After last week’s last ditch win over Brighton, Tottenham Hotspur would have been hoping for less drama against a Wolves side that had proven difficult to overcome in recent times. The West Midlands side had the Lilywhites’ number as of late, winning their last two encounters, and the loss of both Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie to injury midweek looked like it could turn a challenging match into a very difficult one.
Fullback shortage aside, Ange Postecoglou had probably the strongest squad to pick from since the start of the season. Ben Davies and Emerson Royal were the obvious replacements for Udogie and Porro, but Ange made two further changes to the starting XI, with the returning Yves Bissouma and Heung-Min Son coming back into the side following their international absences. It was a strong bench as well for Spurs, with the likes of Timo Werner, Giovani Lo Celso, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Radu Dragusin available to make an impact off the pine.
Spurs looked fluid early, but Wolves weathered a couple of quick breaks before building some pressure of their own. Hee-Chan Hwang had a huge chance to open the scoring after Nelson Semedo had space on the right to let rip. Guglielmo Vicario made a good save, but the rebound fell to the feet of the South Korean, and he snatched at it to send it over the bar from close range.
What started as a breakneck affair soon became much more stop-start, as several Wolves players went down with knocks. This contributed to the crowd growing restless as the Wolves defense frustrated Spurs; but even so, the Lilywhites continued to generate half-chances. The best of these started with an excellent pass forward from Mickey van de Ven to James Maddison, who had run off the Wolves backline into the 18-yard box. He found Dejan Kulusevski with his cut-back, but the Swede could only poke the ball wide while under pressure from the Wolves defense.
Tottenham continued to toil to no avail, before they were undone by a familiar frailty: set pieces. It was third time lucky for Wolves as the third of a quick succession of corners found the head of Joao Gomes, whose header looped past Vicario. He was essentially unmarked near the penalty spot, and Wolves were arguably deserving of a 0-1 half-time lead.
Spurs were back in the match immediately after the half thanks to Kulusevski. The generation of the chance was somewhat fortuitous after it looked like Wolves had cleared their lines following some good hold-up play by Richarlison, but the ball instead fell to the Swede deep in the 18-yard box. He displayed quick thinking and quick feet to send Craig Dawson packing, before sneaking the ball past Jose Sa from a very tight angle to bring the score to 1-1.
Wolves almost put themselves into the lead once more, after Semedo’s low cross found Pablo Sarabia unmarked on the penalty spot. His shot was on target, but Vicario was brilliant once more, making a huge save from point-blank range. It was turning into a goalkeeping clinic, as at the other end only the fingertips of Sa stopped Kulusevski from helping himself to a double. His effort from the top of the box was tipped round the post following excellent interplay between Richarlison, Maddison, and Tottenham’s #21.
Kulusevski had another chance for his second, with an effort on goal blocked, and instead it was Gomes who got himself a second to put Wolves into the lead. Yves Bissouma gave the ball away following a Tottenham corner and Wolves broke quickly, with Pedro Neto streaking forward into the Spurs box. Emerson Royal did well to track back but wasn’t able to stop Neto cutting back and feeding Gomes’ late run, as the Brazilian midfielder slotted past Vicario.
Postecoglou made a triple change in an effort to get Spurs back in the match. Pape Matar Sarr, Bissouma, and Richarlison made way for Rodrigo Bentancur, Timo Werner, and Brennan Johnson, as Kulusevski dropped into midfield. It was a signal of Spurs’ attacking intent, but the more the Lilywhites pushed forward, the more opportunities there were on the break. Wolves almost had a third, as Neto drove forward once more. His quality was on full display as he cooly picked out substitute Jean-Ricner Bellegarde: he dallied on the ball and the Spurs defense did enough to recover and clear.
Half-chances for Maddison and Royal were all Spurs were able to muster against a stout Wolves defense, before Spurs made their final two changes: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for Royal and Giovani Lo Celso for Maddison. Spurs had one last huge chance to tie things up through Ben Davies deep into injury time. His run was well picked up by Kulusevski’s cross, but the Welshman horribly mistimed the free header, and the whistle blew to draw the match to a close, with Tottenham defeated 1-2.
Reactions
- It’s been some pretty rough football in recent weeks. Even though the results haven’t been awful, the level of play from Spurs definitely seems to have dropped a bit. I’m not sure fully whether that’s due to teams starting to figure Ange’s tactics out, or players coming in and out of the squad due to injury / internationals, or something else.
- Tottenham (again) really struggled at times with the situational press employed by Wolves, but the return of Yves Bissouma did help Spurs play through it. He looked comfortable back in the #6 role, until THAT giveaway.
- We were really ponderous in the final third, especially in the first half. That was in part due to Wolves throwing players behind the ball once Spurs broke forward; to combat this, it looked like Ange pulled his fullbacks narrower and higher up the pitch when on attack (while they were previously often providing width). It’s hard to exploit width against a back 5, so by bringing the fullbacks narrower and combining that with vertical runs it made it harder for the Wolves defense to pick up who they should be marking – and it nearly worked, with Spurs far better in the second.
- Wolves, though, were lethal on the break in the second half and that’s what undid Tottenham. It was peak Mourinho stuff, and it was helped in large part by Pedro Neto who was at the center of everything positive Wolves did and had a huge hand in their winning goal. There’s been a few links to him as of late, and I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing him in Lilywhite.
- James Maddison has been a bit rough since his return from injury. I didn’t blame Ange for pulling him today; though Kulusevski, who had been pretty good out wide, was equally poor once shifted to the center. Just once I’d like to see Lo Celso and Maddison together in midfield.
- With the match against Chelsea postponed, Spurs now have two weeks until their next fixture (Crystal Palace). Hopefully Ange can spend that time trying to overcome some of this recent malaise. COYS!!!