How Spurs Won: Home vs Bournemouth

A goal within the first minute has a tendency to upset just about any sound attempt to analyse the match as a whole, and Spurs’ home match against Bournemouth on Sunday is no different.

Scoring so early forces the trailing team to scramble, perhaps even push forward higher than they wanted to so early in the match. Doing so might up their chances at an equalizer, but it also leaves them more exposed at the back and thus susceptible to conceding yet more goals.

Back in October when Spurs last played Bournemouth, they had a similar situation. Matt Richie’s goal in the opening moments of the match forced them to push harder than they might have otherwise. Thankfully for Spurs, they were – and are – a much better team than Bournemouth, and the heightened aggression paid off to the tune of five unanswered goals.

Bournemouth going behind did not inspire the same type of reaction. Eddie Howe’s team actually looked to stay responsible at the back, keeping both of their full-backs in reserve for similar runs to the one Kyle Walker made to send in the ball Harry Kane used to take the lead. Both Benik Afobe and Joshua King stayed deep, trying and failing to bolster the midfield.

There’s a way to look at this match through that Walker run, actually. We speculated before the match that the flanks would play a vital role in Bournemouth’s set up, and that one of the ways that Spurs could keep that threat limited would be to demonstrate the risks of any space left in behind the advancing full-backs.

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The opening goal was about the most perfect such demonstration Spurs could have mustered. Hugo Lloris found Walker with a long pass from the penalty area, and Spurs’ right-back ran forward into plenty of space and found Kane with a wonderful cross. Charlie Daniels – the man who was supposed to be protecting that exploited space – watched on without doing all that much to stop Walker.

Sensing blood in the water and perhaps hoping that Daniels would have to push higher up the pitch in search of an equalizer, Spurs consciously targeted Walker for the remainder of the match.

Walker v Rose passes received /

Looking at the passes Walker received compared the the passes received by Rose on the opposite side of the pitch shows just how lopsided Spurs’ efforts were. Walker found plenty of space to work in early and often, and Spurs attempted to capitalize as much as possible.

Rose, meanwhile, was involved in something more intricate. Adam Smith benefited from Matt Richie dropping deep, so there was less space to send in such long balls. Instead, Rose combined with Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli time and time again in an attempt to overload and outnumber the defenders on Bournemouth’s right.

In the midfield, Andrew Surman and Harry Arter could do nothing to stop Eric Dier and Mousa Dembélé from getting the ball forward into dangerous areas. This was such a weakness that Kevin Wimmer even got into the action, moving forward and more or less functioning as an auxiliary fullback. His 82 passes – completed at a 95% success rate – were the highest of any player on the pitch. It was his beautifully threaded ball through Bournemouth’s midfield that set up Dele Alli to make the assist for Kane’s second goal.

Next: Tottenham Secure Another Win Over Bournemouth

Each of these efforts came from Spurs recognizing vulnerabilities in Bournemouth’s set up and consistently prodding them. This process was made easier by Bournemouth’s inability to exert themselves in any meaningful way on the pitch – they managed just two shots in the entire match, neither of which were on goal – but it’s still a testament to just how lethal this Spurs team can be. Mauricio Pochettino has drilled this team into one that does not permit the opposition to get away with any weaknesses.