Sheffield United (Home) 02.05.2021

Many games this season have seen Tottenham lose points in matches they should have won, but relegated Sheffield United looked a sorry side and if we had not beaten them, it would have been time to pack it in.  A 4-0 score-line did not flatter Spurs, as they had many chances – 11 on target – and were denied another goal by VAR, which also failed to send off John Fleck for a stamp on Giovani Lo Celso’s head.

The two interim managers made changes from their last matches – Sheffield’s a win over Brighton and Tottenham’s defeat by Manchester City – with points of more importance to Spurs.  In came Bale and Dele for Winks and Moura, as Ryan Mason looked to make Spurs a more threatening attacking force.

Sheffield United kicked off and soon had the ball in the Spurs penalty area, with a cross-field pass being played back into the box before Aurier cleared it, but their defence was slack when they tried to play it out. Reguilon intercepted, found Son and his ball into the area  found Harry Kane to volley at goal. Ramsdale was out quick at his feet and the offside flag Was raised anyway, but it was a nice link-up between our two main forwards. Lo Celso played a similar pass in behind Baldock, who didn’t realise Regi was running in behind him and the Spaniard only just failed to get a touch on it that would have put it past the keeper, who had come out to claim it.

David McGoldrick tried a shot from the edge of the Spurs area when he picked up the ball and ran at the defence, but he dragged it wide and then Tottenham had long spells of passing the ball around without creating any dangerous situations. One of the more effective chain of passes came when Lloris had the ball and the Blades decided to press hard on the Spurs penalty area. Playing the ball out, it took three passes to find Gareth Bale on the right wing and he came inside to shoot, but the ball was always rising. Then a different sort of attack saw Alderweireld’s long diagonal pass hit Dele running into the box and he looked to head it across for the unmarked Son but couldn’t quite get over the ball. Having been overlooked for so long, Dele looked like he was making some of the old moves he did when he was on the top of his game. With his new dreadlocks and headband, he looked a bit like a thinner version of Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze !

Fifteen minutes into the game, Aurier won the ball coming in from the right and he slid it left to Son, whose low shot was well pushed wide by Aaron Ramsdale. Then Egan gave the ball away and in trying to get it back, he went in late on Son. Play went on and Kane chopped the ball to Baldock’s left, leaving the defender on the floor in the box, but saw his left foot shot kicked away by Basham although it didn’t have a great deal of power and was going wide. Next, it was Baldock’s turn to pass the ball straight to Hojbjerg and his lofted dink over the defence was just too long for Son to reach, having just returned to the field after a bit of treatment to his ankle.

A nice move in the 25 th minute between Son and Reguilon saw the ball pulled back to the edge of the box from the left and Kane was free, but he shot too high. Brewster gave the ball away on the attack, but then Lo Celso handed it back to United and only a poor cross straight to Hugo prevented a threat on the Tottenham goal. Sheffield United were getting plenty of green shirts behind the ball, adopting more of a 5-3-2 formation when Spurs had it, but the fast tempo that we had started at had dropped off.

On 30 minutes, Brewster had a shot that curved away from goal so much, it only just went off for a goal-kick and the striker failed to attack a dangerous Norwood cross a few minutes after his miss.  It was another string of passes that led to the opening goal of the game. A pass down the inside of the right-hand side of the penalty area saw Kane released and he tried to pull it back for Son, but the ball was intercepted. It went 25 yards out to Serge Aurier and he lifted a very well weighted pass over the back-line and Gareth Bale was onto it moving to the right. As Ramsdale came out to him, he lifted the ball back over the keeper in a similar fashion to Tanguy Ndombele in the away fixture to guide the ball into the net to finally break the defensive blockade.

Dele was showing his hunger as he took the ball off Bogle and as Norwood came to join the party, the Spurs man nut-megged him and was away. The move lead to Bogle pushing Son in the back 25 yards out and Kane and Bale stood over the dead ball. Harry took it and hit the wall but got the rebound, which he drove well wide. Moving the ball quicker, Spurs cut through again and Lo Celso got under his shot from 18 yards as he looked to curl it into the top corner of the goal, but only succeeded in curling it into the top corner of the Paxton Road seats. He did better when Aurier played another deft ball over the defenders and Gio’s touch looking for Son inside him was cut out. Dele had a shot from just outside the area, but the keeper took it head high as Spurs looked for a second in added time.

It was a bit of a pedestrian first half, with Tottenham the only side looking to attack, but one goal is never enough for us and the second half would need to see a more concerted effort to put distance between the two teams.

No sooner had the second half started with Sheffield making two substitutions, Fleck stamped on Lo Celso’s head and VAR bottled it with no red card decision made, even though Gio had three stud marks on the side of his face. Not even a yellow.  Graeme Souness had been talking earlier on Sky about VAR decisions being made by people who don’t understand the game and it was clear that Fleck looked at where Lo Celso was on the floor and put his foot down. It all lead to a Sheffield United attack, with Baldock going down in the box as he looked to shoot.

It looked like it wouldn’t matter as Spurs seemed to have moved two goals ahead when Son ran off the back of Basham on the halfway line to get on the end of Alderweireld’s pass and moved left to fire the ball past Ramsdale at his near post. This time VAR did come up with a decision, with Son marginally offside. It seems like they can deal with matters of fact but making a judgement on anything else is distinctly suspect. Bale tried a drive from 35 yards, but it was straight at the keeper. United looked sharper and were looking to get forward, enjoying more possession than Spurs.

It was from a Sheffield corner that Spurs DID double their lead. With it being cleared to Son by Aurier, he beat Stevens to the ball, beat Osbourn to the ball and then beat fleck to the ball. He looked up and played the ball across into the centre of the pitch from the right for Bale to run from inside his own half to take it to the edge of the box and give Ramsdale the eyes. The keeper went to his right and the ball went into the top left-hand corner of his goal. The finish was classy, but Gareth even had the presence of mind to move it left knowing Basham was coming up behind him and he wouldn’t be able to make a challenge without bringing him down before he shot.

With 64 minutes gone, Burke got in behind the Spurs defence on the right to pull a low ball back into the area and Norwood jumped over it leaving Fleck to have his side’s first shot on target that went straight at Hugo and made it a simple catch.

As the ball was moved around well, leaving Sheffield United players chasing shadows, Serge and Dele exchanged passes on the right, with Aurier coming infield from the wing, he laid a pass into Gareth’s path and without having to break stride, he drilled his shot through the diving Basham’s legs from just outside the area low to the keeper’s left to wrap up his hat-trick. It was a well worked move and even though it is against a side who are already relegated, Bale’s involvement might make it worth keeping him on next season.

Son played a corner in low to the near post and Toby tried to flick it on, but it brought another corner.  This was played in higher and Basham headed it out for another corner. This one was played in low and Toby flicked it at goal again, with Ramsdale grasping it at his near post. It wasn’t quite laying siege to the United goal, but the ball was only going one way up the pitch. Serge got a touch on the ball, then Dele won a tackle, with the ball going to Steven Bergwijn, who had just come on for Bale. He ran forward and played it to his left, where Son was on the corner of the box. His touch left him clear of Stevens and without even looking at the goal, he curled a precise shot over the fallen Basham and wide of the keeper to take it in off the left-hand post for number four.

Osbourn had a shot that Regi blocked well and then Burke put a ball across the face of goal, but the Blades had nobody there to apply the necessary touch and it went off on the other side of the goal after taking a touch off Eric Dier. Hojbjerg headed away a Norwood cross for another corner, but it was defended well. Berge won another corner off Reguilon, but Berge handled it when it came into the box.  When Spurs got forward, a long, long passage of possession saw Regi get the ball on the edge of the box, but his touch let the ball get away from him to have a shot and he tried to slip it through to Kane, who hit it wide from an offside position.

If VAR didn’t have it in for us tonight, it was as if Marriner had great sympathy for Sheffield United’s plight, with over-zealous challenges and pushes, but when Hojbjerg tackled Fleck late it was an instant booking. Consistency is a thing we can only dream of from referees.

In added time, Lamela and Kane created an opportunity for Reguilon running in the left hand channel and with only Ramsdale to beat, he put his shot just wide to the keeper’s right, when a shot across him might have brought his first Spurs goal. .

The size of the win and the victory itself must be judged against the strength of the opposition.  A 4-0 win over Sheffield United might have been about right if you looked at the game on paper, but Tottenham have had difficulty in seeing off weaker opposition in the past, so a four goal win must be regarded as about standard.  Another Yorkshire side await next Saturday, so a performance to match the philosophy that Marcelo Bielsa has instilled in the Leeds team will be needed to get anything out of the match.  Leeds like to attack, but that can leave them vulnerable at the back, so as long as we get one more goal than them, it will be a good day out !

Barry Levington

Gareth Bale’s first goal was the club’s 100th scored against Sheffield United in home matches.
Gareth Bale’s third goal took him to 50 Premier League career goals.