| Match report
More or less the same Spurs
side that lost at Wembley to Wolves took on Cardiff in Wales on New
Year’s Day and came out of the game, unusually unbattered or
bruised, but with three points safely in the bag by half-time,
allowing them to ease of in the second half safe in the knowledge
that Cardiff were unwilling to do much about it.
Neil Warnock should not have
annoyed Harry Kane with his claims about his diving, as two minutes
in, he had the ball in the Cardiff net. The ball was worked to him
in midfield and Harry sprayed it right to Trippier. His low cross
was aimed at Dele and Kane, who had continued his run and the ball
bounced off him, off Morrison and then off Kane’s knee to slowly
enter the goal at Etheridge’s right hand post. A goal so early was a
great start, but would Cardiff come back like Wolves did four days
before ?
Cardiff soon had a long throw and then a free-kick, but Spurs
managed to defend those strongly. Ironically, the referee had
to speak to Harry Arter about diving and trying to get Dele in
trouble. No doubt, Warnock will be mentioning that in his post-match
interview ! Spurs were looking to hit on the break and when Kane
played a quick pass out o Sissoko on the right, his ball inside to
Son opened up a pass across the box to Eriksen on the left. Arter
slid in to try and cut it out but was nowhere near it and Eriksen
shifted the ball right and then shot between Manga’s legs as his
shot went the other way and left Etheridge rooted to make it 2-0
with 12 minutes gone. Apart from Hugo taking a corner high in
the air at the far post under pressure from Morrison, not a lot
happened until the 26th minute, when Dele won a ball in midfield to
Sissoko, who ran forward before passing to Kane. His firs time pass
into Son in the box saw Morrison stand off him, so he hit a shot
across goal that caught Etheridge out and went past the keeper’s
right hand to make it 3-0. Tottenham had been passing the ball
around so easily, the defence was all over the place, so Son’s task
was a straightforward one.
When Sissoko ran up the right wing and pulled the ball back, it was
behind Kane and nowhere near Eriksen, but Cunningham gave it
straight to Son 20 yards out and his hit went a couple of feet over
the top. The game resorted to Spurs passing the ball around
unchallenged until the half-time whistle, seeing Warnock’s
side going in three goals down.
For a side who had been
promoted to the Premier League, there were large gaps in the home
crowd areas at the start of the game. You would have thought that
the reason they wanted promotion was to see the top teams pit their
wits against their side, but apparently not so. They got a little
excited in the 51st minute when a deflected right wing cross was
left by Sanchez and Hoillett out-jumped Trippier at the far post to
make Lloris make a save at the foot of his right hand post, but it
was fairly straightforward.
Bamba was aghast that he was booked for raking his foot down Son’s
Achilles, but then Kevin Friend ignored the new ruling that the
player receiving treatment does not have to leave the pitch to be
called back on if there was a booking. As it was Son had to go off
amongst much discussion between him, Pochettino and the fourth
official. The incident stirred the crowd again, but Tottenham
returned to passing the ball around to players in acres of space
with no Cardiff players closing them down. After Hoillett had
knocked Sanchez off the ball down their left wing (fairly according
to the ref), he was unable to pick out a team-mate in the box,
leading to Spurs breaking away and Kane striking a fierce shot from
the right hand corner of the box that flew a yard wide.
Kane had two shots blocked in the box and then Sissoko hung up a
cross to the far post from the right for Dele, but he couldn’t get a
clean header on the ball. Bamba turned away from two Spurs players
before hitting a white shit and Kane was away down the left with
three Spurs free to his right, but he delayed the pass and when it
came to Son ten yards out, the keeper was out to block his effort.
It should have been used quicker and buried to put the game to bed
and to allow players to be rested.
Cardiff forced Lloris into action, when he had to tip a mis-hit
cross from Hoillett over the bar and the corner was won at the far
post by Morrison, putting it into the goalmouth, where Gunnarsson
was free in front of Hugo, but he turned his back on it and the ball
dropped for Lloris to fall on it. The Icelander was offside anyway,
but it encouraged the Bluebirds to push forward a bit more, but
their main focus was on stopping more goals going in at their end.
Dele was going through the motions, making sure he didn’t pick up
another injury, while Son was replaced by Skipp, as Pochettino took
the opportunity to rest the Korean. Eriksen played a great ball for
Dele, whose first touch took him inside, but instead of shooting, he
took the ball inside and Gunnarsson threw a block to keep it from
making more work for the scorers as Cardiff fans flocked out of the
stadium with over 10 minutes left. Cardiff did have a go, when
Gunnarsson took on Skipp and went down in the box and then wanted a
corner as Dele cleared up the loose ball. It looked as though both
players had a handful of each others’ shirts, so a goal-kick was the
outcome.
Hoillett tried a 25-yarder aiming for the top corner, but only found
the top corner of the second block of fans behind the goal.
Kane was in the clear after Dele and Eriksen created the opening,
but he couldn’t take it around Etheridge. Rose blasted one
over the bar from 25 yards, then, after a lung busting run from
halfway, Moussa Sissoko had a go from a tight angle on the right but
put it over the bar. Sissoko then found Rose with a rangy
cross-field pass in lots of space and his low ball in
wasn’t cleared by the home defence, leaving Kane to pick it up and
try a left footed curled from just inside the box, but it was too
high.
Hoillett forced Lloris to a low save with a diving header, but he
was offside, so the game ended with little noise from the much
diminished home support, but with huge joy from out away following.
The second half was nothing more than passing practice, as Cardiff
were neither too bothered nor good enough to get anywhere near the
Tottenham players. Not even close enough to damage them, which is a
little surprising.
The win was a good reaction
to losing out to Wolves, but has little significance in the whole
season, as most teams should beat Cardiff and only the remaining
games will determine how important these three points were. A
chance to rest some bigger names comes on Friday at Tranmere Rovers
in the FA Cup, but all the games will be big games until the end of
the season now.
The Polyphant |
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