Spurs clinged on to the three points despite a valiant effort from the home side, in a thrilling contest at Molineux.
Tottenham went three goals ahead and looked to have the three points secured not long into the first half, and with the aid of a wrong decision from the linesman denying Wolves a clear goal at 0-2, it looked as though it was Tottenham’s night in the Midlands. There was cause for concern deep into the second half though as two ridiculous challenges from Juan Foyth gifted Wolves two penalties which they duly despatched; yet this was not enough for the hosts.
A fully fledged Premier League side
Despite a dip in form recently, there’s no doubt that Wolves have the credentials of a Premier League team in their first season back in the top flight. The hosts had sixteen shots and held Spurs to nearly 50% of the possession – something that most teams, especially newly-promoted teams, are not able to even get close to doing. Tottenham retain their good record against such teams, but were truly given a run for their money tonight.
The Wanderers certainly deserved to get something out of this match, and an incorrect offside call from the linesman prevented Wolves from getting back into the match earlier. It could have been a completely different affair had that goal not been disallowed, and Nuno Espírito Santo will certainly feel aggrieved about the result. There’s plenty of positives to take from the match however, and with matches against three of the bottom four coming up in the near future; Wolves have a great opportunity to send themselves back into the top half of the table in the coming weeks.
Putting the game to bed
Tottenham have had trouble doing just this leading up to this match. As far as Spurs fans are concerned, there has been an abnormal number of nervous games recently and there has always been some nagging doubt that the Lilywhites would drop points.
In fact, Spurs’ third goal was very much against the run of play, and the hosts were realistically out of the game, even after some impressive attacking throughout the first 20 minutes of the second period. Wolves were not letting Spurs win so easily though, and once again the fans in the white shirts were left on the edge of their seats. It seems that Tottenham are having a lot of trouble knocking this trend this season.
Foyth left sweating
One man who will be hugely disappointed with his performance is Juan Foyth. After some heroic defensive displays in the Carabao cup midweek, some horrendous attempts at tackles led to Wolves getting the two goals from the resulting penalties.
It seems likely that this will be the last time the Argentinian starts a match, especially with Alderweireld now fully fit and Vertonghen predicted to make his return by early December.
Fresh faces for Tottenham
Despite the lack of transfer activity that has occured in the Spurs camp this year, Pochettino’s starting XI’s in recent weeks have looked significantly dissimilar to the consistent lineups that have been put out by the Argentinian in the last couple of seasons.
This game in particular presented Harry Winks and Juan Foyth with an opportunity for a Premier League start, with Eric Dier and Dele Alli left out, and Christian Eriksen left on the bench. Once again Spurs are demonstrating their emphasis on youth development and the inclusion of young, slightly inexperienced players in the team.
The club continues to propose the idea that huge expenditure is not required to compete at the top of the table. Harry Winks has made his way to the senior team through the Tottenham youth system and has made good use of the game time his manager has given him.
Wolves defensive issues
A huge part of what gave newly-promoted Wolves such a fast start to their season was their sturdy defence and the amount of goals they were conceding. In their first eight games, the Wanderers kept four clean sheets and conceded just six goals. However, scoring is not their strong point – only scoring more than one goal on two occasions this season meant that it was crucial that Wolves’ defence continued to hold firm.
However, tonight’s match has made it zero clean sheets in three games. It now seems crucial that Wolves need to start taking their chances and scoring again. The rash decisions from Foyth gave Wolves the chances they needed to get back into the game and the home team certainly stretched the Spurs back four in a fairly impressive fashion. Watching their defence on the night, it’s difficult to see how Wolves were ever able to concede so infrequently. On some occasions, particularly in the first half, Spurs ran rings around their opponents, and have indicated areas that need to be improved from Wolves’ point of view.
