A fairytale and a nightmare continued yesterday as Hull City won in North London for the second time in nine days to leave Tottenham Hotspur marooned at the base of the Barclays Premier League and intensify questions over the future of Juande Ramos, the head coach.

Hull moved up to third — above Arsenal, the side they beat in their previous match — thanks to a 1-0 victory secured by a superb first-half free kick from Geovanni. But while Phil Brown’s team are surpassing expectations in their first top-flight campaign, Tottenham have only two points from seven matches, their worst start to a season since the year the Titanic sunk, 1912.

The international break means that Tottenham do not play again until October 19, when they travel to another promoted side, Stoke City. Before that, Ramos, who has been in charge for almost a year, Damien Comolli, the sporting director, and Daniel Levy, the chairman, will come under heavy scrutiny.

Ramos repelled questions about his future and whether he may resign. “This is my job, I am the same whether we win or lose,” he said. “That decision [about whether he stays] is not up to me, but I am determined to put it right.” The Spaniard’s contract has nearly four years to run and the cost of sacking him would be prohibitive: more than £15 million.

Ramos admitted to a crisis in attack after losing Roman Pavlyuchenko to an ankle injury. “The position of striker is the most weak,” he said. “There are no possibilities to make changes.” The summer sales of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane have left him with Darren Bent as his only experienced centre forward. When asked if he took responsibility for that situation, he answered: “Yes, some. But it was a decision of the club and we are all responsible whether they are good or bad.”

Liverpool joined Chelsea at the top of the table after recovering from a two-goal deficit to secure a memorable 3-2 win away to Manchester City, but their delight was tempered by a knee injury to Martin Skrtel, the Slovakia defender. Newcastle United also recovered from two goals down to earn a draw away to Everton in Joe Kinnear’s first match as interim manager.