Wolverhampton Wanderers (Away) 22.08.2021

A stubborn performance by Spurs edged this match, as they held onto the lead given by Dele Alli’s early penalty at Molineux against Wolves.

It was a vociferous Molineux crowd that welcomed their side after being allowed back into the stadium in numbers after the pandemic restricted crowds and the home side responded with a passionate start, but a few minutes in and Tanganga and Marcal went in for an aerial challenge that left them both on the floor needing treatment, but both players recovered to continue.

Traore looked like he was proving a point when he ran at the Spurs defence and got to the box before sending a ball across the area, but not to a yellow shirt.  Spurs hit back with a break when Bergwijn played the ball to Lucas, but his first touch allowed Coady to take the ball away from him, but when Ruben Neves gave the ball to Reguilon when he played a loose pass, Regi found Bergwijn, who returned to to the Spaniard and he played it into the box for Dele, who took the ball around goalkeeper Sa but was brought down with the referee pointing to the spot for a penalty.  With Kane sitting on the bench, it was Dele who stepped up to stroke the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the keeper’s goal as he went the wrong way to give Spurs a ninth minute lead.

Semedo burst into the box and the Wolves crowd wanted Attwell to level things up with a penalty for them, but it was shoulder to shoulder and after a quick review, it was dismissed.  Wide on the Tottenham right Traore was bullying his way through towards the Spurs goal and forcing our defenders into unforced errors, although luckily cover was available to block dangerous balls into the box.  Spurs were looking threatening in the transition phase of play and better passes could have made more of their possession, with Marcal defending well to prevent a couple of breaks bringing any further threat to Sa’s goal.

Tanganga was being run at by Traore at every opportunity and one run past Japhet and Skippy got him into a position to pull it back to Moutinho, who dragged it back behind him for Jiminez in a great position just inside the box, but he struck his shot just too high to Tottenham’s relief.  Too many loose passes by Spurs were bringing pressure on the defence, but they did well and Hugo was looking to release the forwards as quickly as he could when he was in possession.  Japhet picked up a yellow card for a harsh tackle that left Marcal in a lot of pain after catching him on the ankle, then Skipp got a booking for an alleged foul on Traore, when it looked like a good tackle.  From the resulting free-kick, the ball came out to Neves, who fired a 25 yard volley all along the floor, but it was straight at Hugo.

When the second half started after the home fans were presented with the “second” Mayor of Wolverhampton – GB Boxing silver medallist Ben Whittaker – their team pushed onto Spurs again.  While the flow of the game was in Wolves’ favour, Tottenham were guilty of helping them by giving the ball away too easily, but did build some moves with Dele picking up a long free-kick across the pitch from Son, but couldn’t get past his defender, but played it to Bergwijn who was closed down.  When Son had inadvertently passed the ball straight back to Semedo, he took aim, but sliced across his shot sending it two yards wide of Lloris’ left hand post.

Another break gave Tottenham the chance to send Son away and he did just that, racing past Coady, who couldn’t keep up with him, but as Sonny tried to lift it over Coady to Steven Bergwijn, the ball hit a raised hand he claimed, but on replay it was Kilman’s side and only a corner resulted, but the Wolves fans cat-called our striker for his protests.  While there was some more possession for Spurs, Wolves were quick to break themselves and Trincao was the recipient of another move, but his shot found Lloris, who saved it, diving down to his right.  When Traore was on the end of a through pass, he looked favourite to score with only Hugo to beat, but he picked out the goalkeeper with his shot and Spurs escaped again, but Hugo did well to stand up.  Jiminez was blocked as he tried to find a way through with a shot, but a corner came when Sanchez blocked the Mexican’s next effort and when Saiss met it with his head, the ball cleared the bar.

It was backs to the wall stuff, with Tottenham failing to stem the Wolves pressure, but suddenly Bergwijn was in on goal set through by Lloris’ free-kick and Sa saved twice in the same incident, the second time from Son, who had a shot blocked by Saiss.  Lucas was replaced by Lo Celso, as Spurs looked to try and hold onto the ball a bit better, but Wolves created a shooting opportunity for Moutinho straight away, but couldn’t keep his shot down.  The singing of “Harry Kane, he’s one of our own” rang out, as he pulled on his lilywhite shirt to be brought on for Heung-Min Son in the 70th minute.  It prompted a refrain of “He’ll be a Manc in the morning”, while Spurs fans responded with “He’s worth more than Wolves” in all good fun and it filled in while the action dipped for a few minutes.  With twenty minutes to play, Kane was chasing down the ball to put pressure on the Wolves players in possession.

Dele had to be alert to make a good block to a shot from Trincao, a couple of crosses into the Spurs box were a little too high for the players it was aimed at and then when an attack was cleared away, Marcal fired it back in, but wide of Hugo Lloris’goal.  Dele seemed to upset the home crowd when he went down and they got at him with their songs, but soon, “When the Spurs go marching in” drowned out anything form the yellow shirted fans.  Bergwijn then made a good run, beating two men tight to the left hand touchline and came inside, playing the ball outside for Kane, who was five yards out, but Sa saved at the expense of a corner.   When Lo Celso played it in, Dier got across his marker at the near post, but he hit the keeper, who held the ball and kicked straight away to send Fabio Silva, who had just come on, away, but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg nudged him over with another yellow card coming out.

After Dele got the ball in his privates, Traore went away but the chance was lost when Japhet made a brilliant block to prevent the Wolves winger making it count and then Spurs switched into attack, with Kane leading the line, but Dele made up the ground to join him, but the move broke down.  Hojbjerg tried to get a shot off, but it was blocked by Marcal for a corner and it didn’t help Spurs, as Sa took the ball and started an attack that brought a corner at the other end, when Tanganga hacked the ball away as Traore looked to shoot again.  From it Silva won a header, but again, it went straight to Hugo Lloris, who claimed it comfortably.  Bergwijn had run himself into the ground and was replaced late on by Harry Winks, but it was Eric Dier at the back who cut out a low Traore ball into the box, just after Kane was booked for time-wasting in delaying taking a throw-in.

Wolves were pushing for the equaliser in added time, but Reguilon broke away and only a Connor Coady intervention stopped him getting on the way to the corner flag, but there was no time-wasting with this throw, as the whistle blew on a dogged defensive performance to preserve Dele’s goal and take the three points .

Watching Spurs defending a 1-0 lead is never a comfortable thing, but there appears to be a new resilience and a few people mentioned that it resembled a Mourinho type performance, but didn’t feature a late goal being conceded.  Not so much of the entertaining football that was promised pre-season has been on show, but maybe that will come with the side settling into Nuno’s tactics, but the match could have been polished off with some better finishing, but equally, if Wolves had someone to finish the work that mainly Traore did, then they could have taken the points with ease.  With Jiminez coming back from his fractured skull last season, he looks fine playing, but perhaps lacking a little of his natural goal-scoring ability.  Japhet has had two tough opponents up against him and while he took a booking today, he again stuck to his task and in a different battle to the one he faced last week against Sterling, he tired to make sure that he wasn’t physically intimidated by the burly Traore, who played very well.  Other than the return of Kane, there was little to mention, other than it was another “team” performance to claim their second 1-0 win of the season that temporarily put us third.

It is still early days in the season and there is a lot to happen before the month is out in terms of the transfer window, let alone the season to come, but the impressive form of some players outed by Mourinho and the togetherness and willingness of the side to work for each other shows good signs.  Progress will be two wins in the coming week to ensure European football and to keep us up towards the  top end of the table, so hopefully, it isn’t too much to ask for !

I imagine that Ben Whittaker was as disappointed with his team’s result as he was with his silver medal.

Peter Parsons

Hugo Lloris made his 300th Premier League appearance for Tottenham, setting a new record.