Wolves put the bite on toothless Tottenham

TOTTENHAM held their lead for 85 minutes. So they almost got there. They almost did enough to earn a win that would have taken them to third in the Premier League.

But no matter how hard they work, how organised they are and how well they defend, l i f e tends to be i ncreasingly difficult f or teams that don’t have the ball.

And that was Tottenham’s problem here. It is becoming a hoary old theme, we know. Jose Mourinho and antifootball. So it is important to stress that this was not about that.

This was merely a story of a team that led early but, as time wore on, could not obtain enough of the ball to control the fate of the game. That, at the moment, is Tottenham’s greatest failing.

Mourinho was disappointed that his side had not built upon their early lead.

‘I am frustrated with the result,’ he said. ‘We had 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn’t.

‘It’s not just about scoring but also not being dangerous and ambitious — and for me that’s the problem.

‘Of course, we can go back t o corners, and say at Liverpool we should win and we lost with a corner. We can say here we should win and drew with a corner... the other direction is to score in the first minute.’

Asked to explain the fact that his side’s last effort on target came i n the 21st minute of the g a me, Mourinho added: ‘I know the way I prepare the team, I know what I asked of the players, I know what I told them at half-time. I know all that and I don’t want to say much more than that.

‘ I give some credit to Wolves, of course, because by l osing, t hey put s ome pressure on us, pressure that we coped quite well with, controlling the game well.

‘But we didn’t have that desire, that ambition, to go for more.’

For a while, after Tanguy Ndombele fired in from 18 yards after just a minute, Spurs were t he better team.

A second goal then would have won the game and it looked likely for a period.

But as time wore on and a capable Wolves team found a wa y into the g a me, Tottenham lost their way.

For the last hour of the match, Wolves were better in every department and by the time defender Romain Saiss (below) headed in the leveller with four minutes of normal time remaining, all the vital stats were in their favour.

Tottenham at least didn’t lose, and they could have done. In the last minute of added time, a cross from the left landed perfectly on the head of forward Fabio Silva but the teenager had not enjoyed the best of nights and he made only the lamest contact on the ball, Hugo Lloris saving comfortably.

Wolves, for their part, will have been happy with their point. Raul Jiminez was in the stands after recovering from that dreadful head injury he suffered against Arsenal. His health is all that fundamentally matters but the truth is that Wolves miss him on the field.

Early on, Tottenham were fluid and their goal was straightforward. Son HeungMin ran on to an innocuous long pass to draw a save from Rui Patricio at the near post after only 25 seconds.

Then, when the corner was only half cleared, Ndombele drove the ball first time low in to the net.

Wolves were struggling to develop any dangerous play despite having plenty of possession, while Spurs carried a constant threat.

But when it changed, Spurs were unable to shift the momentum back their way. Wolves worked Lloris twice through Daniel Podence in the first half and then Silva hit the side netting. The teenager could have won a penalty in the first minute of the second half. Eric Dier appeared to catch his heel but a corner was given and VAR agreed. After heading one corner at the Spurs goalkeeper already, Saiss refused to pass up an identical chance and scored the goal his side fully deserved in the 86th minute.