will it still reciprocate.
Spurs advanced to the semi-final of the Carabao Cup after a 3-1 victory away, where they’ve got a “favourable” draw against Brentford.
Well, Spurs have been to a few semis over the last few years, they haven’t progressed from many of them and haven’t won when they did, can Jose, who has won the cup four times during his spells at Chelsea and Man U, change this?
Well, he’s up for it and Dele might pay for that. It was a typical Spurs display of late in that one team had all the ball, while the other scored with their one chance. The difference being it was Spurs in possession.
A cold Wednesday at Stoke, it’s the old cliche. Stoke being mean, also is but they were on a run of clean sheets and their manager is someone who knows how to get the best out of very little. Northern Ireland haven’t been the same since he left and they weren’t much before he took over.
It took Spurs 22 minutes to get on the score sheet and then there was an element of luck. Harry Winks took his career assists for Spurs from 2 to three, to match his goal tally, in 156 games, and like his third ever goal this assist wasn’t going where he intended. A curled cross was intended for Doherty coming round the back of the defence, where it would either have been cut out or just spun out of play but Bale was there to glance his header into the far post.
Stoke had a keeper crises and were down to an old bloke playing one of the very few games he’s played in a number of years. So we all knew he’d be having one of those games, Tim Krul highlight reel.
Eight minutes after the break, during which Son came on for Bale, and Stoke were level and Jose was not happy. Showing his displeasure at a Dele flick giving the ball away. The thing is just a couple of days ago he said he wasn’t bothered about keeping possession and passing stats of the player is doing something. Well Dele was most the night. Just as it is with Dele these days what he does doesn’t come off. Spurs still could have, should have cut out the danger. It went through the middle, then out on the Stoke right, then over to the left and in at the back post, plenty of Spurs player bypassed with ease.
Shortly after Dele was replaced by Lamela. He wasn’t happy, storming off with a wild swipe at the bottles. That could be it for him. It’s a shame.
Good to have Lamela back and his introduction injected a bit of life to proceedings. But what happened next was very 2020. A Ben Davies screamer. Not like he’s had a few shots since his last goal just over three years, one had to go it some time. And so it did.
It came just a few minutes after that substitution, which also saw Sissoko come on for Moura. Which seemed strange, when you need a goal, bringing on Sissoko. But then to Stoke’s eternal shame they gave up a goal, from a Sissoko assist – to go with that of Winks. A simple ball through the middle and Harry wasn’t going to miss this one to get back into the scoring way.
In the end a simple victory… just got to finish it off now… finally…