Tottenham fans are up in arms about the 'most Spurs thing ever' after their U21s side came top of the Premier League 2 table - but were not awarded the title. 

Fans have found plenty of comedy and relatability in the outcome and labelled it the 'definition of Spursy'.

Tottenham's youngsters are being forced to work extra-hard for their crown due to a competition format change introduced this season.

Premier League 2 is now operating with an end-of-season play-offs system, pitting the top 16 of 26 teams in a knockout structure.

Spurs saw off 16th-placed Aston Villa 4-3 on Monday night thanks to Will Lankshear's 100th-minute winner. They will face Liverpool's young charges in the quarter-finals on May 12.

Tottenham's U21s will have to play in new play-offs to win Premier League 2 - despite finishing top of the league table 

'Literally the most Spurs thing ever to have a rule change deny us winning the league,' wrote one fan on X, formerly Twitter. 

'Format change to stop Spurs from winning a trophy,' one complained.

'Typical, we win a league but at the same time we don't win it! Only Spurs can do this,' another wrote.

'If you could explain Spurs in one tweet it'd be this! Win the league and have to play more games to win the league. Rule changes when they don't benefit us! Sums up our luck!' one said. 

'Even when Spurs win something, they don’t win something (or at least not necessarily),' said another. 

'That is the definiton of Spursy,' one decided.  

In fairness, this type of system is regular outside England. 

The Scottish Premiership splits into two sections after the regular 33-game season, forcing the top six to fight it out for the title by playing an extra game against each other. 

Similar systems are used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Europe alone. 

In the Belgian Pro League, teams see their points total halves at the end of the season as they are split into three sections - clubs competing for the title, ones gunning for the Europa Conference League, and others battling the drop. 

So, it isn't some great misfortune to Spurs cruelly dealt by the footballing deities, just a reality for many clubs. 

The new Premier League 2 system has 26 teams in one huge division rather than a promotion-relegation structure.

This is supposed to encourage 'positive jeopardy' - clubs making decisions about player development first and not disadvantaging future U21s players. 

Each team plays 20 games before the play-offs, where the top team are paired with the 16th-placed team, 2nd with 15th, 3rd with 14th, and so on. 

The final will be played between May 24 and 27.