Eriksen steals show
Tottenham get a League win at Wembley and this time it’s not all about Harry
HARRY KANE didn’t score and Tottenham won in the Premier League at Wembley.
For their manager Mauricio Pochettino it was the perfect antidote to the growing reputation that his side rely too heavily on their striker and struggle at their temporary home ground. He was keen to reinforce that point afterwards.
A weight was lifted with this tight but welcome victory against a Bournemouth side who put virtually their whole team behind the ball. Manager Eddie Howe probably thought that if he stuck 11 men on Kane they might stop Tottenham’s whole team.
Instead, Christian Eriksen found space to score the only goal two minutes into the second half to haul the spotlight away from the England forward.
‘It’s important not only Harry Kane scores goals,’ Pochettino said. ‘The most important thing always is the collective performance, the group and winning games. It’s important that different players score, too. The first half was so difficult, they played very deep and we tried to find the space and tried to break them down, but we made some mistakes.’
Until Spurs took the lead there was little on display to back up Pochettino’s fiery pre-match rant against Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s notion that Spurs are ‘The Harry Kane team’.
Their first and only shot on target in the first half took 33 minutes to arrive and it came, of course, from Kane. Who else was it going to be?
Eriksen clipped a ball over Bournemouth’s defence from out on the right flank, Kane’s first touch was unusually poor and he failed to chest the ball into his path. It meant that he snatched at the finish and Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic pushed it wide.
The statistics were beginning to add weight to Guardiola’s assertion that so riled Tottenham’s boss. From 22 shots away from home in the League, Kane had six goals and Tottenham won all four games. At Wembley he’d had 22 shots, scored none and Spurs had not won in three.
Against Bournemouth, Kane played most of the first half as though he was under directive not to score, touching the ball only nine times — almost half his average involvement this season.
His 31 touches by the time he was hooked for Fernando Llorente with five minutes remaining was his joint lowest this season. But this was not Kane’s show and the most satisfying thing for Pochettino was that they still lifted the Wembley hoodoo that has threatened to ruin hopes of a run for the title.
‘It was so important to start to feel like you can win here in the Premier League, to feel that Wembley is your home,’ Pochettino said.
Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris deserves credit for his role in that achievement, producing a world-class save to keep the ball out when Toby Alderweireld diverted Junior Stanislas’s corner towards his own net from close range. Just prior to that, Adam Smith’s cutback reached Stanislas and his first-time shot ricocheted off Davinson Sanchez. With Lloris flying to his right post, the ball deflected inches past the opposite upright for a corner.
The France goalkeeper also saved with his legs when former Spurs star Jermain Defoe, on as a late sub, shot at the near post with only his second touch.
‘Hugo was unbelievable,’ Pochettino said, then reiterating his overall point. ‘The collective performance was good, I’m happy. When Harry’s scored, it’s Harry; when Hugo saves, it’s Hugo; Or it’s Toby or Sanchez or Vertonghen, who were fantastic too. The effort always is collective and the happiness when you win is the squad happiness. The players who were helping us on the bench, the players out injured, are so happy and are working hard and wishing always the best for the team.’
Without Kane’s contribution Spurs were inventive but indecisive in the first half. Dele Alli flicked into Eriksen’s path and were it not for the Dane’s poor touch he would have had a shooting chance but Simon Francis cleared. A left handside corner was played deep to Eriksen on the right corner of the box and his touch and sublime halfvolley picked out Alli, who tried to turn the ball in with an outrageous backheel over the bar.
Kane was involved in the goal, obviously, although his part was minor. The striker passed to Heungmin Son, who played the ball on to Eriksen. He ran into Simon Francis, but as the Bournemouth defender slid in the ball bobbled fortuitously back into the Dane’s path. Eriksen tucked it into the bottom left corner.
‘We kept them so quiet in the first half, then out of nothing they scored and we contributed to our own downfall,’ Howe admitted.
Kane thought he had netted his 16th goal in all competitions just before the hour when his simple header from Kieran Trippier’s cross beat Begovic, but he was rightly ruled offside. A few minutes later he was one-on-one but delayed a shot until the last moment, allowing Begovic to block. Alli passed back to his team-mate but Kane was tackled. This time it was not all about Harry Kane.