didn’t go Spursy.
Final game of the season, away to a team already relegated, with Tim Krul in goal, needing only to avoid defeat to clinch fourth spot and Champions League football for next season, what could possibly go wrong.
Nothing.
Well… no one saw that coming.
Spurs get an earlyish goal, they get gifted a second by their previous Nemesis, end up handing out a thumping and having no worries about being Spursy and throwing away that top four spot.
It turned out quite a comfortable afternoon, with very little or no stress all so very unSpursy.
Of course when Hojbjerg blasted an early chance over the bar, after some excellent work by Kulusevski skipping through the Norwich defence, you might have been forgiven for thinking “oh, no, it’s gonna be one of those days”. After all we’ve had so many in the past. Then we had Krul making saves… and yes… we’ve all seen this movie before.
But the calmer came a quarter of an hour in. It started with Bentancur in the Spurs half, he played it forward to Son who laid it back to Hojbjerg, whose ball over the top was perfect for Bentancur, who had kept on moving after playing his pass. He could have gone for goal, probably should have but squared it to Kulu, it bounced off his foot and went in.
Of course, it’s Spurs so that second was needed, it took another 15 minutes but came from an unlikely source. Tim Krul had been a thorn in Spurs’ side previously, here he fannied about on the ball, under pressure from Kulu he then just kicked it away to Bentancur whose first time cross was met by Kane’s stooping header.
The game was over by half-time, Norwich hadn’t mustard much of an attack, never mind a shot on target. The didn’t have one of the latter in the whole game. The second half was a cruise through three more goals and the attempt to get the Golden boot for Son.
Kulu got the third just after the hour and then sitting on a hat-trick was promptly subbed by Conte. He’d just missed a good opportunity a little earlier but when he skipped past the Norwich defender, yet again, and curled a left footed shot, it was a a cracker.
Son finally got on the scoresheet shortly after, putting him level with Salah for the golden boot. Kane with a through ball to Moura, on for Kulu, turning he tapped the ball off a Norwich defender into Son’s path for him to finish it off. He moved ahead of Salah five minutes later when Moura’s free-kick from the left was nodded over the box, where Son picked it up, from a few yards outside he smacked in his second and Spurs’ fifth. Unfortunately Salah got another one, so it is shared. Of course Sonny did it without being on penalty duties.
So a topsy-turvy season ends with about as good an ended as they could probably have hoped for at times during it. It started with Nuno and Kane throwing a tantrum, the opening day victory over the eventual champions. It went through Spurs being top after three games, then the Nuno downfall. He was gone by November 1st, eighth in the table with 5 wins from 10 games and a goal difference of minus 7.
Conte arrived the next day and over the following 28 games Spurs have the third best points tally and goal difference behind the two top sides in the league. Kane returned and started scoring, ending up with 17, after going the first 16 games of the season with just one goal to his name. Sonny ended up with 23, the most he’s achieved in a league season even though there were times, a number of times, where he didn’t look anywhere near as sharp as previous seasons.
The partnership with Kane looked a bit strained when Kane was still dreaming of City. But it settled into the old routine. While the additions in January had a huge impact. Kulusevski a huge upgrade on Moura and Bergwijn on the right. Starting at the beginning of February he matched the pair combined for goals, with 5, and produced more assist, 9 to 8.
While Bentancur added some real stability to the midfield. Hojbjerg started well with Skipp, but once he was lumbered with Winks his form dropped off dramatically. The Uruguayan’s arrival meant the midfield pair worked. Especially as other areas started working better and covering for there just being two. Doherty all of a sudden started functioning the way he had for Wolves. While Romero, Dier and Davies formed a formidable trio in defence. Dier back to his best. Romero cruising through his first season. While Davies was almost a revelation. Still prone to stupid moments he was full on blocker in the final few weeks.
Hugo went from being Pat Jennings to being Barry Daines once he signed a new deal. Then he returned to being Big Pat.
Now they got what was required, Champions League, will Levy back Conte and do it enough for Conte to be satisfied enough to keep him at the club… I mean we avoided last day Spursy… there’s still transfer window Spursy…