South Coast Big Club (away) 20.09.2020

The stereotypical game of two halves were on display at St. Marys this afternoon, as Spurs transformed from a timid first half team that allowed the South Coast Big Club to look just that, before they underwent the change in the interval and came out looking like a killing machine that earned a 5-2 away win, when in truth the score could have been anything and 9-4 in our favour wouldn’t have been an absurd final score-line. 

Jose Mourinho’s decision to leave Dele Alli out of the squad was being questioned by the pundits before the game and his inclusion of Tanguy Ndombele in his place raised eyebrows.  Toby also was out, but on the bench, while Davinson Sanchez came in to replace him alongside Eric Dier.  Southampton were looking to respond to their first day defeat by Crystal Palace, with that being followed by a League Cup exit at the hands of Brentford.

It was a sunny afternoon in Hampshire and with the first attack of the match, Tottenham had the ball in the net. Dier’s long ball up the left sent Son away and although his cross was headed away, Doherty won a header for the loose ball and Harry Kane struck a falling volley from six yards out  through McCarthy’s legs to put Spurs ahead in two and a half minutes. Well, it would have been, but VAR judged Son marginally offside and so it was back to 0-0.

Oriol Romeu put in a poor challenge on Hojbjerg and rightly got a yellow card and it might have warranted an orange card, if such a thing existed. However, it was a free-kick the other way that nearly saw SCBC score. It was played in from the left to the far post, where it bobbled around and dropped on the penalty spot for Che Adams to put a decent shot in that Hugo Lloris somehow smuggled over the bar. It was a very good save, but Adams did hit it straight at Hugo and it was the Spurs captain’s reflexes that did the trick to keep it goal-less with 10 minutes gone.

Ndombele played a ball through the middle for Kane, who thought he was offside, so left it for Son, who forced a save when one-on-one with the keeper, but then he was flagged offside too. Fifteen minutes in and it was the home team’s turn to have a goal disallowed. A long ball through the middle saw Hugo Lloris dive into a header 25 yards from his goal, but it hit Ings, who recovered his balance and stroked the ball into an empty net. Unfortunately for him, the linesman has spotted a handball as the ball came off Lloris’ head and VAR confirmed his eyesight was 20-20 and we were back to 0-0.

Five minutes later, Djenepo took Doherty on close to the dead ball line and put the ball into the goalmouth, where it come to Adams, who took a touch to out Ben Davies on the floor, but he delayed his shot and Ben stretched out a leg to deflect it for a corner. It was another free-kick after another five minutes that SCBC seized on a clearance and Djenepo to shoot from the edge of the box and the ball went out for a goal-kick off the foot of the post. A minute later, it was another disallowed goal. Kane put the ball away from Moura’s square ball, but Lucas had been offside when he received Doherty’s ball up the right wing.

Long ball down their right in behind Dier from Walker-Peters and Ings latches onto it, took it early and struck it low into the bottom corner on the other side of the goal. That goal signified that we have been behind in each game this season so far and really, on the balance of play, the home team probably were worthy of the goal. We are often slow starters as far as the season is concerned and now it looks like we are slow starters in games as well.

Ward-Prowse got booked for a series of fouls, the last of which was an overly aggressive elbow thrown into Hojbjerg as he was trying to teach him a lesson for leaving such a big club on the South Coast. After half-time, the Premier League cleared up any misunderstanding (the Premier League … surely not !) that it had been Bertrand who had been booked, but nobody was quite sure what for.

Ben Davies won a header at the back, when the ball went up in the air and Tanguy Ndombele turned away from the pedestrian Ward-Prowse with a great bit of skill allowing him to play the ball out to Kane on the left. Harry’s first-time ball across the penalty area was to Son, who drove it back across McCarthy to level the score seconds before the end of added time. It was a goal that was desperately needed and it was a fine finish that equalled that of the Southampton goal-scorer.

A minute into the second half, Armstrong got in space on the left and his pull-back to Adams saw him shoot low, but again it was straight at Lloris. It was to prove costly, within just a minute, as Spurs took the lead.  Hojbjerg cut a ball out on the right wing and played it inside to Lo Celso, who was on for Ndombele. He slipped it forward with a short pass to Kane and Harry moved it quickly through to Son.  Stephens looked favourite to get to the ball 25 yards out, but Sonny nipped past him and left him lumbering behind as he runs in on goal and finished left-footed to McCarthy’s right.

Straight from the restart, Spurs were getting a lot of white shirts back behind the ball. Armstrong fired over the bar coming in from their right wing and Ward-Prowse struck a 25 yard shot at Hugo, before Romeu kicked Lo Celso’s ankle from behind, dicing with the referee who had already booked him for something similar. This precipitated Hassenhutl replacing him before he did get sent off, with the best comedy name for a Premier League footballer – Willie Smallbone.   

With 54 minutes gone, Spurs looked to break away when Son won a header at the back and Kane picked up the ball ten yards inside his own half. Looking up, he tried to lob the keeper, but it finished way off target.  Ings made headway into the Spurs area before pulling it back to Armstrong, whose low shot was kept out by Lloris’ legs, but the usual late flag put Ings offside at the start of the move. Lloris almost put Spurs in jeopardy, when he played a ball wide to Davinson Sanchez, but it was very tight to the dead ball line and he lost the ball, with Djenepo taking in on to dribble across the box, before Armstrong curled a shot over the bar. Then came the usual late flag for an off-side.  With Adams striking a shot across goal and wide from 15 yards, the forward was wasteful once more.

Sanchez’s ball played out from the back picked out Harry Kane just inside the attacking half and the England captain lifted the ball over the SCBC back four to Son, who ran from left to right and then got into the area, before sliding it past the keeper once more to notch his hat-trick. It was a move that was out of character with the Spurs performance today, but the quality and perceptiveness of Kane’s pass can’t be under-estimated and neither can the clinical finish, which was world-class from a player who just gets better and better.

Sonny almost got away when he got the wrong side of the home back line, but Kyle Walker-Peters managed to get a foot on the ball to halt his progress. The Saints worked the ball forward for substitute Tella to shoot five yards from 20 yards out, before Son took Dier’s ball over the top and put his finish shockingly wide, but it didn’t matter, as the usual late flag for offside came.  It didn’t matter, as Doherty won a header in his own half and it was played up to Harry Kane from Lamela’s touch on by Lo Celso. Without looking, he played the ball curled behind the defenders and who was running in to reach it ? Yes, Heung-Min Son. He took a touch and then fired it past McCarthy with his left foot going wide of the goal to the left and his first four goal haul for the club.

A quick throw-in caught out the sleepy defence and while he was held up, he played it to Lamela, who side-footed a weak shot straight at a defender.  When Spurs broke up a SCBC move, Kane played a superb pass 30 yards from his OWN goal through the middle to Lamela, who was through on the keeper, but McCarthy came out to clear the ball before Erik could get to it. Every time Tottenham got the ball – no matter where on the pitch – it looked like the Southampton defence could be found out, as another pass through to Lo Celso put them under pressure, but they managed to get the ball off him this time before he could get into shooting range.

With Spurs attacking at will, a long ball from right to left by Lo Celso picked out Lamela and he moved into the box, driving a shot across McCarthy, who got a hand to it and knocked it onto the post. When things are going against you, they really go against you, as SCBC found out with the ball falling in the six-yard box for Harry Kane to poach a goal of his own to go with his four assists. The sections holding the home fans has emptied long before this and their songs could not be heard on the fake soundtrack Sky put over the action. I would have thought they could have replayed some of the booing from their 0-9 home defeat by Leicester last season.

Shane Long, who had come on in a straight swap for the wretched Adams, headed a free-kick wide before Kane was given a breather being replaced by Bergwijn. Ward-Prowse struck a 25 yard free-kick straight into Hugo’s chest and then they wanted a penalty after the VAR official told the referee to look at a pitch-side monitor for a handball against Doherty in the box when it popped up and hit him. A penalty was given and Ings took it and scored down the middle. It was a joke decision and if that is the law that means referees are going to give penalties for these incidents, then it is bad law and the game is going to the dogs.

Even in the final minute of added time, Davies freed Bergwijn on the left and his cross-field ball allowed Giovani a shot that was blocked for a corner.

The final whistle brought to the end a week in which Tottenham had won two matches – one more convincingly than the other – but from the depths of despair of the opening day loss at home to Everton, this was a breath-taking display of assists and finishing that will make Bale and Reguilon wonder why they were needed in the first place.  

While the aggressive approach adopted by Hassenhutl’s side worked in the first half, with Spurs getting over-powered in midfield and the opposition creating chances, which they failed to capitalise on, but in the second, Mourinho had brought on Lo Celso, mainly to get around in midfield, which Ndombele for all his good work and passing, was not doing as effectively as the Argentinian can.  With the SCBC defence playing high up the pitch, they were trying to deny Tottenham any space to break into, as exemplified by the goals ruled out for offside.  They were close, but VAR and the linemen proved them to be correct.  However, it is a dangerous game to play, as the decisions were hairline a lot of the time and Jose had spotted that our forwards could beat this trap by playing Son through and the SCBC defenders too slow to catch him once away from them.

Kane’s passing link-up with Son allowed the chances to start coming and the one before half-time was a harbinger of doom for the Saints, who sinned regularly by failing to “smell the danger” and give no pressure on the ball when it was being played forward.  Hassenhutl’s intention to deny space by pressing hard had failed and he will be hard-pressed to get his players to tweak it in the short term, until they are at optimum fitness, which is a basic requirement to play this way.

Cashing in on the poor decision making and slowness of the back four, Spurs ran amok and wracked up a good score-line, only damaged by the laughable decision for the handball that gave Ings his second goal.  Many more of these and he will be up there challenging for the Golden Boot again, but he might have to be chasing Heung-Min if he can stay clear of injury.  It is a little bit frightening what the team might be able to achieve when Bale is added to the mix, but conversely, you have to hope that he doesn’t upset the balance of the side when they play this way.

It is a while before he will be fully fit and there are competitions to stay in until then.  Starting at Orient on Tuesday.

Kirk Hammerton

Players ‘took the knee’ before kick-off. Shirts bore a “No Room For Racism” logo.

Harry Kane became the first player to assist the same team-mate for four goals in a Premier League Match. and the first English player to make four assists in a Premier League match.

Heung-Min Son scores his first hat-trick (and four goal haul) in the Premier League.