‘VICTORY OVER LATICS DOWN TO LADY LUCK’
relied on to dig Spurs out of trouble, even though his late penalty here rescued a point.
The north Londoners will be in the Europa League next season unless they strengthen defensively next month.
Napoli colossus Kalidou Koulibaly wants out of the Italian club but might be too expensive, and has both Manchester clubs chasing him.
But Bournemouth’s Nathan
Ake could be available around £40million. So Benfica’s 22-year-old Ruben Dias. The options are there.
Without reinforcements the next six months are on course to become a whiteknuckle ride.
And at the end of it Spurs fans will have to brace themselves for disappointment for too
– a year after seeing their side in the Champions League final. Had Teemu Pukki’s goal stood, the Canaries would have been two up after Mario Vrancic’s opener. Instead VAR ruled Pukki (left) offside even though his feet were well on. The technology did Spurs a favour. Norwich still grabbed a second when dozy Serge Aurier turned the ball past his own keeper on 61 minutes.
That goal came shortly after Christian Eriksen had curled in a belter of a free-kick. And it was left to Kane to ensure Spurs were not embarrassed.
The dropped points masked a fine performance from Tanguy Ndombele, who appeared two moves in front of his opponents. And Erik Lamela’s cameo was also a source of consolation for Tottenham.
But Mourinho reminds you of the Pulp Fiction character Jules Winnfield as he tries “real hard” not to allow his anger to become “the guns of the Navarone” or “Superfly on TNT”.
The Spurs boss has a threshold for all the poor defending he is prepared to take. At any time he could blow. That time could be fast approaching.
SABRI LAMOUCHI said luck was on Nottingham Forest’s side after a nervy win over rock-bottom Wigan.
It took a second-half Tobias Figueiredo goal and a Brice Samba penalty save to send the Reds back into the play-off zone.
Their heroics ended a three-match winless streak at the City Ground for Forest. But a below-par team effort had Lamouchi counting his blessings.
“Wigan are a fantastic team who played much better than us and deserved more than nothing,” said the Forest boss.
“There was the penalty and also they had other chances. But to win like this, when you suffer and it is hard, is sometimes a good thing.
“I’m happy with the result, but not the way we played which was so bad – it’s nice to have Lady Luck on your side.”
Centre-back Figueiredo made the breakthrough for Forest, rising unmarked to meet sub Tiago Silva’s corner and beat Jamie Jones with a glancing header on the hour.
But Wigan raised their game and got a helping hand from Alfa Semedo when he hauled down sub Joe Gelhardt to give away a penalty. But Josh Windass failed to take advantage and saw a tame 79th-minute spot-kick easily saved by Samba down to his left.
There would be no way back for Wigan, now the only club yet to win away in the Championship.
Boss Paul Cook, whose Latics last won when they beat Forest at home in October, said: “The biggest thing in football is scoring goals and we’re not doing that anywhere near enough.”
NOTTINGHAM FOREST:
WIGAN:
REF:
MOTM
ATT:
TOBIAS FIGUEIREDO (NOTT’M FOREST)