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Choking under pressure. Blowing a lead, collapsing in the title race, or failing when it matters most. "To bottle it" means you couldn't handle the moment. Teams get labelled as bottlers based on historical collapses, and the tag sticks even after they win something. Central to football banter, especially for fanbases with painful near-misses in their history.
Tottenham's 2015-16 title collapse - where they went from 2 points behind Leicester with 4 games remaining to finishing third behind Arsenal - became the defining example of bottling, cementing their "Spursy" reputation among rival fans.
Robbie
Jan 14, 2026
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