We can blame the referees, and VAR, for the decisions made or not, but in the end, the only fault lies with Tottenham Hotspur for giving away two points at Southampton.
It was a game Spurs needed to win, with Newcastle only a point back and Manchester United just two points up and both with a game in hand; only a win would suffice. Unfortunately, an overly conservative final 20 minutes summed up a half, which sums up Spurs’ season, which has not been good enough. Now, while Tottenham will go into the international break in fourth place but know like we know and teams around them know, it is a very temporary position.
A forgettable first half has a notable ending for Tottenham and Pedro Porro
The first 45 minutes on the south coast were not the best football we’ve ever seen. While Spurs had control of the battle of possession, it was mostly from sharing the ball around the back of the formation. In reality, Southampton had as many shots as Tottenham – nine – and four times as many corners – eight to Spurs’ two.
To say Tottenham had control of the game would have been a stretch; however, a quick turn of play left Spurs feeling good at the half.
Earlier in the match, Porro had hit Heung-min Son with a beautiful long ball into the box, but the South Korean could not control the ball or hit it on target as his touch failed. This time, Son played the long diagonal to Porro, who controlled the ball and slammed it past Gavin Bazunu into the top of the net off the bottom of the crossbar.
On the strength of the Porro smash, Spurs had the lead at the break, but this lead was only temporary, like their later lead.
Open second half favors the relegation club over the hapless Spurs defense
Almost immediately after the second-half kickoff, Southampton was level, and the game was well and truly on.
Only 30 seconds into the second half, Clement Lenglet and Ivan Perisic were not on the same page as they let the ball and Theo Walcott just breeze right past. Walcott then sent the cross to Che Adams, who was behind Cristian Romero to deflect the ball into the net past Fraser Forster, who had failed to cut the cross – although he tried. We had a football game at one-one, which was good for the neutral but not so great for Tottenham.
As the game opened up, you could see more goals were coming; the question was how many and for who. Then there were three goals in the space of about twelve minutes on the clock, and the game’s complexion completely changed.
Things started when Dejan Kulusevski – who had come on for an injured Richarlison in the first half – hit a sweet cross in from the right to Harry Kane, who finished with aplomb past Bazunu into the net. The 2-1 lead had Spurs feeling good and on the upswing.
At this point, Spurs smelled blood in the water and amped up the pressure seizing on their momentum. Spurs had nearly 65% of the possession between their two second-half goals as they went looking for the kill.
Tottenham was a bit fortunate as the Saints failed to clear a corner, and Perisic struck a wonderful volley that bounced past Bazunu for Spurs’ third on the day.
At this point, things changed for Tottenham as the team mauled Perisic celebrating his first Spurs goal in some 36 appearances.
Instead of looking for a fourth goal – remember the first match finished 4-1 – Spurs immediately let down and were literally and metaphorically pegged back as a struggle to hold the lead was underway. The Saints held 60% of the game’s possession after Spurs scored their third, which should not be allowed against a relegation-threatened side, and Tottenham got what they deserved as a result.
Tottenham was far too conservative and ran to what they were running from
Only three minutes after seemingly putting the game away, Tottenham stood around as James Ward-Prowse found space on the right in the final third. His cross was headed back across the goalmouth by Sekou Mara, and finally, Walcott pounced to hit a little left-footed ball off a lunging Romero and into the Tottenham goal.
Now at 2-3, you could see and feel the change in the stadium as the team, more desperate for points, went looking for them, and the team, more hopeful for points, hunkered down.
As Tottenham sat back into a 5-4-1 formation and let Southampton come at them in waves, it was almost inevitable that something bad would happen. Eventually, something bad did, as Ainsley Maitland-Niles made something out of nothing, and Saints stole the point, and Spurs gave away two.
Maitland-Niles had already received some good fortune with a first-half handball shout waved off by the Video Assistant Referee team VAR, which could stand for very auspicious results.
This time, Maitland-Niles jumped in front of Pape Matar Sarr in the box as Sarr was winding up to clear the ball. Sarr did clear the ball and may or may not have kicked Maitland-Niles, who had recklessly jumped in from behind, but Simon Hooper saw enough, and the whistle was blown. VAR reviewed but did not overturn the decision or even ask Hooper to look at the video.
Ward-Prowse stepped up and beat Forster – who could not save an injury-time penalty for the second week in a row – and thus, two more points were dropped.
We could blame Hooper, who had several questionable calls, or VAR, which again shows its bias, but ultimately, this was on Spurs. Tottenham should have never let Southampton back in the game the first time, let alone the second and third times.
Likewise, this game is on Antonio Conte, who went far too conservative in a game Spurs should have won running away.
But this is Tottenham, good, bad, or otherwise, warts and all; the most inconsistent team in football. So while we can “enjoy” being in fourth place for a couple of weeks on break, we all know the truth, Spurs threw away more than two points.