FROM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – Not for the first time this season, Tottenham went into a game with the chance to pounce on errors made by their top-four rivals.
Not for the first time this season, Tottenham failed to pounce on errors made by their top-four rivals.
Spurs were beaten 3-2 by struggling Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, with Dango Ouattara scoring a 95th-minute winner soon after the maligned Arnaut Danjuma had equalised.
There was a feeling of unrest even when the hosts were 1-0 up and pinning the Cherries back early on, a sense that no lead is safe. They would be proven correct.
Davinson Sanchez was brought on for the injured Clement Lenglet, played a huge hand in Bournemouth’s first two strikes, and then brought back off to the audible delight of home supporters. January signing Pedro Porro continually found himself dribbling into trouble.
It seemed like the tide was turning when the lesser spotted Danjuma came off the bench and fired in a superb equaliser with 88 minutes on the clock, but Bournemouth took advantage of Spurs’ tactical misgivings.
Interim manager Cristian Stellini insisted pre-match that he wants to play attacking football, but with the tried, tested and failed 3-4-3. When the visitors had figured out how to play around it, he simply threw on every attacker at his disposal, leaving Harry Kane in midfield for the final stages.
On one last counter through a muddled Spurs XI, the dominant Dominic Solanke teed up Ouattara to snatch the three points back.
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Perhaps the only saving grace from Saturday’s result is it will not delude fans and club staff alike into thinking this is actually a race they should be in on merit. There was even a little belief at 2-2 that a win was not beyond Tottenham, only for home fans to be slapped in the face by a harsh reality – at least it was quick and less painless than a prolonged top-four battle.
This is all presuming that Spurs fail to get much from their next three games – Newcastle away, Manchester United at home, Liverpool away. You’d be brave to bet on them still being in this race in a fortnight.
In their defence, Tottenham fans are hardly blind to their situation. For the second week running, they chanted for chairman Daniel Levy to leave and, on the hour mark, the name of former boss Mauricio Pochettino.
Whether they are pleading for the Argentine to return or simply chanting against the current regime, they are only getting louder, that old Pilot song hanging and lingering in the north London atmosphere without any sign of clearing. There’s still over a month of the season left and Spurs have not quite hit rock bottom yet.
With Stellini sounding a lot like predecessor Antonio Conte in his post-match press conference – blaming the players and defending his own tactics – it’s clear that Spurs need someone to come in and unify the club from top to bottom, be it Pochettino or whoever.
Credit: 90min.com
