How Spurs Won: Away at Bournemouth

An overly simplistic way to explain Spurs’ 5-1 victory over Bournemouth is to mention one man’s name: Artur Boruc.

Bournemouth’s Polish goalkeeper made two clear-cut errors that led directly to a Tottenham goal: the penalty that resulted in Harry Kane’s first of three goals and the bobbled Kane cross that ended with Érik Lamela converting a short range effort. While the remaining three goals Spurs scored were less attributable to Boruc’s mistakes, they each suggested a keeper considerably out of his element on the day.

While those errors cast a pallor over Boruc for much of the game, he was not alone in his inability to contain Tottenham’s attack. Bournemouth’s defense often looked overwhelmed when Kane cut out wide left or Lamela came surging into the box, and were perhaps lucky to have not conceded even more than they did.

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That analysis is by no means meant to sell short Spurs’ efforts. They fell behind in the first minute and did well to avoid the immediate slump in effort and coordination that has come to characterize so many Spurs sides in recent years. Indeed, fifteen minutes after Matt Richie’s opener, Spurs took the lead through Mousa Dembélé’s goal and never looked back.

This was precisely the kind of reaction Mauricio Pochettino wanted from his side after Thursday’s regrettable loss to Anderlecht in the Europa League. While their concentration clearly lapsed in Richie’s goal, they quickly regained the momentum and came out with their best result of the season.

It wasn’t just spunk and team spirit that earned Spurs all three points though. This was inarguably Kane’s best game of the season so far, both in terms of workrate and production. In many ways it was more of the same from the English international – he worked the channels and managed the bulk of the team’s shots on goal – except this time he actually converted that effort into goals.

Kane’s effort rightfully took the headlines, but there were some marked improvements elsewhere on the pitch. Dembélé returned to the defensively-oriented number 10 role he played so well in a handful of games last term. On Sunday Dembélé’s knack for dropping deep covered for the runs of Dele Alli as the young midfielder came forward with the ball on several occasions as he helped to overload Bournemouth’s defenses.

Both Christian Eriksen and Lamela continued to be productive on the wings, bagging an assist and goal respectively. Perhaps their more important role against a team such as Bournemouth is their efforts to effectively cycle possession right on the edge of the final third. Their most prominent role is to hover along the periphery of the penalty area and attempt to send balls into dangerous areas. Considering most efforts in any given game don’t necessarily result in a goal or even a shot, their secondary role is to recycle possession back from clearances or effective presses in Spurs’ midfield. They trade passes with Dembélé or Alli as they attempt to unlock or bust down often resolute opposition defenses.

Eric Dier’s role this season has contained an element of that recycling as well, a fact made evident by passing rates and effectiveness that is often the best on the entire pitch. There’s also a hint that he might have learned – or been told – a thing or two after he accumulated five yellows in the opening games and thus a suspension for last week’s game against Liverpool. He recorded precisely zero successful tackles from only two attempts against Bournemouth. Part of that is down to how infrequently the Cherries attacked through the middle, but there was also a suggestion that Dier might be favoring intelligent positioning over a last ditch tackle.

The victory over Bournemouth featured some of most effective coordination from the front six so far this season. Even if Bournemouth didn’t exactly put up the best fight in defense, this should be the model for Tottenham’s efforts going forward.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for a Spurs’ defense that has been one of the most impressive in the entire Premier League so far this season. We’ll get into more depth on how this game could have gone wrong in our next post.

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