Morning Star | The People’s Daily

Sunderland AFC 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

by Roger Domeneghetti

at the Stadium of Light

ROBERTO DE ZERBI’S rescue mission got off to a losing start against Sunderland this afternoon.

Tottenham’s new manager saw Sunderland’s winning goal come courtesy of an outrageous deflection and his captain, Cristian Romero, join the club’s lengthy injury list.

But truth be told, Sunderland were deserved winners. They took the lead midway through the second half. Nordi Mukiele receiving the ball on the wing, before driving in field. The Spurs players backed away, then backed away some more, affording him more space than he seemed to know what to do with. His effort wasn’t great, but it ricocheted off Micky van de Ven, floating past the hapless Antonin Kinsky and into the net. It was no less than the Black Cats deserved.

Spurs’ best chance was arguably one that never came. They were awarded a penalty after Randal Kolo Muani threw himself to the ground after a double challenge from Omar Alderete and Luke O’Nien. Rob Jones was sent to the monitor and duly overturned his initial decision.

Antonin Kinsky, in goal for the visitors for the first time since his disastrous Champions League appearance against Atletico Madrid, looked reasonably assured. He ended the half with a point-blank save from Brian Brobbey, ensuring that, for the first time in three months, Tottenham reached half-time without conceding a goal.

It was an improvement of sorts, but it didn’t last. With Forest’s draw at Villa, they are rooted in the bottom three with just six games to save their season.

DOMINIC SOLANKE has urged his Tottenham team-mates to take responsibility and realise the situation they are in after the club’s relegation fears heightened on Thursday.

Solanke’s 34th-minute opener at home to Crystal Palace momentarily put Spurs four points clear of the bottom three, but Micky van de Ven’s inexplicable sending-off for a pull on Ismaila Sarr changed the match.

Sarr scored the resulting penalty and Palace struck twice more in first-half stoppage time to consign Tottenham to a fifth consecutive defeat, which extended their winless Premier League run to a club record of 11.

Only one point above 18th-placed West Ham, Solanke acknowledged the critical scenario last season’s Europa League winners are in and revealed a post-match meeting with the squad took place.

Spurs turn attention to the Champions League with a last-16 first leg tie at Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, but Solanke called for a group missing 10 players to step up in the Premier League.

“Yeah, another difficult one to take. Before the game, we looked at the game thinking we definitely needed to win, but it’s another game that has passed now and we need to realise the position we’re in,” Solanke told SpursPlay.

“It was difficult circumstances [with 10 men] but we’ve had a chat between us and we need to understand we need to improve and improve now.

“It is difficult and hard to say with just words, we need to show it on the pitch but it’s something we need to do as soon as possible.

“We obviously need to realise the position that we are in. We know it’s been so difficult this season with the injuries, but we can’t change that now.

“Us players on the pitch need to take responsibility and ultimately change it as soon as possible.”

NEW Tottenham boss Thomas Frank played down injury concerns over Dominic Solanke and Destiny Udogie weeks out from the Super Cup against Paris St Germain on August 13.

Left-back Udogie and England forward Solanke were set to feature in Spurs’ second friendly of the day at Luton on Saturday, but were pulled out as a precaution hours after Wycombe had earned a 2-2 draw with the Europa League winners.

Solanke was absent from the 0-0 draw at Kenilworth Road due to a minor ankle injury and Udogie was withdrawn before kick-off. However, the duo were expected to join the squad on last night’s flight to Hong Kong for Tottenham’s week-long pre-season tour of Asia.

“Dom has a minor ankle issue, nothing we’re worried about, just a precaution,” Frank said.

“Destiny felt something in the warm up, so, again, just a precaution. We just want to be on top of that.”

Frank used two completely different starting line-ups for the friendly fixtures, with captain Son Heung-min involved in the 2-2 draw with Wycombe at the club’s training ground, but not with the squad for the stalemate at Luton.

Son, who has entered the final 12 months of his contract, has attracted interest from MLS club Los Angeles FC this week, but Tottenham are yet to receive a bid for the South Korean attacker, the PA news agency understands.

Two goals from Pape Sarr earned Spurs a draw with Wycombe — after Rodrigo Bentancur was forced to pull out before kick-off due to illness.

A different line-up was fielded at Luton where Tottenham’s summer recruit Mohammed Kudus had an early shot cleared off the line before the hosts threatened in the second half, but Nahki Wells had a back-post volley saved by Antonin Kinsky and lifted another effort over to ensure it finished goalless in front of 10,071 spectators.

Frank added: “I would say the big takeaway on the positive side is that we got more or less 75 minutes into most of the players — that was the reason why we played two mixed teams and subbed on all the youngsters.

“So, the physical, minute-wise — box ticked. I’m happy with that.”