Positives on a Disappointing Day for Tottenham Hotspur
By Aaron Coe
After once again failing to hold on to a lead, Tottenham Hotspur dropped two points in a draw with Crystal Palace, fortunately, not all is doom and gloom for Spurs.
Despite playing what had to be their worst half of football since the Everton game, Tottenham Hotspur can take some positives out of the day and weekend. With a first-place showdown with Liverpool in the offing on Wednesday, finding the silver lining may be the best Spurs can do after a dismal second half display. So, what are those bright spots on an otherwise cloudy evening?
Tottenham Still Top of the Table
The first bright spot speaks more to the current state of the Premier League than it does Tottenham Hotspur. Despite the draw with Palace, Liverpool needed a late penalty kick to steal a point from Fulham, thus Spurs are still top of the table on goal differential.
Not only are Tottenham still top of the table, half of the top 10 sides dropped points this weekend. In what must seem like a reversal for many, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Tottenham all dropped two points while Chelsea dropped three. Alternatively, Leicester City, Southampton, West Ham, Everton, and Aston Villa all won. Those are your top 10 teams.
So, the traditional big teams all lost, a bunch of the upstarts won, and the table gets tighter and tighter. While it would have been nice to stretch the lead on some of the rivals, if Spurs were going to drop points, at least it came on a weekend where so too did most of the traditional top teams.
Dele Alli Does Play
It really was too little too late and I am not sure why Dele came in for Bergwijn instead of Sissoko to provide more push, but we did see Dele Alli play. In his six minutes plus injury time, Dele had two big moments. The first was almost immediately after his introduction.
Palace were on a counter and seemed to have numbers in attack. Just when it looked like the break was on, Dele stood tall, stuck out his boot, and won a big tackle. Not renowned for his defense, that tackle in the middle of the defensive half was probably the most important defensive play by Tottenham the entire game as Crystal Palace had numbers and the momentum.
Besides one big tackle, Dele did get on the ball once near the box and drew a foul late in the match. It was this foul on Dele that gave Spurs and Eric Dier one last chance before time expired. Not enough time to make a major mark on the game, Dele did his part and should see some more opportunities as a result.
Free Kicks Were Close
I know I said this after the last match and hopefully will not be talking about the dead ball opportunities coming close anymore, but rather about them scoring. However, Tottenham had several nice chances to score on free kicks and set pieces.
Harry Kane connected twice on headers off corner kicks and maybe should have finished one of them. Eric Dier had an even better chance on a Giovani Lo Celso free kick, but Dier redirected the ball wide of goal instead of heading it in the goal.
Finally, after the obligatory Harry Kane miss on a free kick, Dier nearly stole the game at the death for Tottenham with a nice free kick. Ultimately, the placement was good, but it needed more power, or the power was good, and it needed more placement. Either way, Guaita made the save and Spurs were denied the points.
The work on the training ground is showing up, it just has not translated into goals yet, but it is coming!
Tottenham Women Win Again!
Thankfully for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, it was not all bad news on the day. The Tottenham Hotspur women won their second game in a row and second under new coach Rehanne Skinner. Alex Morgan scored early on a penalty she created and then an own goal before half after Aston Villa pegged Spurs level gave Tottenham the lead at the break.
Thanks to Morgan’s goal and then one in the second from Angela Addison, Spurs went out winner in their last home match of the calendar year. The win moves Spurs Women up to 8th in the FA Super League table and they travel to Chelsea next week. Congratulations to the Women.
On a day where things did not seem to go quite right, it could have been a whole lot worse for Tottenham and the best part is there are more days ahead to make things right!