Tottenham Hotspur ended their 15-game winless run but victory over Wolves cannot hide their lack of attacking prowess.
Roberto De Zerbi‘s team looked like they would climb out of the relegation zone after Joao Palhinha gave Tottenham a priceless lead eight minutes from time.
However, Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time winner for West Ham ensured that Spurs’ London rivals remained in 17th.
The North London team did secure a vital 1-0 victory at Molineux on Saturday but ended up losing Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons to injury.
And while they bagged their first win in the Premier League since 28 December, Tottenham have a lot of work to do to survive.
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Tottenham take step forward but many more to go
Getting three points was the be-all and end-all for Tottenham on Saturday.
Spurs just needed a victory, by any means necessary, to reignite hopes of beating the drop. They were uninspiring for the majority of the contest but delivered when it mattered.
However, they did scrape a win over already-relegated Wolves. They will take confidence from this victory but against most other sides, it is unlikely they would have won that game.
The first half in particular was very underwhelming to say the least. According to Opta, both sides failed to register a shot on target – something that has only happened nine other times across the entire Premier League this season.
There was a real lack of creativity and quality in the final third as Tottenham struggled to get to grips with a nerve-racking encounter. Indeed, Antonin Kinsky had to make more saves than Jose Sa (Two to one), they had the same amount of corners (five), and for all their possession, they didn’t do much with it.
While their passing accuracy was high at 85.7 per cent, and they had 467 passes, Wolves seemed content to let Tottenham have the ball.
While they didn’t match a 16-game winless run, the worst in the club’s history that was set back in 1935, they weren’t far off that.
They also didn’t register a shot on target until the 69th minute as they eked out a nervy win.
Tottenham are only one of six ever-present teams in the Premier League since its inception in 1992. But they have to get a lot better if they want to continue that run.
Tottenham win important for Tottenham’s mentality
In De Zerbi’s third game in charge of Tottenham, he claimed his first win after a loss to Sunderland and a draw with Brighton.
The Italian said after the defeat to the Black Cats that Tottenham’s players need a stronger mental attitude more than anything else as they aim to stave off relegation to the Championship.
And after Tottenham’s win over Wolves, De Zerbi said the result was the most important thing, rather than the performance.
He told BBC Sport, “We were working for a win. We played 30-35 mins very well in the first half. We didn’t create many chances but we had control.
“(In the second half) maybe the pressure to win this game, we didn’t play well, but today the three points was very important. We can prepare for the next four games.
“We have to play, we can’t lose our style or lose the order on the pitch – we can’t show the quality of the players if we play like we did in the second half, but in terms of attitude and spirit – great 90 minutes.
“Without the ball we can’t win the game. These players are good enough to win with the ball. We can play much better than the second half.”
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