ERIKSEN: I WAS THE BLACK SHEEP OF TOTTENHAM
‘Wanting to leave made me the bad guy’
TOTTENHAM:
SOUTHAMPTON:
REFEREE:
Mourinho took decisive action, substituting Jan Vertonghen, who looked shell-shocked at being taken off for new signing Fernandes, but it did not stem the tide.
And Saints went ahead after 72 minutes with a brilliant goal.
Redmond led a counter attack, charged forward and then fed Ings, who cut inside before curling his 17th goal of the season into the bottom corner and well away from Lloris’s despairing dive.
But their lead lasted just six minutes. Harry Winks fed Lucas Moura, the Brazilian swapped passes with substitute Alli, and then Moura worked some space on the edge of the box to curl home a low shot.
Ten minutes later, the turnaround was complete. Alli’s crossfield pass opened up the Saints defence, Son raced forward and nicked the ball, only to go down under Gunn’s challenge.
The contact looked minimal but VAR checked and the penalty was given.
Up stepped Son to fire home the penalty kick beyond Gunn’s dive. Maybe Tottenham’s name is on the cup.
RALPH HASENHUTTL would have been sacked at any other club after October’s 9-0 demolition at home to Leicester.
That humiliation was a fourth defeat in six with Southampton staring, at the time, at a long season fighting relegation.
To have rebuilt hearts and minds in the manner Hasenhuttl has since is outstanding. Even more so considering Saints lost the next three games following the Foxes thrashing.
Signs of a pulse still beating came at Arsenal, where the Gunners needed a 90th-minute equaliser to salvage a draw. Seven wins in 10 games put
Saints into the top half of the table.
Even allowing for just one win in their last four, they are again a force to be reckoned with.
So it was no surprise they gave Spurs such a hard time here. Danny Ings should have scored long before Shane Long did and Pierre-Emile Hojberg should have given them the lead just after half-time. Soufal Boufal’s miss was remarkable.
Hasenhuttl (above) has done and is doing great work. He has inspired Jack Stephens to fight his way back into favour at centre-back, rejuvenated Nathan Redmond, while Hojberg has improved so much Spurs and Arsenal were sniffing around during the transfer window.
Long has ended a lengthy goal drought and Ings is currently the most in-form English striker in the Premier League.
Saints have always been patient, which is why they have developed so many talents. Their biggest right now is in the dug-out.
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN claims he was the “black sheep” at Tottenham and was blamed for many of the club’s problems.
The 27-year-old midfielder, who joined Italian giants Inter Milan last week, also confirmed he rejected Manchester United in favour of the “new challenge” of moving abroad.
Eriksen (right, and with Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho, above), whose contract was set to expire at the end of this season, signed a four-year deal with Inter, with Spurs getting £16.9million.
Last summer he admitted he wanted to leave with a move to Real Madrid, but an offer failed to materialise.
As his seven-year stay in north London neared the end, he was booed during matches by Spurs fans who accused him of a lack of commitment.
The Denmark international said: “If you have a short contract, you will be the black sheep. But I felt I had to be honest.
“I did not want to hide like a lot of players do. Everyone is different. I was honest. I wanted to say it out loud.
“I did get the blame for a lot of stuff, for being the bad guy. I read I was the bad person in the changing room, that ever since I said I wanted to leave it was no good me being there.
“To be honest, over the last few years, if anything came up, any player would think about leaving.
“But I was the guy who said it in public.
“In England, when your contract is shorter, it is
like you have to leave now. You are gone. In the end I played about 30 games that were like goodbye games.
It was like, ‘This might be his last game, this might be his last game’. It just kept rolling.
“In my head I was ready to try something new, but felt if nothing came I was still ready to play for my place.
“I was not a different player in that sense. But I was in and out of the team.
“However, even if I had a four-year contract, this season would have been difficult after the Champions League final.”
Confirming that United had tried to land him in what would have been a bargain deal, Eriksen told the BBC: “We did speak to them, of course, and we did hear what was possible and what wasn’t possible.
“But, in the end, for me personally, I wanted a new challenge.
“To stay in the Premier League would have been an easy solution.
“Of course, staying at Tottenham would also have been a solution but, for me, it just came down to wanting to try a new challenge in a new country.
“Once Inter Milan came up it really wasn’t a difficult choice.”
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