Spurs go from bad to worse
JOSE MOURINHO had a little whine a week ago in which he lamented his inability to coach Michael Oliver, the video assistant referee. Seven days on and we really have to wonder if he has much more of an impact on his players.
What a sorry shambles this is. Short of a collective neutering, you have to question how he managed to sap so much spring from the steps of this squad. Maybe it is his most impressive feat in the past eight months.
Granted, they were pretty wretched by the time Mauricio Pochettino left. But an appointment that always looked bizarre is growing dafter and sadder and more doomed to fail by the game.
He will have his gripes, of course. He usually does — it is perhaps the only trait that has come through from his better days. The point of contention this time, for the second occasion in eight days, will nose on Oliver — who is due to referee Sunday’s derby against Arsenal — for once again, from a room in Stockley Park, he made a call that did not favour Tottenham.
Last week, it was the harsh decision to rule out Harry Kane’s goal against Sheffield United. Here it was to spare Joshua King for a two-handed shove on Kane in the area after six minutes. You would have to say both calls were harsh.
But that should not be allowed to serve as a distraction to the wider point — Tottenham are playing abject football and the video overlords are not the problem here. It is about a team who have no obvious style, with creative players who, by instruction or inhibition, do not create, and a record signing in Tanguy Ndombele who is rotting on the bench. Kane? His best look at the ball came at set-pieces in his own area.
With two wins in 11 games in all competitions, it is truly a rotten concoction. They did not put a shot on target and by the end were even a little lucky, given Callum Wilson had a goal correctly ruled out by the VAR for a King handball and Harry Wilson missed a late one-on-one.
That against a free-falling side on the back of five straight defeats and with nine goals conceded in two games.
Asked about the penalty decision, Mourinho said: ‘The same referee that was the VAR against Sheffield United. It’s not just my opinion, everyone in the world knows that is a penalty. When I say everybody, I say everybody, everybody.’
On the general performance, he added: ‘Not good enough, but good enough to win. We didn’t score goals and you don’t win when you don’t score goals. I feel I got enough desire, but there’s always a negative when you have a huge penalty decision against you.’
For Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, it was encouraging in all aspects but the worry was a horrible collision between Adam Smith and Ben Davies, which left the former unconscious, but thankfully Howe confirmed he was sitting up and talking after the game.
‘With the run we’ve been on, that is a good point,’ he said. ‘A lot of people would have thought we wouldn’t respond well to the relegation fight ahead of us. But our hat is still in the ring. We are still in there and won’t quit.’