THE CURSE RETURNS
Wembley frustration for Pochettino’s men
AFTER the excitement of Borussia Dortmund, the brutal comedown of Swansea City. Tottenham can look swashbuckling against Europe’s elite; not so much against Wales’s finest team.
And it was a compliment to Swansea boss Paul Clement that the first half was so uneventful. He brought them survival last season with exceptional organisation and he isn’t about to tear up those foundations now. With Federico Fernandez cajoling and Alfie Mawson and Mike van der Hoorn responding with superb positional play, Tottenham exited at half-time gnawing their knuckles in frustration.
Swansea don’t look the best team on paper; under Clement though they can be exceptionally hard to break down. Admittedly they have lost 4-0 to Manchester United this season; but on that occasion they were still in the game until they tired in the final ten minutes.
At Wembley, a Spurs side which dismantled Everton and swept past an admittedly weakened Dortmund laboured to create clear-cut opportunities. In fact, almost anything they did create came from long range; there were almost none of their trademark incisive passes opening up a defence.
Indeed the best chance of the half, a false dawn as it emerged, was Harry Kane’s long-range free kick on nine minutes which forced a fine save from Lukasz Fabianski. The fact that Son Heung-min broke free from his starting position as left wing back two minutes later to fire into the side netting encouraged a f al se sense of optimism t hat chances might abound.
Swansea soon smothered that thought. The back three apart, Sam Clucas and Tom Carroll were also instrumental in closing down space. With Tammy Abraham looking lively on the few occasions Swansea did venture forth, they even threatened the classic counterattack sucker punch, though Bayern Munich loaner Renato Sanches still looked to be struggling to find his role in the team.
We waited until 38 minutes for the next flurry of excitement, with Kieran Trippier driving wide from 30 yards. And on the stroke of halftime, Eric Dier forced Fabianski to save, again from long range.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino reassembled his men for the second half: Trippier moved to left wing back, with Moussa Sissoko on the right and Son encouraged forward. It made a limited impact. To their credit, Spurs deserved a penalty on 55 minutes when Martin Olsson inexplicably stuck out his hand to meet Dele Alli’s flick. He was fortunate referee Mike Dean ignored Tottenham’s appeals.
Finally, on 58 minutes there was a characteristically slick interchange of Tottenham passing which almost led to a goal. Son, initially, was in at the near post and Fabianski did well to parry. The ball fell for Kane and the moment seemed to have arrived yet he fairly smashed the crossbar in his eagerness to break the deadlock.
Changes came: Sanches made way for Leroy Fer, the Portuguese midfielder again failing to make an impression. Serge Aurier replaced Sissoko at right wing back, a change that might have been made at halftime. Yet, hard as Tottenham tried, they still couldn’t manufacture the breakthrough they required.
The curse of Wembley was perhaps too swiftly dismissed in the wake of some midweek Champions League excitement.
To be blunt, home draws against Burnley and Swansea do not a title challenge make. Last season Spurs dropped four points at home, never lost and never failed to score. This season they have yet to win in the league, have dropped seven points and couldn’t find a way past a magnificently organised Swansea.
And though the hosts eventually extracted a decent transfer window from what appeared to be a calamity, it is on days like this that you question just why more ambition hasn’t been shown.
Much now rests on Christian Eriksson and Alli when the opposition come like Swansea, as so many will now, and strangle the life out of a game. Spurs are nowhere near Manchester City’s nor Manchester United’s financial level so perhaps it is unfair to expect them to match their squads.
Yet they have outperformed those teams as they have edged ever closer to a title. Now, though, it’s hard to see this squad repeating that trick of being in the race right until the death.
Pochettino could argue they were unlucky not to be awarded a pen- alty, but he knows they didn’t create enough.
Meanwhile, Clement could pretty much submit this game as his CV to most clubs in the world and get a job. As a masterclass in defensive organisation it was definitive. And if it were so easy to do, as some are tempted to argue, you might ask why Ronald Koeman couldn’t manage it last weekend? For 90 minutes, almost none of Clement’s men put a step wrong in positioning themselves to frustrate Tottenham.
Right at the death, there was a spectacular moment when Jan Vertonghen fired a blistering shot from 35 yards out which only narrowly missed. It would have been an extraordinary end. Yet, by that stage, you felt that Swansea probably merited their point.