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MOTD: Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 West Bromwich Albion
This Tottenham Hotspur team aren’t accustomed to late collapses or gallant failure, unlike many of their predecessors. Lately, they have been scoring goals for fun, with eleven in their last four games, and breezing by recent opponents, staying hot on the tails of the league leaders Leicester City.
Yet Mauricio Pochettino’s men have now fallen almost irrecoverably behind in the fox hunt, having been held to a 1-1 draw by West Bromwich Albion. Spurs hit the woodwork on three occasions in a dominant first-half performance, but their second-half capitulation stunned the home crowd and a damp, hollow feeling diffused across White Hart Lane.
Their title dream is all but over and Leicester City could clinch the league with a win over Manchester United next weekend; they need just three points from their last three matches to claim their place in history. The race would also be over if Spurs fell at Stamford Bridge a week from today, which previously seemed improbable, but not anymore.
Spurs will likely be without Dele Alli, whose frustration boiled over when he took a swing at Claudio Jacob in the box. Given Jamie Vardy’s inability to escape a two-match ban for mouthing off against West Ham United, it would seem that this incident would signal a retrospective ban for Alli and an unbecoming end to the PFA Young Player to the Year’s season.
Eric Dier was also forced off due to a head clash with Dawson and remains in limbo for Sunday’s clash with Chelsea.
Tony Pulis once again stepped into his preferred role as the antagonist of possession-based football and massive credit is due to a resilient West Brom side for holding Spurs to just two shots on target (with aid from the crossbar), their lowest tally since October 2014. West Brom defender Craig Dawson scored a goal at either end of the pitch, becoming the first West Brom player to score at both ends in the same game in the Premier League.
Said Pulis, per the BBC: “We just watched [Tottenham] dance around us at times but the great thing about the game was we came in just 1-0 down at half-time.
“The second half was much better – more like the performances we’ve been putting in away from home.
“I’m really pleased with the players. We lack a bit of quality at times but I can’t fault their work-rate and they work within a shape that suits them.”
Christian Eriksen curled a free-kick narrowly wide early on and Harry Kane saw a fifteen-yard effort tipped onto the post within the opening ten minutes. Eriksen clipped the crossbar with another dipping free-kick in the twelfth minute and it wasn’t a surprise when Spurs finally found the breakthrough from another Eriksen set-piece in the thirty-second minute.
The Dane whipped the ball into the mixer and Jan Vertonghen and Craig Dawson went tumbling over each other, the latter accidentally bundling the ball into the back of his own net.
Spurs looked fully capable of marching on to seal the three points, but simply couldn’t find a second goal.
“Another goal would have made it very different,” said Pochettino. “In the first half we played very well and it will always happen in football when you allow the other team to believe you can concede.”
This was a must-win, but Spurs slipped up. The home faithful became increasingly impatient and nervous as the second half wore on without another goal. Eric Lamela sliced a low effort onto the base of the right-hand post from Eriksen’s cut back in the fifty-seventh minute, but West Ham began to stretch the game.
Salomon Rondon powered a towering header just wide and drove a fifteen yard effort over the crossbar with twenty minutes to go.
Eriksen and Mousa Dembele came close at the other end of the pitch, but West Brom found an equalizer when Dawson rose up above everybody to head home from a corner. Hugo Lloris was caught in no man’s land and Dawson’s header looped into empty net.
Tickets prices for Leicester’s meeting with United, already in hot demand, soared through the roof accordingly as their unlikely dream of winning the Premier League title could finally become reality.
Homepage photo credit: Ben Sutherland, via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]