IS IT LIKE THIS EVERY WEEK?
Welcome to the most madcap season ever, Gareth!
It took Gareth Bale more than two years to win a game in a tottenham shirt the first time around. It is fair to say the return is not going exactly to plan either.
on in the 72nd minute, 3-0 up, off 22 minutes later, tied at 3-3. Look, it wasn’t Bale’s fault but nor was it one for the scrapbook. With tottenham still leading, he broke through and had a chance to make it 4-2, and surely clinch the victory, but having got the better of Angelo ogbonna, he steered his finish wide. It could have been the cliched dream debut. Instead it turned into something of a nightmare. But certainly no cliche.
Make no mistake, this was one of the great comebacks. No team in Premier League history have entered the 81st minute of a match trailing by three goals and not lost. Yet somehow, West Ham found a way back. As for tottenham, it was 19 years ago that they led Manchester United 3-0 at half-time, and lost 5-3. Yet that was a great United team. this was West Ham. on the up in recent weeks, but looking long gone when tottenham raced to a 3-0 lead within 16 minutes. In the circumstances, many were advocating Bale’s introduction at half-time, presuming the game won. Jose Mourinho is more cautious than that. And with this defence, you have to be.
When tottenham were pipped here by Newcastle, they had the sympathy of the majority, Eric Dier’s handball arguably a tipping point in a weekend of such controversies. this, however, was on them.
they were undone by two set pieces and an own goal. A team with an eye on the title — and tottenham should have that in this season of quirks and surprises — should be able to hold on to a three-goal lead across 12 minutes, including added time. After this, when will they ever feel safe again?
the irony is that, in 2009, Harry Redknapp broke Bale’s winless run, dating back to his arrival from Southampton in 2007, by making him a late substitute in a match it was thought tottenham could not lose. they were 4-0 up at home to Burnley with six minutes left — 3-0 up at home to West Ham, 18 minutes left. Is it really that different?
Apparently. West Ham were much improved in the second half and all of tottenham’s damage was a distant first-half memory. Nevertheless, they should have been comfortable. Instead, what the hell happened?
When Fabian Balbuena headed in a free-kick delivered by Manuel Lanzini after 82 minutes it seemed little beyond a consolation.
then, three minutes later, Vladimir Coufal broke down the flank, crossed and Davinson Sanchez planted a header past his own goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
By now, tottenham were living on their nerves. Four minutes into added time, a last- chance freekick. Aaron Cresswell took it, the ball cleared, recycled, and falling to Lanzini 25 yards out. He acted on instinct, striking it with all his might towards goal.
Lloris got a hand to it, but no more. this was the sort of strike Bale must have imagined scoring. the stuff that dreams are made of.
Other questions also remain. It may sound mischievous to even ask this, but given where Bale will play, how is he to improve the most successful goalscoring machine in the Premier League right now? The one part of Tottenham that really, really works.
Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. A partnership that stands above the rest — and above most others in history, too. Remember when it was felt the management style of Mourinho might stifle Kane and the attacking flair of his team-mates? Opposite. Since Mourinho’s arrival in November 2019 the two players with the most direct goal involvements — either by scoring or assisting — are Kane with 33, followed by Son with 30. Their numbers place them among the greatest partnerships in Premier League history.
Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba combined for Chelsea 36 times. Thierry Henry and Robert Pires of Arsenal and David Silva and Sergio Aguero for Manchester City were good for 29 each. Yet none of these partnerships are still operative. Kane and Son have 28 and counting, including two yesterday. They would have reached 29 had Kane not hit a post from a Son pass after 79 minutes.
This is the company Bale entered and it is fair to say he is not shy. The break in play was for a Tottenham free- kick and Bale immediately announced he would be taking it. He stood over the ball, legs splayed in the manner of Cristiano Ronaldo. What an entrance this could have been. Instead, he bunged it tamely into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski.
How did Tottenham surrender this? They were a goal up after 45 seconds, two clear after eight minutes and when the third went in it was the quickest they had established such a lead since beating Derby 4-0 in 2007. West Ham came here with high hopes and, on occasions, going forward justified them. By then, however, Tottenham had cut through them so efficiently the outcome seemed academic. This looked to be Tottenham’s game long before half-time and when it got a little spicy, as derbies do, Mourinho’s assistants were up, making the universal gesture to calm down.
It was a Tottenham counter-attack that began the remarkable opening. A West Ham attack broke down and Kane, deep inside his half, played an absolute nectarine of a ball — even sweeter than a peach — into the path of Son. He outstripped Balbuena as if the Paraguayan defender was pulling a particularly well- laden trailer, waited for him to catch up, cut inside, and planted a curling shot past Fabianski in the West Ham goal.
For the second, Coufal’s clearing header was quickly recycled by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, growing into his Tottenham role with every game. He slipped the ball to Son, who just as sharply fed Kane. Declan Rice dived in and was made to look rather foolish, Ogbonna saw the danger and threw himself at the shot but not in time to prevent it. The ball must have appeared from nowhere, then, because Fabianski remained rooted to the spot as it nestled in the bottom corner of the net.
West Ham were still reeling when the third went in. It was made to look so much simpler than it was; another move-building pass from Son, this time to full back Sergio Reguilon. To say he crossed for Kane to beat Fabianski with a header at the far post, though, rather underplays the precision of the delivery. Reguilon had to get the ball over the heads of three West Ham defenders to reach his target and did so perfectly, the ball just dropping in. It looked so easy. It never is. Welcome to 2020, Gareth. It is going to be emotional. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (4-3-2-1): Lloris 5.5; Aurier 6, Alderweireld 6, Sanchez 5.5, Reguilon 7; Sissoko 6.5, Ndombele 7.5, Hojbjerg 7.5 (Winks 72min, 6); Bergwijn 7 (Bale 72), Son 8 (Lucas 80); KANE 9. Subs not used: Doherty, Hart, Davies, Vinicius. Scorers: Son 1, Kane 8, 16. Booked: None. Manager: Jose Mourinho 7. WEST HAM UNITED (5-4-1): Fabianski 6; Coufal 6, Balbuena 6.5, Ogbonna 6.5, Cresswell 6.5, Masuaku 7 (Snodgrass 90); Bowen 7, Soucek 7, Rice 7, Fornals 6 (Lanzini 77); Antonio 7 (Yarmolenko 77). Subs not used: Noble, Diop, Fredericks, Randolph. Scorers: Balbuena 82, Sanchez 85 (og), Lanzini 90+4. Booked: Antonio, Ogbonna, Soucek, Masuaku, Lanzini. Manager: David Moyes: 7.5. Referee: Paul Tierney 6.5.