Match Report: Spurs 1 Wolves 2 – and some booed!
Match Report: Spurs 1 Wolves 2 – and some booed!
Is the tide starting to turn against Ange? I noticed that some booed inside the stadium, and not just from where I was sitting… You will always get one or two dissenters, but Ange has only been on the job for just over six months. When Alex Furguson was in the job for five years and winning nothing, there were calls for him to go; in fact, they said he was a game away from getting the boot… he ended up becoming the greatest manager United ever had.
We need to show our support for Ange, not chastise him. Early days yet!
But saying all that, our Australian manager still has a long way to go. A good example is Sheffield United; clubs like Brighton, Villa, Arsenic and Old Lace and Newcastle all put a large number of goals past them… we, who have aspirations (I hope!), struggled to defeat them at our ground, only scoring in the dying minutes. Our goal tally needs work if we wish to have any hope of challenging for major trophies and even being in the European Champions League.
Concerning goals, yes, we did beat Burnley 5-2, but that seems to just have been a blip.
Out of the top five clubs, we have the lowest goal average. I think it was Ange who said, “It is not important if we concede so long as we score more goals than our opponents”. If we were on equal points as City, Arsenic and Liverpool and fighting for the Premier League, we would lose out on goal difference. Goal tally is important, it is not just about winning, but winning comfortably.
When the summer transfer window comes, we need to bulk up our team and let go of a lot of the deadwood. By the start of next season, we should be showing the fruits of Levy’s and Postecoglou’s transfer purchases. This will no doubt make a huge difference for our prospects next season.
The trip to Tottenham on Saturday was even earlier than normal as we (Janette and I) started off before our usual 9 am start. This gave us some extra time to shop in the Spurs shop.
Once we got inside the stadium, the talk was about cementing our position in fourth spot, holding off Villa, and creeping up United. I predicted a 3-0 win, others similar. Some even had us conceding a goal (against Wolves, ridiculous!).
In the end the Wolves manager Gary O’Neil ended up praising his side’s “almost perfect” performance as Joao Gomes’ double sank us, nudging us out of the Premier League’s top four in the process. Yes, we were humiliated by a team languishing in mid-table with no prospects of glory other than survival from the drop.
Wolves went ahead just before half-time when Gomes was left unmarked eight yards out and rose well to head home Pablo Sarabia’s right-wing corner powerfully. We made it 1-1 after only 34 seconds of the second half. We – the crowd – thought things were going to turn, and it did, but for Wolves, who were going to have the last laugh… Our trip home was a sombre one. And It rattled our weekend.
Thoughts…
Wolves failed to clear our throw-in, and Dejan Kulusevski ran past Craig Dawson and prodded the ball through Jose Sa’s legs.
We fought back after conceding the first goal to beat Brentford and Brighton in our past two home games, and Kulusevski had two chances to put us in front this time. However, Sa made an excellent save low to his left, and Nelson Semedo blocked a goal-bound effort to keep it level.
Our squandered chances proved significant as Wolves sprang a quick counter-attack with Pedro Neto pulling the ball back for Gomes to side-foot home, which proved to be the winning goal.
We pushed for a late leveller, but Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies missed chances late on as Wolves held on for the victory.
We began the day in fourth place, but Aston Villa’s 2-1 win at Fulham saw them move above us.
This game against Wolves also meant that they completed a double over us, having beaten us 2-1 at their Molineux stadium in November, and briefly moved up to 10th in the table, only to drop back to 11th when Chelsea drew 1-1 at Manchester City in the late kick-off.
Even though we welcomed Son back into our starting line-up for the first time since he represented South Korea at the Asian Cup, he did make an impact as a substitute when setting up Brennan Johnson’s stoppage-time winner in the 2-1 win over Brighton last weekend, so his selection was expected. But against the Wolves, he didn’t look that inspiring. Another one that wasn’t up to the mark was Maddison, who was substituted for Hojbjerg in the 8th minute.
As things stand now, the fight for the Premier title is between the Scousers and Dick-a-dum-dum-Arsenic and Old Lace. The Gooners are 2 points behind Liverpool. City are two points behind the Arsenic-Gooners, while in fourth place is Villa.
The fight for fourth place and Champions League football will be between United and Villa, with us trying to get a look in. Whatever happens, we will get some sort of European runout unless something really bad rocks our boat.
We have a week’s break before returning to our Tottenham stadium and seeing if Palace will humiliate us further or if Ange manages to turn things around. In the meantime, we hope that Forest beat Villa, Newcastle piss off Arsenic in their attempt to challenge for the league title and Liverpool gets a knocking from Luton Town this Wednesday (unlikely, but strange things can happen… after all, they nearly beat us on the 7th October at their place!!! Oh, we laughed!!!!).
Up the Spurs!
COYS!
Glenn