Another match in a short space of time for Tottenham Hotspur saw the Lilywhites head to the south coast to take on Bournemouth. The Cherries were winless in their last 11 matches thanks to some defensive woes, conceding a large number of goals, while Spurs’ problems had been at the other end of the pitch, struggling to create and without a goal in open play for almost 10 hours as the matchup presented itself as something of an inflection point in Thomas Frank’s Spurs career.
The footballing gods giveth and taketh away, and the return of Xavi Simons to the squad following his suspension coincided with the loss of Mohammed Kudus to injury, meaning Thomas Frank’s attacking options were somewhat limited. To combat this, he seemingly opted to send out the midfield three of Joao Palhinha, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Lucas Bergvall that capitulated to Sunderland; however, from early in the match it was clear the structure was more of the 4-2-2-2 seen against PSG earlier in the season as opposed to Frank’s standard 4-2-3-1, with Lucas Bergvall tucking in on the right and Xavi Simons playing off Randal Kolo Muani up top.
The structural tweaks appeared to pay dividends early on, with Spurs playing directly and quickly, aided by Xavi Simon’s skill on the ball. A number of promising moves built confidence, until one transition situation led to Spurs opening the scoring. Simons played an excellent backheel out to Mathys Tel on the left, who drove at fullback Alex Jimenez before cutting in on his right and unleashing a shot from wide through the legs of a defender.
Unfortunately for Spurs, the first-half positives mostly stopped there as Bournemouth soon struck back. Marcus Tavernier was left in acres of space on Bournemouth’s right flank, and he curled in a cross with his left towards Evanilson, who had made a quality run in between the Spurs center backs. He made good contact with the ball under pressure from Cristian Romero, with his flicked-on header steaming past Guglielmo Vicario into the top left corner and evening the ledger.
Lucas Bergvall worked hard to put Spurs back in the lead again with a couple of hopeful but well-struck shots from outside the box, one that kissed the top of the goal netting, but it was instead the home side that took the lead. Once more, Tavernier crossed the ball in from the right, with the soon-to-be-departing Antoine Semenyo flicking the ball on when he possibly could have scored himself. The miscontrol proved profitable for Bournemouth, finding Marcos Senesi in space on the left who squared to Eli Junior Kroupi for a tap-in as the Cherries finished the half with a 2-1 lead.
Things went from bad to worse for Spurs in the second half as Lucas Bergvall picked up what looked like a reasonably significant thigh injury. The young Swede was forced from the pitch and replaced by Wilson Odobert. More changes followed, as Richarlison replaced the ineffectual Kolo Muani and Bournemouth welcomed David Brooks and Enes Unal on for Evanilson and Kroupi. Richarlison almost had an instant impact as well, striking a headed effort from a set piece second ball against the upright, before one of Bournemouth’s substitutes almost made Spurs pay for that miss as the Cherries went right back up the other end with Unal sending a shot just wide of the post.
There was a momentary ray of hope for Spurs midway through the second half. Micky van de Ven made one of his customary driving runs from deep, pushing forward into the Bournemouth box before being taken down by the Cherries defense as the referee pointed to the spot. VAR intervened though, with Darren England being sent to the monitor to review. While Van de Ven did initiate the contact with defender James Hill, it looked like a clip on Van de Ven’s foot from David Brooks would be enough for the penalty to stand. Instead, England reversed his call, awarding Spurs’ Dutch center back a yellow card for dissent as he protested robustly.
That ray of hope soon materialized into something more concrete, however, as Spurs equalized in stunning fashion. Some pinball around the Bournemouth penalty area appeared destined to be cleared before Joao Palhinha intervened. With his back to goal, defenders on him, and positioned wide of the post, he leapt and executed an inch-perfect bicycle kick, controlling the overhead shot to finish into the opposite corner. With the scores at two apiece, Spurs continued to push for a winner, with van de Ven coming close with a towering header palmed away by Djordje Petrovic before a similar effort from Romero looped narrowly over the crossbar.
The match began to break down as the players tired, giveaways abounded, substitutions continued, and challenges flew in, both sides struggling to break the deadlock. Enter Antoine Semenyo. With this match supposedly the winger’s last before a mooted transfer to Manchester City, he stepped up to produce a fairytale finish to his time at Bournemouth, cutting inside from the left and unleashing a bullet of a low shot to beat Vicario and secure a 3-2 victory late on for the Cherries and heaping more pressure on Thomas Frank and his side.
Reactions
I’ve been strongly of the opinion that it’s incredibly unlikely that Thomas Frank is removed from his post before the end of the season. That opinion may now have just changed; I think he could be sacked very soon.
The weird thing is that Spurs started really brightly. Instead of trying to play possession football, they tried to create transition opportunities and it initially worked! Xavi Simons was key to this, heavily involved in his first match back from suspension and linking well with the attack.
Things didn’t stay that way. Bournemouth oddly refused to press, even though it caused Spurs so many problems in the reverse fixture - likely due to tiredness thanks to fixture congestion - and that unfortunately emboldened Spurs to try play more from deep, which in turn surrendered more and more of the ball to Bournemouth in dangerous positions… and well, we all know what happened next.
Tel was bright on the left, and his goal was well taken; but it was quite problematic that Bournemouth’s first two goals came from unpressured crosses from a player he was supposed to be marking. He needed to do more to trouble Tavernier.
First goal from open play in almost ten hours!
I just can’t with Rodrigo Bentancur anymore. The fact that Joao Palhinha was more dynamic in possession than the Uruguayan speaks volumes, and out of possession he hides from the ball and is a turnstile in defense. The guy just can’t run anymore and he needs to go back to Italy. Why Frank opted to wait 86 minutes to replace him is anyone’s guess.
Speaking of Palhinha though, how great was that bicycle kick? It really was an incredibly impressive strike, especially considering the pressure he was under and the angle. I swear he actually controlled the shot too, rather than just swinging wildly.
Though I could understand the challenge on van de Ven not being given as a penalty, the fact that it was means I thought there was no way the threshold would be met to overturn the call. VAR and wish.com Jimmy McNulty obviously thought differently.
With Semenyo scoring the winner, the narrative gods really took the easy route here didn’t they?
Bleh. COYS.
