for whom playing out from the back was less valued than shot-stopping and being a commanding presence in the box.
It is doubtful if Tottenham's build-up play can be as effective as it was against City with the former England international between the sticks, and two of Forster's three appearances this season - the win over Coventry in the Carabao Cup and defeat to Galatasaray - have been jittery affairs.
He did, however, keep a clean sheet against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League, making three smart saves and proving quick off his line.
The hope for Spurs is that under Postecoglou's guidance, Forster can replicate Vicario's success at playing out and even, perhaps, prove a more dominant presence in his six-yard box, particularly at set-pieces.
Joe Hart, whose brilliant career has almost been defined by City head coach Pep Guardiola deciding he was not good enough with his feet, has revealed that Postecoglou completely changed his perception of playing out from back after the former England No.1 joined him at Celtic in 2021.
"Ange Postecoglou blew my mind," Hart told BBC Radio 5-Live in an interview this month.
"I always thought, 'play out from the back, oh my god, does that mean that I need to do Cruyff turns, pick passes?'
"No, it doesn't. It means that I need to stand on the ball, I need to make sure that my centre-halves are either side of me, my six is showing, and then if the space is being created, I'm not playing out for the sake of playing out, I'm playing out to score.
"If that full press comes and all I see is opposition players stood next to mine, I'm giving that clarity in my mind that there's a little dinked ball into the striker's chest."
Forster is a likeable and steady character, well respected by everyone at Spurs, and if he can raise his game and successfully adapt his approach like Hart, Postecoglou's side will hope to continue improving until they can sign a new goalkeeper or Vicario returns.
Postecoglou was prescient enough to register Forster for the Europa League, instead opting to omit full-back Djed Spence from his squad, meaning he will come straight into the side for Thursday's visit of Roma before making his first Premier League appearance since May 2023 against Fulham on Sunday.
But it always felt like a risk for Spurs not to sign genuine competition for Vicario in the summer and, with his long-term injury, their gamble has now backfired.
