Right then, that’s us done for another weekend – join us for more football, er ... tomorrow, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Friday, and on and on and Ariston. Here’s our match report – ta-ra.
Gosh, Spurs didn’t have a shot on target after the 21st minute. That’s not at all good, especially against a team famous for coming on strong in the second half.
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Roman Saiss tells Sky his team should be disappointed because they conceded early, played well and created lots of chances, but only scored one. I’m not sure about that chances, but otherwise he’s right, and when he’s encouraged to blame Fabio Silva’s late miss, does a good job of wriggling out of it. His team need to be more consistent, he says, and need to carry on this performance into their next game at Manchester United.
No Premier League side has tossed as many points from winning positions as Spurs, but you just know that if they take the lead in their next game, they’ll try to sit on it. I wonder if the players are still as happy to go along with him.
Spurs move up from sixth to fifth, level on points with Man City, but with a better goal difference having played a game more. Wolves move above Leeds into 11th.
Full-time: Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs led for 86 minutes but in the end both sides got what they deserved.
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90+6 min Wolves are going to win this! Neves clips a luscious pass over the top for Fabio Silva ... he’s alone and palely loitering ... but he can only head weakly into the ground, ducking into rather than with the ball, and Lloris collects easily! That’s a bad miss, dearie me.
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90+5 min Neto has been good in the second half and he dashes around the outside of Doherty before slamming over a low cross that Lloris reaches before Traore.
90+4 min I get sitting on a 1-0 when you have Cech in goal and Carvalho, Terry, Cole and Makalele in front of them, but with these? It makes no sense at all, and is actually a far riskier option than trying to score again.
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90+3 min Spurs will go third if they win this, but if they don’t it’s four league games without a win.
90+1 min Vitinha replaces Podence, who’ll have better days but who put in a monumental shift. I really like him, but I think he’s better coming from out to in at the moment.
90 min There’ll be six additional minutes.
90 min Suddenly Spurs are playing on the front foot, as they could’ve been for the last 89 minutes.
89 min Winks lifts a pass over the top that puts Kane in a race with Saiss and the ball. The second it becomes clear the ball’s going to win, the captain of England hurls himself to the ground and beseeches for a penalty. The ref ignores him, but he’s lucky to avoid a booking for that.
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GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Saiss 87)
People never change, and Jose Mourinho will never learn! Neto’s corner is much better than Moutinho’s have been and Saiss meets it with an excellent header at the front post, getting in front of Davies. That’s what happens when you put faith in your ok defenders rather than in your wonderful strikers.
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86 min Wolves have really stuck at this, but they’re just lacking a bit in attack and their set-pieces have been dreadful.Here comes another corner though...
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84 min A change apiece, Wolves sending on Otasowie for Moutinho and Spurs replacing Son with Lamela. He and Kane have been poor today, but I’m sure Wolves will be glad to see the back of him
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83 min “I think we should just enjoy McLean, and Clough, and Ferguson for what they were, and what they achieved,” says Simon McMahon. “No doubt in 30 years we might look back and wonder whether Mourinho, Guardiola and Klopp would survive in the modern game. Managers, and players, by definition belong in their own era. McLean was, in many respects, actually ahead of his time, and as a person was in actual fact nothing like his managerial persona. Anyway, cheers to you and all football fans. Hope you are well, and stay safe! Here’s to 2021!”
The greats of any era would be great in every era, more or less. And agreed, tactically Wee Jim was ahead of pretty much all of his contemporaries.
82 min Wolves win a corner down the left and Moutinho dutifully clips it into the middle, but no one’s arsed to attack it and Winks heads clear under nae pressure.
80 min Neto runs out of position skating a cross the face of the Spurs defence but Son then gives the ball away to Neves, who has time to pick a pass but instead drills a low shot that has Lloris scurrying but which he’s always gathering.
79 min After Podence can’t find a decent cross, Berwign looks to have skipped away down the left, but a poor touch allows Neves to come across and collect possession.
78 min “The colour of the referee’s shirt is ‘Real Madrid Away 2017’,” reckons Matt Dony. I think there’s a more luminous quality to it.
77 min Wolves have played well second half, but they’ve not created much in the way of chances. Which I guess means that Spurs have defended pretty well.
76 min Traore stands up Davies, then sticks the ball one side and goes down the other as yerman does everything he can to insert his body in the road. He just about does enough, but has a proper result when the ref appraises a free-kick.
75 min Ait-Nouri replaces Marcal.
74 min Kane finds himself down the left and swivels into a cross that Saiss does really well to clout clear, given the speed of the ball and his proximity to his own goal.
73 min “Jeez, Mourinho has just spent an age giving Bergwijn a page-by-page run-through of what appears to be the illustrated version of Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid before sending him on. Hope he has a good memory” emails Justin Kavanagh.
I guess this kind of thing is pretty common in the NFL and NBA, so there’s no reason to think footballers can’t cope, even if the game if less formulaic.
72 min Marcal looks to ease away from Son but slips and looks to have strained something. On comes the physio to administer treatment and Marcal has a stand at the side, but is quickly back running again.
70 min Spurs send Sissoko on for Ndombele. Mourinho is backing his defenders to see it out again.
69 min Semedo sticks out a go go Gadget leg and leaves one on Ndombele; he’s booked.
68 min Neto finds space outside the box and fairly rattles a shot that’s deflected behind. The corner comes to nowt, but Wolves are taking it to them.
68 min Spurs break down the right but Son is too late to square to Kane, who then prods through a set of legs when he might’ve shot and can’t collect around the other side. That’s rare for him – usually he pops off so early it’s almost before the game started.
67 min I absolutely love the colour of the ref’s top - this is the only photo I can find and it doesn’t do it justice. But what colour do we reckon it is? Mauve?
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65 min Wolves win a free-kick 40-odd yards out and close to the right touchline, so Moutinho takes it quickly, clipping a clever pass in between Lloris and Neto ... but the keeper is paying attention and gets out first to improvise a clearing fly-kick.
63 min Reguilon, who ended up playing left-midfield, more or less, is replaced by Bergwijn. Mourinho must want his team higher up the pitch and rightly so – the pressure isn’t wild, but another 30 of this and you’d expect Wolves to find an equaliser.
62 min It’s been all Wolves this half, and Mourinho looks to be bringing on Bergwijn as the physio comes on to treat an irritated Dier, who has to step off the pitch as a consequence.
60 min Excellent from Neto, skirting around the outside of Doherty and driving a low cross that hits Reguilon and bounces into Silva’s path. But Lloris is out quickly, wearing a toe on the phizog as the men contest the ball. He’s fine.
59 min I’m not sure why, but Kane allows Dier to take the free-kick, 25 yards out, left of centre, and he duly clips it wide with unarguable authority.
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58 min Coady tries to clip the ball over Ndombele’s challenge but Ndombele just runs through him so Coady has no choice but to bring him down. Kane wants a red card, seemingly telling the ref that his mate with in, but there was defenders on the cover so a booking is the correct call.
57 min Spurs sat on a one-goal lead against both Palace and Liverpool, getting caught both times. It might work here, but it can’t be the best way of going about things given Spurs’ defenders and attackers.
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56 min Traore really looks in the mood - Wolves need to get him on the ball as often as possible. But this time it’s Semedo raiding down the right, only to wallop a cross miles away from anyone.
55 min Reguilon nashes down the left but can’t find a crossing angle and Wolves are soon back in amongst them.
53 min Podence has real chutzpah, turning up outside the box to prompt. He needs to work out what kind of player he wants to be because his team need men in the box, but he’s so sharp outside it, though his combination with Neto doesn’t quite work out here.
52 min Moutinho clips flat to the near post, where it’s summarily headed away.
52 min Wolves maintain the pressure, winning a corner down the left....
51 min Wolves are coming, Podence spreading play to Traore, who has a look then cuts a low cross back to no one.
50 min Wolves have started the half well and Neto zooms to the line before cutting back a cross, just, that Silva can’t quite reach to turn goalwards.
48 min “Could use what Alli does at Goodison,” returns Brad Wilson. “Mr. A will get the most from him.”
I’m not sure there’s room for Alli and James in the same team, but it depends a bit on what kind of player Alli is going to be. I always hoped he’d become a box-to-box general, but I’m not sure he’ll get there now.
46 min Immediately, Semedo carries forwards and nips a ball in behind Dier for Silva, who tries to get in front, taking the ball away before collapsing flat like a gymnast, legs straight and touching. VAR has a look for a penalty but sees nothing; he corner yields another, which comes to nothing, but Podence was booked for mouth.
46 min Off we go again!
I wonder how long a man like that would last as a manager now?” wonders Brad Wilson of McLean. “Ten minutes? A day?”
Also, it’s very hard to see how he’d have stayed at Tannadice so long. I always think that if Alex Ferguson had been 10 years younger he might never have made it to Man United, because he’d have been at Palace or somewhere the second he won his first trophy with Aberdeen.
Half-time entertainment: the great Wee Jim McLean left us yesterday. Here’s what made him so special...
Half-time: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs got going before Wolves, and that’s the difference here – otherwise, it’s been pretty even with neither side creating much.
45+1 min Traore finds the ball deep inside his own half and Kane misses with a trip so Winks does not. He’s booked, but it had to be done because Wolves were away.
45 min There’ll be two added minutes.
45 min Talking of which, this isn’t a bad game, but it’s one of those you can feel would be immeasurably improved by a crowd. The actual play isn’t bad, but there’s a layer of intensity that’s not quite there.
44 min “What do you think is the reason behind so many very early goals this season?” asks Justin Kavanagh. |There seems to be a serious increase in scores in the first five minutes of games. Are keeping it tight and early reducers now a thing of a long-distant past?”
I wonder if the absence of crowds means that players are more relaxed on the pitch so more disposed towards hitting their stride early and being careless early.
42 min Cut to Dele Alli sat under a blanket. I really hope he gets his career going again - I love the devil with which he plays. He’s not really what Paris need unless he’s ready to play deeper, but I’d not be surprised if Pochettino takes him there anyway.
40 min But have a look! Neves drives down the left and crosses long, Traore retrieving the ball and digging out a pass to round about the penalty spot. Sanchez is up but his clearing header is weak, falling nicely for Podence, whose volley is dragged a little and ends up as an easy save for Lloris. That was Wolves’ best chance so far.
39 min Wolves look to have run out of ideas already – their combination play isn’t really good enough – but as I type that, Neto and Podence exchange passes, the ball not dropping quickly enough for the latter to shoot.
37 min Reguilon has been given a lot of licence, collecting a pass slid into his stride by Kane but unable to find space to shoot or give it back thereafter.
35 min Spurs are disappearing time wherever they can, knocking the ball along the back 17 and asking Wolves to try and take it, while they attempt to pass around them.
33 min Wolves need to get Podence and Traore on the ball more than they have done so far, but I’m not sure how he makes that happen. Tell Neves and Moutinhoto move it quicker, I guess.
32 min It’s gone a little quiet, which will delight Mourinho.
30 min This is a much more open game than I feared. And even if Wolves lose it, this seems like a much better way for them – they score far too few goals for a team with such good attackers, and sing them properly is the only way they’ll get to the next level.
28 min Hello! Semedo squares up Davies and lanks by him on the outside, snapping over a low cross that Silva is onto! He does everything right, using its pace to flick towards the near post, but his radar is off and he can only ruffle the side-netting.
27 min Why are Spurs playing in Arsenal’s away kit from 1983-84?
26 min Traore races towards the line and digs out a cross, that flies well beyond the far post.
25 min Wolves were starting to come onto a game just before that stoppage but it’s Spurs who start the stronger after it, Ndombele - who’s proper enjoying himself - beating a man before sliding a ball in behind Coady for Kane, Under normal circumstances, Kane’s getting nowhere near that, but Coady looks to have lost a step, so he’s beaten by the ball not by the defender.
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24 min Coady is up and we’re back underway.
22 min Coady goes down holding a long limb. We’ve not yet seen what happened to him, but I don’t think it was in a challenge.
21 min Brilliant from Ndombele, intercepting a pass and driving forward while wearing various challenges. As he nears the Spurs box, he has an option either side - Kane right, Reguilon left – so of course he picks the latter, who plops a poor shot straight at Rui Patricio.
20 min Wolves move the ball about midfield before Neto tries to finds Marcal down the line, overhitting his pass to his obvious disgust.
19 min I really enjoy Podence’s calmness on the ball and low centre of gravity, skills he deploys to good effect when squaring up Reguilon down the side of the box. But after some nice feet and just when things open up, he slides a square pass to no one.
18 min ...and he curls directly into the wall. That was not a good effort.
18 min Wolves win a free-kick 25 or so yards out, just right of centre. Saiss is going to have a dig...
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16 min Wolves have been better these last few minutes.
14 min Ndombele picks up possession just outside the Wolves box and ducks back inside, sending Marcal for a bag of balti before clipping a fine cross into the middle that Reguilon – that is not a misprint, please do not adjust your television sets – heads wide.
13 min Podence goes down in a tackle with Sanchez, out wide, and stays down suggesting he’s had his achilles felt. It didn’t look like much, but he asks for treatment before getting up as good as new.
12 min Lovely from Traore, who weaves infield and around two half-hearted challenges before sliding a square pass to Podence. His best chance to shoot comes immediately, but on the edge of the box, reckons he can fashion a better one so winds up bobbling a poor one that Lloris saves easily.
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9 min Wolves are struggling to get into this. I’m not sure how Neves and Moutinho will be able to compete with Hojbjerg, winks and Ndombele, because even if they have the passing, they don’t have the legs.
7 min Mourinho will be delighted with Spurs’ start to this game. They made the goal because Davies passed forward and Son was alive to opportunity , and they’ve carried on making the running. As I type that, Winks slides a pass into space for Doherty and Marcal does well to poke away from him, only for the ref to appraise a foul. The free-kick comes to nowt.
6 min Ndombele needs to score more – Spurs can rely on Son and Kane to get most of their goals, but there’ll be times when other players need to get involved. Ndombele has so many attributes that he must be capable, it’s whether he can get into the right positions at the right times.
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4 min As we thought, Wolves are playing a back four, Spurs a back five - or seven when the midfielders drop in. Meanwhile, Podence dashes in behind Doherty and smites a low cross that eludes everyone.
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3 min For the sake of the spectacle, a Wolves goal would probably have been better, but this is still helpful.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Ndombele 1)
This is a very soft goal, but it puts Wolves bang in trouble. The corner is a poor one, making its way over to the far side of the box, where Davies lays back for Ndombele. From 18 yards, he connects well enough, but doesn’t hit the corner or even close to it, it’s just that Saiss sticks out a leg to block and misses. If we’re being kind, it left Rui Patricio unsighted and consequently, his dive comes too late to stop the ball fizzing by, but if we’re being real ye’ve gottae stop those.
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1 min A long, straight ball from Davies seeks Kane but finds Son, and he dashes by Saiss before swivelling into a cross that wins a corner.
1 min Away we go!
The players take a knee. Fight racism and injustice – it’s incumbent upon all of us.
Here come the teams!
Email! “This title race,” says Digvijay Yadav, “presuming there will be one between United and Liverpool – is 2008-09 in reverse and I am not sure I quite like having the shoe on the other foot.”
Yep, I see the similarity – although that Liverpool side was much closer to its peak than this United one. They do look like the two best teams, but United don’t have the necessary ruthlessness at either end of the pitch. If they win their next two then also win at Anfield, we’ll see – the kind of run they found at the end of last season would take them close – but usually, the best side gets however many points they need, and that’s Liverpool.
Looking again at the Spurs team, I guess it’s possible that Davies plays left-back with Reguilon ahead of him. That would give a good buffer against Traore, but might expose Doherty on the other side, whose used to playing as wing-back alongside a three.
Nuno tells Sky that Raul Jimenez will be in the crowd and it’s nice to have him around. He hopes Adama Traore will show his talent, but is not after revenge following Spurs’ late win at Molineux last term.
Mourinho has made four changes, not because of poor play or fixture congestion, but because “It’s just normal”. He has a good squad and lots of options, so has picked the best team available to him, but won’t say whether he’s gone to five at the back.
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Of course you can. “Really good organisation” was how he put it, but what he really meant was:
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Geoff Shreeves has just asked Sam Allardyce what the key to today’s result was. Can you guess what he answered?
All that said, the class of Son and Kane remains the factor most likely to decide this match, and though they probably expected to be up against a three centre-backs, they’re probably looking forward to bullying two. Wolves don’t have a particular antidote to that, because they’ve only two central midfielders and neither is into that kind of thing, but if Spurs allow them the majority of the possession, they might be able to keep the ball closer to the other end.
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I’m looking forward to seeing how Podence does today. He looks a really good player, full of confidence, attitude and bustle, and I think Spurs’ three centre-backs might find him hard to find. Similarly, I’m excited to see Adama Traore have a go at Sergio Reguilon, who might be able to match him for pace but will have to come up with something when they’re involved in a physical tussle.
I’d love to know what Mourinho thinks Spurs can do this season, and how he thinks he can bring it about. He’ll fancy himself to nab the League Cup – if he can, that’ll satisfy most of Spurs’ support – but for a while it looked like he thought the title was in play too. And it is, but surely not to a team who sit back in every game, thereby inviting pressure onto a sketchy defence.
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This should be a more entertaining match than I feared. With that XI, Wolves have little choice but to push the pace, and Traore and Podence in particular have the chops to find space between wing-backs and centre-backs. Spurs will still be stodgy, but hopefully we’ll get a clash of styles, which will make for something enjoyable.
At Anfield, West Brom snatched a late equaliser against Liverpool. Rob Smyth has all the reaction.
As for Spurs, they move to a back five – perhaps Mourinho wanted to match up with Wolves, then back his better players. So he brings in Sanchez, with Alderweireld dropping to the bench, and Davies; outside them, Aurier is punished for his Leicester misbehaviour and replaced by Doherty, returning to his former club. Otherwise, Sissoko drops out of a midfield that’ll be missing Lo Celso for the entirety of holiday period – Winks comes in – which is to say there’s not loads in the way of creativity there. However, given Wolves’ line-up, there should be joy to be had on the counter.
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So what does it all mean? Well, Wolves have been struggling with things recently, forcing Nuno to try things outside of his usual three at the back. But tonight, he’s got no choice because Willy Bly isn’t fit, so he goes for flat four, leaving out Kilman and bringing in Marcal for Ait-Nouri at left-back. This allows him to deploy an extra attacker, so as well as Traore replaing Otasowie, Silva also comes in to act as a focal point, which is to say that with a two-man midfield of Moutinho and Neves, Wolves are absolutely going for it.
Our teams!
Wolverhampton Wanderers (a quizzical 4-2-3-1): Patricio; Semedo, Coady, Saiss, Marcal; Neves, Moutinho; Traore, Podence, Neto; Silva. Subs: Ruddy, Hoever, Ait-Nouri, Vitinha, Perry, Cundle, Kilman, Otasowie, Corbeanu.
Tottenham Hotspur (a scroogalacious 5-3-2): Lloris; Doherty, Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Reguilon; Hojbjerg, Winks, Ndombele; Son, Kane. Subs: Hart, Alderweireld, Lamela, Rodon, Sissoko, Alli, Bergwijn, Aurier, Tangana.
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Preamble
Football is a sport of eternal questions, but with this particular fixture, one in particular stands out: will the ball leave the centre-circle? What’s bizarre about it all is that both sides have excellent attackers who are far better than their defenders, problem being both also have managers for whom risk is boardgame played by other people and joy a frivolity indulged by other people.
Given a three-year course of dealing, along with the injury to Raul Jimenez and the absence of serious pressure, we can’t expect Wolves to get after it today, but with Spurs there is hope. Most likely, that’ll incite José Mourinho to even greater acts of dourness, but he will surely suspect that his counter-attacking strategy is especially unsuitable against today’s opponents, and will absolutely know that his team badly need a win, which is to say that isn’t actually working that well.
Of course, he might just blame the players, but ultimately he’s a pragmatist not an idealist, and getting Harry Kane and Heung-min Son more involved in things is not all that much of a reach. Similarly, if ever there was a time to pick a second attacking midfielder to play with Tanguy Ndombele, this is it.
Yeah yeah, alright – who am I trying to kid? This could be devastatingly dire, but there’ll be so many good players on the pitch it might also be really good.
Kick-off: 7.15pm GMT
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