AFC Bournemouth (Away) 07.01.2026

Both sides sat in the bottom half, with Spurs making five changes from Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland and they started proceedings.  Micky van de Ven was alert to come around to cut off a ball for Evanilson and then the Dutchman played a straight ball into the Bournemouth half for Rodrigo Bentancur and took it to his right for Lucas Bergvall who tried a 25 yard effort that swerved and bounced in front of Petrovic but he recovered it after being unable to hold the initial shot.  Spurs attacked along the left wing, Xavi Simons played a smart back-heel that put Mathys Tel away on the right,  There didn’t look like there was much on, but the French youngster came inside past Hill and aimed a shot at the far side of the goal, which went in off the heel of Lewis Cook as it went low into the bottom corner of the net.

A long ball looked for Evanilson, but he could only knee it over and wide just before Tavernier tried a shot from outside the box that curled away past Vicario’s left hand post.  Kroupi missed a golden chance, squirting his shot wide from in front of goal but Evanilson had been offside before pulling the ball back to him.

A good diagonal pass from Spence on the left to Kolo Muani on the right produced a shot for Pedro Porro that was blocked for a corner, but while it found Cristian Romero at the far post, a foul gave a free-kick to Bournemouth.

From a throw, Spurs put together a good move with first-time passing that won another corner that Romero won at the near post, glancing it just a foot over the bar.  Play  moved towards the Spurs goal and Evanilson was played into the box on the right side and Romero went with him to block his effort wide.  This one saw Evanilson get his header at the near post all wrong, but in the second phase, the Brazilian’s header from a right wing cross was glanced well away from Vicario to make it 1-1.

After Spurs worked the ball down the left, Djed passed inside to Lucas, who pushed the ball out of his feet and let fly from 20 yards, with the ball going narrowly over the far corner.  A long cross from Tavernier on the right went all the way through the box to Senesi, who turned it back into the  goalmouth and Kroupi turned it in at the near post with his left foot from a couple of yards out.  He looked offside when Semenyo touched the cross on, but onside behind the ball when it was returned into the box.

A Bergvall long throw was cleared to Porro and played back to him, with lots of space, everyone was expecting a cross, but he went for a shot to the keeper’s near post, but he got down behind it to beat it out.  After such a promising start, it was disappointing that we had to turn around a goal down.  It wasn’t for the want of attacking, but the loose possession meant that the Cherries had been handed possession too often.

The second half started in a subdued fashion and just before the hour, Bergvall went down with what looked like a thigh muscle pull and he punched the ground in frustration as he knew that he would have to go off.   Wilson Odobert came on for the Swede and he made a run into the box that petered out, but Cook smashed the ball against Truffert and the Spurs sub knocked it back into the box where it came out to Simons.  His shot was blocked and even though it was played out right to Porro, he couldn’t beat the man closing him down with his cross.

Quick bookings for Porro and Kolo Muani were followed by a foul five yards outside the D that substitute Unal hit the wall with.  With 25 minutes left, Richarlison replaced Kolo Muani as Frank looked to liven things up in attack.

Djed and Odobert did well to link up down the left and it was laid into Palhinha’s path, but Scott deflected his shot wide for a corner.  Romero won it at the far post and Richi won a header that bounced out off the base of the goalpost.  Straight away, the home team broke on the left with Semenyo and his low ball into the area was stopped by Spence, but it left Unai in space with Brooks free to his right, he decided to turn and have a shot himself that ended up well wide of the Spurs goal.

With twenty minutes left, Micky ran forward from halfway and Brooks dived in from behind and Hill was in front making contact, with the referee pointing to the spot.  VAR turned it over as you would expect.  Micky got a yellow for dissent and Shaun Cooper, the Bournemouth coach was also yellow carded.  Jiminez then took Tel out without any intention of going for the ball and when Spurs took the quick free-kick, Tel’s bent in cross won a corner.  It went up in the air, bounced down ahead of the near post up high and Joao Palhinha performed a perfect overhead kick that flew into the far side of the goal to level it up at 2-2.  Game on !

Porro fired in another cross following a cleared free-kick and Hill headed it out for a corner.  It went long again, with Romero nodding it back into the middle again, with Micky heading it towards the top corner, although it was kept out by a fine stop from Petrovic.  In the follow up, Cristian headed just too high.  Joao Palhinha went down after blocking a shot that twisted his ankle and Bentancur was also down and had to be replaced by Archie Gray with three minutes remaining.

Nine minutes extra had to be played after the 90, and a minute into it, Romero won two crunching tackles in his own half and released Odobert down the right.  When the ball was lost and played out, it was Cristian who took possession again, swapped passes with Wilson and ran into Scott, who didn’t move out of his way and it was the Spurs captain who was penalised for it.

Romero did well to block Semenyo’s shot when he turned in the box and the ball ran out to Brooks, who fired his effort into the crowd.  A loose pass by Spence in the Bournemouth half allowed the home team to launch an attack down the left with Brooks setting up Semenyo coming inside to fire a low shot fading away across Vicario to find the opposite bottom corner.  Spurs were slow to close down the scorer and it is not the first time this has happened this season.

Cue more unseemly scenes at the end of the match, with van de Ven and Palhinha exchanging heated words with the baying fans at the front following the final whistle.  Frustrating admittedly, but it was an improvement on recent matches and while it is difficult to see where this season is going, at least the crowd were behind the team during the game.  From my point of view it is also hard to see what pissing them off after the game was finished will do.  

• Spurs wore black armbands to mark the death of Martin Chivers.