AFC Bournemouth (Home) 09.03.2025

The returning Cristian Romero was culpable inside the first 14 minutes of a sloppy (and I’m being generous) pass across the box that went straight to Evanilson just outside the D and he had a clear shot at goal from a central position that fortunately Guglielmo Vicario got down to his left to touch wide of the post.  The Spurs keeper came to the rescue and it wasn’t to be the last time in the game.  There was four minute son the clock when the first booking of the match came.  Christie slipped when on the ball and Pape Matar Sarr took possession, knocking a short pass to Wilson Odobert, who was away when tripped by Tavernier inside the Tottenham half.  When the referee pulled the card out, Tavernier was in his face and had to be pushed away by the official … and they wonder why they don’t get “respect” when they allow that aggressive dissent to go unpunished.  But this wasn’t to be the only occasion that the ref failed to produce a second yellow in the match, as his handling of the game was erratic to say the least.

From the free-kick the ball went back to Romero, who played a hospital ball to Yves Bissouma, who was being pressed by two red and black shirts.  Kluivert got the bouncing ball off him (maybe with a hint of handball) and was inside the box with only Vicario to beat, but the Italian got down to keep the ball out with his feet as he dived to his left and when the ball came back in, Vic was up and able to stop Tavernier’s header that was on target but at a head-height for the goalie to save.  It was a mad opening five minutes and Spurs needed to settle down.

When we started to put some passes together, it opened up the Cherries’ defence.  Djed Spence played a pass from near the side-line with the outside of his right foot that went in behind Lewis Cook and only a covering tackle by Adams prevented a dangerous ball into the goalmouth at the expense of a corner.  Solanke got something on it at the far post putting the ball back towards goal, but it was cleared from in front of the line.  Adams twice took Spurs players down from behind, with Brennan Johnson and Rodrigo Bentancur both being fouled within a minute of each other.

While Odobert looked to have the beating of makeshift right back Cook, a move down that side came back to Bissouma, who moved it quickly to Bentancur on the edge of the box, his pass into the area was behind Sarr, but he recovered to set up Yves for a shot that was blocked in front of goal.  When a cross from Porro was fisted out by Kepa, Bournemouth worked the ball out of defence with Tavernier picking out Kluivert with a cross-field pass and he took on Romero, winning a free-kick a yard outside the box when the Spurs skipper stuck out a leg for him to go over.  It looked a worrying position but the effort from Tavernier hit the wall, but when the ball came back towards the Spurs goal, Evanilson tried a donkey kick that Vicario had to go to ground to grab. 

Porro managed to conjure up a cross from hardly any space, but Solanke couldn’t get much purchase on his near post header to trouble Kepa, but Pedro’s crosses were causing issues, with a free-kick for a foul on him by Semenyo that the Bournemouth man questioned the referee about finding Romero at the far post, but again, it wasn’t a clean contact.  It was a surprise that the second booking of the game came for Bentancur when he got to Kerkes a little late and while making a genuine attempt for the ball came down on the top of the Bournemouth player’s boot.  If that was the standard of what was a yellow card, the referee set himself a low bar to maintain throughout the rest of the match (which, incidentally, he didn’t). 

Almost immediately, Kluivert hauled down Bissouma after the ball had been taken off him, with this being the third niggly foul the Cherries striker had made, but the ref decided that a free-kick was all that was to be given.  Surprisingly, when Kerkes went straight through the back of Johnson, he only got a talking to.  Amazingly a quick throw-in by Spence put Odobert in behind Cook and his pass to the far side of the box was a good idea, with Johnson free, but it was over-hit.

Four minutes before half-time, a ball wide from Porro, who was infield, to Johnson was cut out and Kerkes was away down the left.  Running from 10 yards outside his box to ten yards outside the Tottenham area, he crossed over the men in the middle and Spence failed to track Tavernier’s run and he hit a low volley past Vicario to make it 1-0 to Bournemouth.  It is the way Bournemouth play to catch teams out on the break and it paid off for them.

Just before half-time, Bissouma took a heavy touch under pressure and hauled down Evanilson on halfway, being shown the yellow card for the foul.  Kluivert had knocked him off balance, but it was the grab at the Bournemouth number 9 that earned the booking.  The boos rang out from some of those in the Spurs sections.

Ange shook things up at half-time, with Lucas Bergvall and Heung-Min Son being brought on in place of Bissouma and Johnson.  Lucas soon had a free-kick given against him as he put an arm out to protect the ball and Kerkes ran into it holding his face after he had move it the Swede’s arm rather than the other way around.  Spurs were closing down quicker after the break and Romero’s pass up to Odobert cannoned off a red and black shirt, but Solanke won the ball in the air to set Wilson away on the right.  His pull back was behind Dominic at the near post and away from Sarr and Son deeper in the box, which produced a scramble with Son and Solanke unable to get the ball under control.  Adams took the ball out of the box and he out the ball around Bergvall, then Porro up to Semenyo who returned the pass.  Evanilson made a run outside on the right and his low ball across the box was thumped home by Kluivert, unmarked 12 yards out in the centre of the box.  Just when the boo-boys were getting ready to find their voice, VAR ruled it out as Semenyo had come back from an offside position in the move.

This actually got some encouragement out of the Spurs fans but Kluivert was still perpetuating his run of petty fouls which the referee wasn’t adding up.  Quite how they will enforce this new eight-second rule for keepers holding onto the ball to stop time-wasting, I will never know.  Tottenham strung a move together that found Son outside the box on the left.  He drifted infield along the 18 yard line and bent a low shot towards the far post that left Kepa standing and the ball must have taken a flick on the way, as it went off the outside of the post and a corner was awarded.  Danso met the corner with his head, but it was an easy catch for Kepa.  Bentancur was on the receiving end as Cook tackled and caught Rodrigo high up on his shin with this studs.  A potentially more harmful challenge than Bentancur’s booking, right in front of the fourth official but a Bournemouth throw was the only outcome.      

Just after the hour, Romero was taken off giving him a good run-out on his first game back and Bentancur, having just been studded in the shin and on a booking was replaced by James Maddison.  Immediately, a cross-field pass to Semenyo saw him supported by Kerkes and a ball behind allowed the Hungarian to hit a fierce shot to the near top corner, which Vicario had to push onto the post.  Pape Matar Sarr had a great chance when Maddison and Son exchanged passes for James to roll the ball in front of him in the box, but he pulled his shot wide.  It was costly, as Bournemouth moved up the other end and a ball inside to Kluivert was allowed to run across his body, taking Kevin Danso out of the game and his little pass into the box found Evanilson running beyond Bergvall to dink his shot over Vicario who had gone to ground to double the Cherries’ lead in the 65th minute.  It was a slick move and one that was a little too easily allowed by Tottenham.  So, with 25 minutes left, Spurs needed to score twice to get a point out of the game, when it had been a struggle to find the net to this point.

It wasn’t for the want of trying by Lucas Bergvall that we almost got back into the game immediately, with a shot from more than 25 yards out bouncing out off the foot of Kepa’s right hand post when a foot the other way it would have tested the keeper.  When it came to it, the keeper wasn’t up to a test, as Spurs worked the ball up the right wing with Pape in space.  He saw Dominic’s run to the near post, but what was intended as a cross soared over Kepa’s head an into the net off the far post to draw Spurs back into the match.  It was the response that we had hoped for but not in quite the fashion we had imagined.  Coming a couple of minutes after going two behind, it was the boost that the team and the fans needed. 

Straight away there was a new urgency about our play, with Sarr easing past Semenyo, how dragged him back, as many Bournemouth players had done to Spurs players previously in the game.  He got the booking, but the links to an interest from Spurs in the days running up to the game were hard to believe as his performance was poor.  What was also poor was Vicario’s footwork when Bergvall played the ball back to him and he took it back towards the goal-line and only just managed to play it away before Evanilson got to him.  Adams got away with a two hand shove on Maddison when he wriggled past him.  Iraola brought off Christie and Evanilson with Outarra and Scott replacing them.  It almost brought about a goal when Maddison lost the ball in the centre circle, Bournemouth quickly moved the ball to Kluivert on the right and from inside the box he put a low shot across Vicario that hit the base of the far post. 

With the support behind the Spurs goal howling to play the ball long, Micky van de Ven played it up the left to Son, who turned it inside for Spence.  He passed to Maddison, who looked as though he got the ball stuck under his feet but managed to squeeze it out and play a pass forward for Son ,who got to it in the box, but as Kepa rushed out, he took the South Korean down and the referee pointed to the penalty spot.  So, playing out from the back can beat the press when players are alert to the opportunity.  There was the customary VAR that confirmed the on-pitch decision and player after player confronted the ref to delay the taking of the spot-kick (isn’t that a bookable offence too ?) and Iraola with his perfect view of the incident wagged his finger to say it shouldn’t have been given.  Anyway, Dom took hold of the ball while the Bournemouth players gave him backchat, then handed the ball to Sonny, who waited until Kepa went to his left and Son sent the ball gently down the middle to level the score with six minutes to play. 

When Vicario plucked a cross out of the air and was sizing up his options, Maddison ran upfield and wanted the ball, but was pushed in the chest by Huijsen and then went after the central defender and pushed him over on halfway.  The referee saw what happened as he was close by and booked both players, giving Spurs a free-kick where the first offence took place.  When play continued, the ball was won by the Cherries, who played it forward and infield to Brooks, who took a massive dive over Danso’s leg, which he withdrew, but play was waved on.  Semenyo then fouled Spence while Huijsen, who had been booked a minute later kicked the ball up the pitch after the whistle had gone, which I thought was a bookable offence.  But . of course, that would have meant sending him off and facing the wrath of the Bournemouth manager, so he let it pass.

By the end, Solanke was out on his feet. Not having played for a month, he had closed down while some of his team-mates hadn’t applied the same energy.  It got nervy as Bournemouth continued to push forward, but Spence, Udogie and Sarr all made important interceptions on the edge of our box to prevent any more efforts on the Tottenham goal and to see out a 2-2 draw.  We don’t draw many matches and that probably speaks volumes for our current position.  Losing and winning might be better points wise than drawing a lot of games, but you have to balance the wins against the losses by nicking points here and there instead of going away from a match with nothing. 

Our passing was aimed at where players thought team-mates were going to be rather than knowing exactly where they were, so possession was turned over at regular intervals.  The amount of times Spurs players exhibited loose control also allowed moves to break down and let Bournemouth turn the possession into attacks.  The press was not doubt responsible for this, but there were times when we played around it, with the key to opening up the space is by players moving to receive the ball.  And that’s not just the first pass, but looking to make space to allow the player taking the pass to move it on.  That was why things changed after the break with Lucas Bergvall finding pockets of space between the defence and the forwards.  Most of the game there was a massive disconnect between the defence and the forwards, with a huge space for the ball to drop into when cleared, but no white shirt there to pick the ball up.  The time that Lucas had allowed him to make progressive runs and passes that made us look a lot better.

There are times that our play in transition is too slow and with a side working hard like Bournemouth, they could get plenty of players back behind the ball.  Shaper passing or players running with the ball is the way to quicken the play and that is where Spence and Odobert can be integral to that happening.  Kevin does well moving the ball out of defence sometimes, but movement by Spurs players off the ball can stretch the opposition and create openings for passes or for the man on the ball to carry on with their run.  Pape Sarr’s running with the ball also commits the other team’s players to engage with him, thus making space for others that should be used to our advantage.

For all the praise that Bournemouth get they weren’t anything special, while we weren’t either.  They scored three good goals – one of them offside – but apart from being gifted chances, there weren’t too many other opportunities that they created.  They work hard all over the pitch and press hard, which is where their success has come from, but there is an element of the dark arts about their play.  Asking for Spurs players to be booked, which I thought was a bookable offence or is that another short-term punishment that has been forgotten about ?  Time-wasting, questioning every decision both on the pitch and off it with Iraola in the fourth official’s ear the whole time.  Fouls that are not bad enough for a booking in the referee’s eyes but break up play and you can say that is what successful sides do, but why don’t referees stamp it out so that there is a level playing field.   Bentancur’s booking could have equally been met by three of four of the visiting players being shown yellow cards for tackles from behind that endanger players safety.

The league season is petering out with relegation all but avoided and not a chance of qualifying for Europe through a league placing, so all attention turns to the Europa League match against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

• Rodrigo Bentancur made his 100th Spurs appearance.