Champions League? You’re having a laugh
Comical Spurs defending makes mockery of top-four hopes
AT half-time, the cameras panned to a young Spurs fan who could hold back the tears no longer. Antonio Conte knew exactly how the lad felt.
If the Italian thought Wednesday night’s first half against Southampton was bad, then God knows what he thought about his team’s deplorable showing during the opening 45 minutes here.
They improved, marginally, in the second half — but that was all too little too late.
Tottenham got exactly what they deserved: a depressing defeat — one that raises serious questions of their top-four credentials.
After a promising start to his reign, Conte is discovering exactly how sizeable the rebuild is going to be at Tottenham, who have now lost three consecutive Premier League games.
Wolves were excellent, take nothing away from Bruno Lage’s team. Raul Jimenez was unplayable, 19-year-old Luke Cundle — on his first Premier League start — swaggered around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium like he owned the place and Conor Coady was being Conor Coady in the heart of Wolves’ back three.
But they were given a huge helping hand courtesy of a feeble display from their opponents, most notably from Hugo Lloris, who made two uncharacteristic errors to hand Wolves three points.
It is back to the drawing board for Conte, who made the big call of dropping Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. You would imagine Hojbjerg would have had minimal bearing on the outcome, Tottenham were that bad.
Don’t worry Antonio, it is only Manchester City next.
When Kevin Friend blew for the break, with Spurs 2-0 down, the whistle was greeted by a cacophony of jeers for the second time in five days.
They were poor against Southampton in the first half on Wednesday night but these depths were alarming. They were lucky it was only two.
The opener arrived in the sixth minute, Jimenez hammering home a sweet volley after two unconvincing saves from Lloris, the first from Ruben Neves and the second from Nelson Semedo. There would have been no finger-pointing in the French goalkeeper’s direction. Rightly so, he has been Spurs’ saviour more times than they would care to remember. But this was far from vintage Lloris. Had Son Heung-min not tried to be too precise when sent clear by Rodrigo Bentancur in the 16th minute then perhaps the first half would have developed in Tottenham’s favour. The reality was far more painful. Once more Lloris was at the centre of his team’s woes as Wolves extended their lead. He miscued a routine pass out to Ben Davies, whose clearance was just as unsatisfactory in the 18th minute. Seconds later the ball was in the back of the net, Leander Dendoncker bundling home after more comical defending that saw Bentancur and Davinson Sanchez get themselves in a real mess.
Conte, stony faced, just stood there. Almost motionless. This was harrowing for Tottenham.
It was about to get worse for Ryan Sessegnon, who was replaced in the 28th minute by Dejan Kulusevski. The youngster’s deflated face said it all and Conte’s attempts to console him with a pat on the back hardly eased his embarrassment.
Sessegnon appears to have a future under Conte but this could take a while to overcome.
Harry Kane fired wide before being denied by Romain Saiss’ last-ditch tackle in the 39th minute. For Tottenham’s struggles, Kane actually looks to be approaching his best form.
That, on a disastrous afternoon, will provide solace for Conte.
But it is a case of ifs, buts and maybes for Spurs at the moment. It certainly was against Wolves.
Had Daniel Podence not squandered a big opportunity after Harry Winks’ error just before the break then who knows how the home fans would have reacted.
In fairness to Spurs, at least they rallied in the second period. Kane, Winks and Son all went close as they threw caution to the wind.
Jose Sa produced an excellent instinctive save from Cristian Romero’s bullet header in the 88th minute as they at least tried to muster a response.
By then though the stadium was half-empty, probably a blessing for Tottenham’s players who were treated with the same disdain by fans as they were at half-time.
The damage was done in the opening 20 minutes. Question is: how much damage has this caused to Tottenham’s Champions League chances?
TOTTENHAM (3-4-3): Lloris 4.5; Sanchez 5, Romero 6, Davies 5; Doherty 5.5 (Royal 82min), Winks 6, Bentancur 6, Sessegnon 5 (Kulusevski 28, 5.5); Moura 5 (Bergwijn 71, 5.5), Kane 6.5, Son 6.5. Booked: Bentancur, Kulusevski, Moura. Manager: Antonio Conte 6. WOLVES (3-5-2): Sa 6.5; Kilman 8, Coady 8, Saiss 8; Semedo 7.5, Dendoncker 7.5, Neves 8, Cundle 7.5 (Trincao 84), Ait-Nouri 8; Podence 7.5 (Hwang 81), JIMENEZ 8.5 (Fabio Silva 86). Scorers: Jimenez 6, Dendoncker 18. Booked: Ait-Nouri. Manager: Bruno Lage 8. Referee: Kevin Friend 6.5. Attendance: 56,452.