2 weeks ago
14
Three and easy for Thomas Frank? Well, not quite – this is Tottenham after all. Instead it was Andoni Iraola’s outstanding Bournemouth side who ended his 100% start thanks to Evanilson’s early strike as familiar failings returned to haunt Spurs.
Had things turned out differently this summer, Iraola could easily have found himself in the home dugout having been coveted by Tottenham before they eventually settled on Frank. But after winning his first two matches since succeeding Ange Postecoglou, their shortcomings were exposed by the Spaniard’s high press and only Bournemouth’s profligacy prevented their victory being even more convincing as Tottenham’s players left the pitch to a smattering of boos.
Xavi Simons, the new £51.8m signing from RB Leipzig, was paraded on the pitch beforehand and Frank will be desperate to integrate him as quickly as possible after it took until the 69th minute for his team to register a shot on target. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he had decided against changing a winning formula and selected the same side that executed his gameplan to perfection against Manchester City last week, even if Dominic Solanke was ruled out with an ankle issue. But Frank will be concerned how easily the pedestrian midfield trio of João Palhinha, Rodrigo Bentancur and Pape Sarr were outclassed by Bournemouth’s technical superiority and it wasn’t until Frank introduced Lucas Bergvall in the second half that they at least looked more threatening.
Bournemouth were also unchanged from the win over Wolves as their new-look defence marshalled by captain Adam Smith – a product of Tottenham’s academy – had come prepared for a thorough examination. However it was the visitors who seized the initiative from the very start with a zip to their play that Spurs simply couldn’t live with.
A day after being handed his first senior England call-up, Djed Spence was brought back down to earth inside the first four minutes when he was caught out by Marcos Senesi’s through ball and played Evanilson onside. The Brazilian’s shot looped off Cristian Romero over Guglielmo Vicario and into the net.
Evanilson almost doubled his tally when he drilled wide after good work from Antoine Semenyo before the Ghana forward headed a sumptuous outside of the boot cross from David Brooks inches over. Tottenham could barely get out of their own half and when they did after a mistake from Tyler Adams, Richarlison was guilty of gifting possession straight back.
Brooks has been attracting attention from Crystal Palace but it is easy to see why Bournemouth are determined to keep hold of the Wales forward in a sparkling first-half display. A clever free-kick had Vicario scrambling across to make the save before Brooks headed over the resulting corner.
Even the departure of Smith with an injury just before the half-hour mark could not halt Bournemouth’s momentum and it required a last-ditch block from Micky van de Ven to keep the deficit at one when Marcus Tavernier was played in by Semenyo.
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Frank even had to gesture for the home supporters to calm down when yet another Tottenham attack broke down. But it was hard to blame them considering that Spurs ended the first half with an xG of 0 despite having almost 60% of possession.
Whatever Frank said at half-time didn’t appear to have worked as Bournemouth picked up where they had left off. It needed a sharp save from Vicario to deny Semenyo within 60 seconds of the restart after a lightning quick break before a deflected effort from Brooks struck the crossbar when a long throw caused chaos in the Tottenham defence. Somehow they remained only 1-0 down after another Vicario save from Brooks, with Frank turning to Bergvall and Wilson Odobert from his bench.
Spence was perhaps lucky to only receive a yellow card when he caught Bournemouth substitute Amine Adli late before Vicario gave away possession and Tavernier fired into the side netting. Odobert snatched at his chance when the ball dropped invitingly at the Frenchman’s feet and he blazed way over. At last Tottenham had woken up and a volley from Mathys Tel in injury time that missed by a foot would have brought the house down if it had gone in. But there was no way back.
