Credit Tottenham for their resilience. Credit their character for coming back into the game. Credit them for battling their way to a point that never really seemed plausible until Son Heung-min converted an 84th‑minute penalty. But let nobody get carried away: this was a game that raised more questions for Spurs than it answered. It was not a performance that should reassure anybody.
The daffodils were out in front of the flats on the Seven Sisters Road. There was some warmth in the sun. Fans uncertainly cast off their thick winter coats. Finally, Tottenham’s injury crisis is beginning to ease. At last Ange Postecoglou has had some time to work with his squad. Spurs had won league games on three successive weekends. Even with a 1-0 defeat against Manchester City in their previous league game, it might have been possible to believe that winter is over, that renewal has begun.
Then came Thursday and a miserable performance at AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League. That it was only 1-0 at least offers some hope for the second leg on Thursday – and that Postecoglou can maintain his much‑vaunted run of always winning a trophy in his second year at a club, but on that the entire season hangs. And nobody can be too bullish after another weirdly sloppy home display.
“It was a chaotic game for sure,” Postecoglou said. “We added to the chaos a little bit. Just with the ball we were careless with our passing and that allowed the game to be played on the terms Bournemouth would like. There was not a lot of control from our perspective, which is not ideal from the way we want to play. We looked nervous, we looked anxious but the positive is the lads showed a really strong mindset. To be fair, that’s what’s been missing this year. There’s a lot of games that have just petered out, and if we’d turned round a few of those one-goal defeats we’d be in a lot better position in the table.”
The vast majority of Spurs’ problems would disappear if they could stop giving the ball away needlessly in their own half. That at least was not the source of Bournemouth’s 42nd‑minute opener, although that the ball was given away in the opposition half is perhaps not a consequential variation on the theme. Milos Kerkez intercepted Pedro Porro’s pass, surged forwards and crossed deep for Marcus Tavernier to score with a controlled volley at the back post.
Although a penalty shootout victory took them past Wolves into the sixth round of the FA Cup last week, Bournemouth have been a little out of sorts recently, losing three of their previous four league games, a run that had dropped them into the mass of sides just outside the expected Champions League qualification slots. “Big teams find ways to win,” a frustrated Andoni Iraola said. “We need to be more efficient.” With 10 games to go, everybody in the top half has a realistic chance of a top‑five finish – a broad grouping that, notably, does not include Tottenham.
That’s why frustration is mounting at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the greatest lower midtable arena in the world. Without Dejan Kulusevski, they look desperately short of creativity. Postecoglou picked a functional midfield of Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur but if the intention was to add an extra curtain of protection, it didn’t work and left Spurs entirely reliant on their wingers for creativity.
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The introduction of Lucas Bergvall and Son at half-time, and then James Maddison on the hour, offered greater attacking threat, but it also made Spurs look terribly vulnerable to the counter. Although Son had a shot deflected against the base of a post and Sarr dragged inexplicably wide after neat work from Maddison, Justin Kluivert had already had one goal ruled out for offside when a shift of body weight took Kevin Danso out of the game as he slipped in Evanilson to dink Bournemouth’s second past Guglielmo Vicario.
When Sarr did eventually score two minutes later, it was a mis‑hit cross that looped in off the far post. Bergvall had hit a post seconds earlier and Kluivert then hit a post from another breakaway as the game collapsed into a reckless openness. Nobody embodied that more than Kepa, whose lunge at Son when there was little immediate danger conceded the penalty that brought the equaliser.
Perhaps to an extent that is simply the nature of Angeball, but picking up the scraps from chaos doesn’t seem a plan likely to create consistently positive results. The problem is that Spurs are consistent at the moment, just not in a good way: they have now taken six points from nine home league games since winning 4-0 at Manchester City in November. Is that enough to keep Postecoglou in the job next season? Perhaps not in isolation, which is why Thursday is such a big day for the club.
Source: theguardian.com
