grab.
Reports coming in tell of a group of footballers who crossed the border into England late last night after a daring raid in Swansea that saw them grab 3 points after coming under intense attack.
Apparently Spursy now includes a winner in the last couple of minutes – usual from the boot of Eriksen.
Why do Spurs do better away from? Well for a start it usually means the opposition don’t sit back with a flat back ten, something Spurs have struggled badly to break down. So it’s no surprise that the most recent victories in the league have come against Everton and now Swansea. Both teams who want to play football and do so in the right way.
Though of course this brings it’s own pitfalls as shown by all the ball and chances Swansea had before Eriksen broke their hearts.
Especially after the very Spursy thing of scoring too early. Four minutes, four minutes, what were they thinking? Did they really believe they could hang on four what would be at least another 90 minutes with added time? Maybe they figured the shock of Spurs scoring from a corner would discombobulate Swansea.
Eriksen finally beats the first man with the corner and Kane has made a good run from the edge of the box to power in the header. No rocket science was harmed in the making of this goal.
At this point Spurs were on top that soon changed.
Swansea then became the dominant side for almost the rest of the game, as Wilfried Bony caused all sorts of panic in the Spurs defence. Vertonghen and Fazio ended up looking like the ones discombobulated by that goal. One moment in the first half saw my Twitter stream fill up with loads of Tweets all saying the same thing.
"What a tackle" will be trending soon. Wonder if the BBC will report it.
— Toxic Web (@Toxic_Web) December 14, 2014
Ben Davies on his return to the club where he’d played all his senior football up until this season, put in a challenge on Bony that was Ledley Kingesque.
The problem though didn’t start with the defence’s struggles with Bony, it started with the ball making it’s way far too easily to Bony. The middle of the park, Spurs’ soft centre.
Yet again Bentaleb was in there, yet again I see people talking up his game, yet again what people say and what actually happened don’t match. The ball made it’s way through the middle of the park with no hint of being stopped. Bentaleb went in at the break having made one whole tackle – from the two he attempted – at the end he managed another two. All three of which were at the edge of the pitch, none whatsoever in the middle.
That was to go with his one forward pass in the first half – from 18 completed – which must have gone all of 5 yards forward. Yet I read how he had Sigurdsson in his pocket and that he effectively ran the midfield. No, no, not at all. He was there, he was bypassed, he did nothing. He offers nothing.
Mason gets called out for missed passes, as does Lamela, yet both at least are trying to do something and then try to make amends for mistakes. Bentaleb takes the easy, cowards, option of the simple sideways/backwards pass to make it someone else’s problem and then just standing watching while players run past him.
Trouble was also coming from the wings. Montero on Swansea’s left was causing the returning Walker problems. During his absence Walker stated he’d worked on his defensive deficiencies. I wondered if he’d learned not to defend with his arse and arms, into the first half he showed he hadn’t. As he stuck his arse out to block off a Swansea player he then fell over and grabbed the ball with his arm, earning a yellow. Which made the rest of the game a lottery for him.
Numerous times Walker looked like being this week’s Kyle to be sent off by Spurs. But the ref was having a strange day. Lamela was lucky not to see red for an arm/elbow into Montero’s face and then a studs up challenge, either could have seen red should have been at least a yellow.
Then there was Harry Kane’s tumble in the box. He was caught, it was a foul, then pen, but looked like a dive, ref bottled everything.
The equaliser was coming and it came as no surprise that it came from Bony. Defence on the left all at see as the cross comes over and Bony’s first attempt hits Fazio the rebound dropping perfectly for the Ivorian to knock it in.
After that it was all Swansea, only one winner, could Spurs hang on for nearly another half?
Well they did and more than that they were the ones to score. A cracking shot by Eriksen, who again looked better when moved more centrally, saved by the ‘keeper, Kane – who could have scored earlier with a cute header from another corner and could have really finished it off later with a good chance, do wonder what abuse Soldado would have got for missing both – harried Richards who picked the ball up and caused him to play the ball to Davies, who fed Eriksen whose second attempt was a little better.
It was meant to be Sigurdsson and Routledge who would hurt their old club, yet it was Davies, with one goal saving tackle and one assist that did it.
Harry Kane got the man of the match, apparently for running around a bit. Yes he scored, yes he harried to help with the second but MotM stinks of “he’s one of ours”.
It wasn’t deserved but Spurs come away with another late, late winner and are four points off fourth while being crap, other teams get credit for winning while being crap.