Summary
This has been a disastrous night for Tottenham Hotspur. The result, the injury to Dier, the possibility of Dele Alli facing a ban for an off-the-ball incident. I mentioned pre-match that West Brom were very capable on capitalising on a nervy atmosphere, and after riding out a first-half storm, that’s exactly what they did. All the talk of was of Leicester potentially bottling it this season, but it looks as though that is what Tottenham have done. It’s not over yet, but there will be a few smiles in the Midlands tonight, as well as a few more in the red half of north London.
Thanks for joining me, and for all your emails and tweets. I’ll end with another Harry Redknapp advert, with Harry Redknapp telling the most Harry Redknapp anecdote of all time. Bye!
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Full-time: Tottenham 1-1 West Brom
What a result for West Brom. What a result for Leicester. This has all but handed them the Premier League title. Claudio Ranieri’s team are seven points clear with three games remaining. Leicester need just one more win to become champions!
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95 min: Kane is fouled on half-way, and Tottenham have one final chance to throw it ‘into the mixer.’ But West Brom are watertight. They’re going to hold on here!
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93 min: Rose briefly threatens, doing well to get past Gardner to the byline but his low cross is turned behind. From the corner, Myhill does what Lloris couldn’t, claiming the delivery easily. The Albion keeper has had an excellent match in Foster’s absence.
@michaelbutler18 He may not be an actor but he is a little cracked. Will he do for the Spurs Movie? pic.twitter.com/urwnAqv0wE
— Mark Burgess (@OnceByton) April 25, 2016
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92 min: Spurs have finally got their foot on the ball but West Brom have put two banks of four behind the ball and looks very resolute.
90 min: Five minutes added on here. Tottenham haven’t had a meaningful attempt on goal for 25 minutes and they don’t look like changing that any time soon. Both side makes changes: West Brom bring on former Tottenham man Sandro for Sessegnon, whilst Spurs bring on Chadli for Alli.
88 min: THIS IS ALL WEST BROM. Tottenham look lost. West Brom get another corner. Groans creak around White Hart Lane. It’s floated to the back post, but Vertonghen just about cranes his neck and flicks it away from the advancing McAuley. Once again, Lloris was nowhere to be seen.
86 min: Sessegnon hits the side netting! The Beninese is given far too much room by Rose inside Spurs’ area and fires a low shot at goal. It’s just wide, but might have even clipped the outside of the post.
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84 min: Pochettino makes his second change: Son on, Lamela off.
82 min: If anything, West Brom are looking the more likely to win this. Sessegnon first fires wide, and then the longest of Vertonghen’s toes just about prevents Rondon from getting another shot on goal.
80 min: A horrible coming together involving Yacob (who else?) and Dembele results in a Tottenham free-kick 30 yards from goal. It could just have easily gone in West Brom’s favour as the two players’ shins clashed. Ouch. Eriksen smashes the resulting free-kick into Row Z. The crowd are restless. Tottenham have 10 minutes to save their season.
77 min: So Leicester can win the league this weekend at Old Trafford if it stays like this! Here’s a few more of your Pochettino shouts. Have you got any of actors that look dejected? These seems a bit out of place now.
@michaelbutler18 it has to be Russell Crowe playing Pochettino... pic.twitter.com/0igxtYcsYK
— Matt Hollidge (@matthollidge) April 25, 2016
@michaelbutler18 WBAvSPURS #pochettino should def be played by Martin Freeman, the everybloke.
— Sam Lopez MB (@texascubbie) April 25, 2016
@michaelbutler18 More lembas bread Mr Pochettino? pic.twitter.com/yViyBlUgLn
— Seamus (@smsbrk) April 25, 2016
75 min: Tottenham are fading, and fast! Rose so nearly gifts Gardner the ball inside his own penalty area, and eventually hacks clear. This is quite the transformation.
73 min: To compound Tottenham’s woes, Dier has gone off. He’s been withdrawn for what looked like a fairly innocuous slip. But so many bad injuries come about that way. Fingers crossed he’s OK. Mason on.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-1 West Brom (Dawson, 72)
You can’t say that hasn’t been coming. From the corner, Lloris comes and flaps, Lamela and Dier stand motionless and Dawson leaps, nodding the ball into the unguarded net. Oh no! It’s all going wrong for Spurs. But West Brom have been a different team this second half. As it stands, Leicester are now seven points clear with three to play after this.
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71 min: West Brom pour forward once again, where is Tottenham’s midfield? Dier and Dembele are nowhere to be seen, as McClean squares to Gardner on the edge. The latter’s shot is skewed wide, but it falls to Rondon, and the striker forces Lloris to make a great fingertip save, tipping a 5,729mph shot over the bar.
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68 min: West Brom pile forward for another corner and Spurs hit them on the break: Walker hitting a long ball forward to Eriksen, who is one on one with Myhill. Oooo the keeper just gets there first, diving in bravely with his head to clear the ball.
67 min: This is fast turning into a very good game. First Eriksen, then Kane, then Dembele take aim from range, each time the ball fizzing just wide. But West Brom definitely beginning to show some threat, particularly from set pieces. Leicester fans will be heading every ball.
64 min: Golden chance for Rondon! Oooooo, he should have buried that! The ball is swung in from Gardner, who has been a thorn in Spurs’ side tonight, Rondon has the run on Alderweireld and gets to the ball at the near post, but plants his header a yard wide. It was easier to score!
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62 min: MASSIVE NEWS: It seems as though the Sky TV cameras missed this earlier, but US television picked this up: Dele Alli appearing to punch Yacob off the ball in the first half. It won’t be included in the referees report, and should be looked at retrospectively = surely a three-game ban?! At least he’ll be fresh for the Euros.
Dele Alli punch on West Brom's Yacob, ban worthy? pic.twitter.com/xKqCsb6pXT
— From The Stands (@FromTStands) April 25, 2016
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60 min: First booking of the night, Evans gets it for a foul on Lamela. From the free kick, Erikson curls in another devilish delivery, but Evans just manages to get to the ball in front of Vertonghen. Could so easily have been another own goal.
58 min: Spurs hit the woodwork for the third time! Eriksen makes a break down the left, leaving Yacob for dead (who admittedly looks like he’s running through cheap gloopy hair gel), and cuts the ball back to Lamela on the penalty spot. The ball comes so quickly to the Argentinian, but he sorts his feet out fantastically, and nudges a trickling effort onto the base of the post. McAuley hacks clear.
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55 min: “Re Harry Redknapp, if moments like that occur all the time, why would anyone bother forking out however much whatever he is advertising costs?” asks Kelvin. “It doesn’t seem like a very good line to use as a salesman.”
53 min: What a ball from Dawson, ooooo Spurs are holding on a bit here. Dawson, showing shades of 2006 Pirlo, gets time to cross and delivers a wicket low centre across Tottenham’s box. Walker, Alderweireld and Vertonghen all leave it, terrified of turning the ball into their own net, and there is nobody at the back post for Albion for a simple tap in!
51 min: More West Brom pressure. Nerves are a’janglin for sure at the Lane. It’s gone deathly quiet again. Gardner is fouled by Lamela, this time in a shooting position, but Gardner’s subsequent shot clips the top of the wall, and trickles harmlessly into Lloris’s arms.
48 min: You can imagine there would have been some choice words from Pulis at half-time. West Brom started strongly. Corner, headed away. Silly free kick, conceded by Rose. Headed away, and McClean takes an age to line up a shot and he is edged wide.
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Peeeeeeep! We’re off again.
“Talk about casting all you want,” emails Hubert O’Hearn, “but without the right director the Leicester movie will make Escape to Victory look like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. I heartily nominate Wes Anderson. He does the fantasy and absurdist elements (The Grand Budapest Hotel) that the story calls for, plus he has some knowledge of the material ( Fantastic Mr Fox). There. You’re welcome.”
Matt Dony: “I do agree that Ranieri is a nice guy, but that is entirely cancelled out (and then some!) by Funtime Bobby Huth. COYS!”
And Danny Simpson. And Jamie Vardy.
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Half-time advert entertainment: anybody got any idea what is going on here?
This is the goal he’s talking about, by the way. It wasn’t even a volley! Cheers Harry.
Half-time: Tottenham 1-0 West Brom
They deserve more, but Spurs fans would have taken this before kick off, and they’d take it at full-time.
45 min: One minute added on here for injury-time.
Xavier Pillai: “For Pochettino I’m thinking possibly Pedro Pascal or Gael Garcia Bernal. Or for an older and more suave Poch who is retelling the story maybe his countryman Ricardo Darin.”
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44 min: West Brom enjoying a bit of possession. They are working extremely hard out there at the moment, and win a couple of corners and free-kicks in dangerous areas. But Tottenham’s defence stand tall, heading the ball to safety.
41 min: A very strange incident involving Walker and Rondon, the two tussling for the ball on the touchline. They go shoulder to shoulder, and then Walker needlessly kicks out at the Venezuelan, who reacts by throwing the ball (long since out for a throw in) back into the face of the Tottenham man. If Walker connected with his kick, he would be off! Exactly the kind of incident that you could imagine costing England dear in the summer.
39 min: Simon McMahon, with an excellent email. “Evening Michael. I think part of what’s made this season so remarkable and enjoyable is that the managers of Leicester and Spurs are both extremely likeable. Either club would be deserving winners and whoever finally lifts the trophy will do it to the cheers and congratulations of most neutrals. You couldn’t say that about Mourinho sides (I for one think the Premiership has been a better place without him), or even Ferguson and Wenger for that matter. Nice guys do win sometimes, and that should make all of us happy.”
I agree with all of this.
37 min: You would think that the only way Albion are going to score is if they capitalise on a mistake. And that’s exactly what Lloris, Alderweireld and Vertonghen are conspiring to do, playing with fire/the ball inside their own box, with Rondon and Sessegnon only a few inches from nicking the ball and sticking it into an empty net. Eventually Walker sprints Spurs out of trouble.
35 min: Tottenham are really putting on the squeeze now. Eriksen, Lamela and Kane all have chances to shoot, but poor decision making saves Albion from conceding again.
“I expect us to not only win this, but to truly trounce WBA,” writes Mats Anderson. “To prove we’ve really played the best football this season. And further to increase the pressure on Leicester. There is hope till it is lost by the guillotine of mathematics. If we end up coming in second or third, and there is no shame in that, We will have proved ourselves. Whatever the outcome, we will be back even stronger next season.”
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 West Brom (Dawson og, 33)
Spurs make the breakthrough! This is one of the messiest goals you are likely to see all season, but 35,000 inside White Hart Lane won’t care one bit. After Gardner was penalised for pulling down Lamela, Eriksen whips in an absolute peach of a delivery that leaves Dawson in knots. Marking Vertonghen, he tries to swing a boot to clear, but instead loses his balance, slips and midriffs the ball through Myhill’s legs and into the net. 1-0! (The place went mental, btw)
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29 min: Chance for Gardner. Oh, and it’s a goody. From one of those throw-ins, Dawson works half a yard and squeezes in a low, deflected cross which finds Gardner on the edge. So normally lethal in these kinds of areas, the former Sunderland man crashes a shot 20 yards over the bar. It was a great chance, though. Very central.
28 min: West Brom are enjoying – and I mean enjoying – taking their time over a succession of throw ins in Spurs territory.
“Unbelievably quiet crowd for a definitive must-win game, for a self-obsessed “glory” club...who won it the last time in...1961,” emails Paul Chipperton. “Place should be MENTAL.”
I think that’s called nerves.
25 min: This is a bit better from Albion, who have at least moved themselves up the pitch. But they will be wary of the Spurs counter-attack. Rose bundles Fletcher into touch – a blatant foul – but the referee gives nothing. Fletcher is incensed, Rose has a wry smile on his face.
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23 min: A long ball from Yacob, and for a brief moment, there is panic in Spurs’ box with the ball threatening to fall to Rondon. But Tottenham get enough men back, and hack it clear.
21 min: We’ve had a few suggestions for Pochettino in Harry Kane: The Movie.
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19 min: Kane goes close! Eriksen threads a ball through to Kane, who is on the shoulder of Albion’s defence, but Dawson does well to cover. He doesn’t follow Kane in the next move, however, and the English striker drops deep, turns and fires a low shot inside Myhill’s near post. Once again, Albion’s keeper is equal to it, palming it behind for a corner, which comes to nothing.
17 min: Dembele is running tings in there. Interesting that in a recent interview, Dele Alli chose the Belgian as the team-mate he would most want in his five-a-side team. You just can’t get the ball off him.
15 min: Albion work their first good opportunity, some neat play in midfield releases Gardner down the left, but it’s a poor cross and Alderweireld clears. Rondon is going to need better service if he’s to make any impression tonight.
13 min: “Rose has flirted, swivelled his hips and shown some leg. He’s managed to get Stéphane Sessègnon’s number tonight,” notices Jeremy Dresner. Tottenham’s full-backs are certainly playing very high, as is their wont. I think Sessegnon and McClean are playing more as wing backs than as wingers.
11 min: Sessegnon is late on Rose, right on the edge of West Brom’s box. Free-kick, Eriksen is again over it … and he clips the bar! The Dane curls his effort around the wall, leaving Myhill helpless, but just doesn’t get enough dip on it, clipping the bar and going behind. Not too dissimilar from that Payet free kick against Palace a few weeks ago. Except it didn’t go in.
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8 min: Myhill looks decidedly less assured in dealing with a Walker cross, fizzed across the six yard box. But West Brom survive. They haven’t been in Tottenham’s half with the ball yet.
7 min: Tottenham hit the post! Oh, Kane should have scored. But this is a quite magnificent save from Myhill. It’s a simple one-two that undoes the Albion defence, Alli flicking a deft poke through to Kane, who fires a shot at the far post. Myhill flings out a right arm and somehow tips it onto the inside of the post. The ball rebounds out, straight into the arms of the keeper. Bad miss, great goalkeeping. It’s still 0-0. Just.
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5 min: Yacob now flattens Alli. I’m surprised he hasn’t been given an early booking.
“Good evening, and I have a dilemma here,” emails Michael Cosgrove. “A Liverpool fan, I have always had a soft spot for Spurs ever since the Mackay days so it would be great to see them win the title, but then again who can resist the idea of a Leicester fairy tale come true? So, can’t they share it?”
No. But I think there are a lot of people out there that feel the same. It’s hard not to like this Spurs team, but you can’t help but be seduced by the romance of Ranieri.
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3 min: Yacob concedes a foul – no player has committed more this season – and Eriksen takes aim from 30 yards out, curling a fizzing effort over the wall, but Myhill is there to turn it behind. I think that is the first touch a West Brom player has had on the ball.
1 min: Walker is already fifteen yards into West Brom’s half. Albion already have ten men behind the ball. Let the onslaught begin.
Peeeeep! And we’re off!
The players are out on the pitch: West Brom line up with an average age of over 30, only the eight time that has happened in the Premier League.
Tottenham have the youngest side in the Premier League. They average 25 years tonight, Hugo Lloris is the oldest at 29.
@michaelbutler18 Should Dixie Dean not be in that list of great England forwards?
— Jim Keoghan (@jimmykeo) April 25, 2016
Can’t argue with his stats: 18 goals in 16 apps. But he probably doesn’t do enough (internationally) to sneak into the top three.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Dixie Dean, here’s a 1977 interview with the iconic Everton forward, written by the late, great Frank Keating.
If Hodgson has any sense, he should play as many Spurs players as possible. One would imagine that Alli and Kane are automatic choices, but I would love to see Dier, Rose and Walker all get the nod.
If you’ve any thoughts on tonight’s game, on England, or who should play Pochettino in the Harry Kane: The Movie, do holla at michael.butler@theguardian.com or tweet @michaelbutler18.
Graeme Souness on MNF has been comparing Harry Kane to Alan Shearer, who he rates as England’s greatest ever centre forward. Ha! The correct answer is, of course:
1) Gary Lineker
2) Jimmy Greaves
3) Alan Shearer/Nat Lofthouse.
Bobby Charlton doesn’t count.
That aside, this is the most exciting England striker line-up we’ve seen since the 1990s. Kane is unquestionably the No9, Sturridge seems to be hitting form at just the right time, Vardy has no fear and should be able to capitalise on tired legs, even from the bench. And Rooney has his place, somewhere. We’re going to win the Euros!
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Tottenham are out on the pitch warming up. They look like they’ve got the same mentality tonight as they did last week against Stoke. This is what Pochettino had to say pre-match.
I knew before the game that we would win. You could feel it from the players. It was fantastic before the game. When we arrived at the stadium, in the warm-up – you could feel that they were ready to compete. The trust between each of them was fantastic. I thought it was impossible that we wouldn’t win the three points. When you achieve that, it’s great and that’s the objective. We need to fight now not to lose that feeling. Have we had it before? We’ve had different feelings in different games, and you always try to feel that. But it was very obvious last Monday that the team was feeling good.
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I thought it was going to be something exciting …
Tony Pulis: “Saido actually went into the Arsenal game with an ankle injury so he hasn’t made it for tonight’s game. Ben picked up an ankle injury at Arsenal...it hurt him the next day & we are concerned he might miss the weekend.”
Maybe they’re out for Callum McManaman’s birthday. Happy birthday Callum! You’re not in the 18-man squad.
Happy Birthday to Albion winger @cm_macca who is 25 today #WBA pic.twitter.com/gT31dO7ENR
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBAFCofficial) April 25, 2016
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The teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Dier, Dembele, Lamela, Alli, Eriksen, Kane.
Subs: Son, Mason, Vorm, Trippier, Chadli, Carroll, Davies.
Spurs, fresh from not attending the PFA awards, are unchanged from last week.
West Brom: Myhill, Dawson, McAuley, Olsson, Evans, Yacob,
Fletcher, Sessegnon, Gardner, McClean, Rondon.
Subs: Chester, Anichebe, Lambert, Sandro, Roberts, Leko, Palmer.
West Brom are being a big ol’ tease …
We will provide an update on the absences of Foster and Berahino shortly #WBA
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBAFCofficial) April 25, 2016
Referee: Robert Madley (West Yorkshire)
Preamble
Tottenham night used to be Thursday night. Spurs-day night, if you will. The pantheon of the Europa League and the prospect of 0-0 draws (home and away!). But then Daniel Levy acquired Mauricio Pochettino, Pochettino acquired Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld – and found Harry Kane, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker lurking down the back of a north London sofa – and now Tottenham night in Monday night. Tottenhamonday night. White Hart Lundi. Doesn’t really work, does it. But yeah, Tottenham play a lot on a Monday these days – they did last week (with aplomb), they do tonight, they will next week (away at Chelsea, eeeek!) – and this time the aim is no longer a second tier European comp, but winning the Best League in the World™.
If Tottenham win tonight, they will again cut Leicester’s lead at the top of the Premier League to five points. If Tottenham win tonight, their goal difference means they will secure their place in next season’s Champions League. Tottenham could still hypothetically finish outside the top four. Those dreaming of the tepid Europa League anthem can still Dare to Dream but it would take an extraordinary set of results for that to happen. Starting with a defeat to West Bromwich Albion, at home, tonight, which the bookies reckon has a one in 14 chance of happening.
Much more dangerous is the threat of a draw, which would all but end Tottenham’s title challenge. Tony Pulis’s West Brom might not be the most enterprising team arrive at the Lane this year, but they are well organised and will hope to put up more of a defensive fight than Stoke did this time last week.
It’s a big’un. Join me.
Kick-off: 8pm in London.
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