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Once more, early season optimism last just over 90 minutes, as Spurs
fail to use their superiority over Sunderland for the majority of the
game to concede a last gasp goal and return to London with nothing.
Three aspects of the club's play last season
came back to haunt us. Failure to take the game to our opponents,
as, with Sunderland being there for the taking, Tottenham decided
that they would not go for the kill, but try to pick them off with a
single goal that never really looked like arriving. Secondly, the
lack of points away from home in the last two seasons has cost us making
the step up to fourth in the Premier League. Many more
performances like this and we will be looking at the same situation once
more. Lastly, the inability to keep a clean sheet, which is the
minimum that Spurs should have managed in this match ... especially
against a team which barely features in most pundits top half of the
table predictions.
It is not that I am anti- the team, but
their showing today was lacklustre to be kind and poor to be more
realistic. Sunderland were up for it, as expected, but they did
not have the quality to hurt Spurs on more than a couple of occasions.
Whereas, Tottenham had a wealth of stars, but few shone in the Stadium
of Light.
With a large share of the possession,
Tottenham really ought to have more to show for it than a weak Keane
shot and a late drive from Tom Huddlestone. A claim for a penalty
looked like one which would have been awarded for Man U at Old Trafford,
but we are not in the habit of profiting from these decisions.
It was interesting that Steed Malbranque
was chosen to start on the left, where he had a good pre-season.
When the ball was played out to him in a wide position, there was a
useful situation created and two crosses caused concerns in the Black
Cats' back four. The failure to capitalise on this useful source
of balls into the area was perpetrated by Malbranque being pushed inside
to firm up the centre of midfield, with Tainio doing the same on the
other side. This left Spurs narrow down the middle and when they
did get the full-backs forward, there was no midfield man wide to
support or cover them.
A lot of Tottenham's attacking play was
too easily picked off by Nosworthy and McShane (who was probably the man
of the match) as we tried to hit Berba, with nobody playing up alongside
him. Sunderland's forwards were limited to scraps as Kaboul used
his strength and Gardner shepherded them well. A Stokes long range
effort and a blocked Richardson shot were the only incidents in the
first half apart from the Murphy opportunity. As for Spurs, Jenas
dragged a 25 yard shot well wide after Berbatov had touched it back for
him, then the Bulgarian jinked around new keeper Craig Gordon and was
then floored by a challenge from Whitehead, but referee Wiley, was not
interested.
Keane struck a 20 yard daisy-cutter at
Gordon with little pace and the other end saw Dickson Etuhu have three
efforts; one was a header well off target as he reached behind him and
the others were shots - one wide by a yard and one blocked for a corner.
At half-time, there should have been the
chance for Jol to instruct his players to open the play more and to up
the tempo. However, a half-paced performance followed and in the
end, it was inevitable that the coup de grace would hit Tottenham.
Jol's assertion after the game that it
had been a boring one is a bit of an indictment of his side, who are
supposed to be the entertainers of the Premier League. I know that
last season that came from letting in almost as many goals as we scored,
but it might be preferable if they could get a few for themselves first.
The way the midfield played, Malbranque
in the first half and Zokora excepted, there was too little decent
service to the front two and in the second period, both Berbatov and
Keane were dropping back as far as the halfway line. While it did
not affect the pattern of the game too much to start with, as time went
on Sunderland pushed higher up the pitch and Spurs were forced back.
Just before the hour, Chimbonda, sporting
his new, un-corn-rowed hairstyle, was fouled twice as he was approaching
the Sunderland goal and a free-kick right on the edge was taken by
Dimitar, but he could not get it to come down quick enough after getting
it over the wall. With half an hour to go, Darren Bent came on for
his debut, as Jol tried to get something going up front. The big
two almost produced a chance for Keano, but his dallying on the ball saw
him easily dispossessed.
Just after 70 minutes, Collins and Chopra
came on for Sunderland, while five minutes later Defoe replaced
Berbatov. With Spurs having the stronger forward line, we hoped
that it would pay dividends, but Liam Miller's earlier introduction gave
the home team a bit more guile in midfield. By this time,
Tottenham had also suffered ankle injuries to Chimbonda and Kaboul, so
were not fully mobile at the back.
Defoe almost seized on Bent's click on
and a cleared corner fell to Hud, who struck it well, but with not
enough venom to beat Gordon from 25 yards. With two minutes until
full time, it was Tottenham's first real shot in anger, which says much
for the display. If we fail to create chances against Sunderland,
what hope is there against the big boys ?
A free-kick generously awarded, for a
foul against Chimbonda, gave Whitehead the chance to swing the ball into
the Tottenham area and left to sneak in, Etuhu had the chance to win it
for Sunderland, but he took the ball on his thigh and it ran away from
him, but made Robbo dive and palm out from the in-running forwards to
prevent a goal. It should have been a sign of things to come, but
as the clock ticked past the three minutes time for stoppages, a ball
down the right pulled Kaboul from the middle and the resulting cross
from Wallace on the right went over Gardner and dropped at Chopra's
feet. The signing from Cardiff took one touch and from eight yards
out slammed it into the bottom corner to score with virtually the last
kick of the match.
While it was gutting to lose in such a
way, especially having conceded a last minute goal on our last visit to
the Stadium of Light, it was not something that perhaps you might not
have expected from Spurs. Bringing on Bent did liven things up a
bit, but again, the passes he was getting were not designed to bring the
best out of him. It is no use having four strikers who have
everything, if you haven't got players who can make that everything
happen.
From before the off, it was obvious that
this would not be as straight forward as it might have seemed, as
Michael Dawson ricked an ankle in training and was replaced in the
line-up by Anthony Gardner. To be fair to the lanky central
defender he didn't do too bad. An early step on the ball in his
own area when he should have hoofed it away was replaced by a
performance where he extended his Go Go Gadget legs to nick the ball
away in front of their attacker. However, he did duck to miss a
left wing cross in the 38th minute, leaving Daryl Murphy at the far post
in a good position, but a poor first touch allowed Robinson time to come
out to close him down and save. The only other part of his game he
needs to beef up is his strength in the air. Tall and pacy he may
be, but he gets knocked off the ball too easily, as the goal proved,
when a Sunderland player jumped at him to clear the way for Chopra's
late winner.
With Kaboul having a sterling game at
centre-half, Stalteri chipped in with a decent enough showing, but
again, he gets panicked in possession. Unfortunately, two other
players might have not been playing. Jenas, who I admire, had a
mare of a game, with his all action dynamic runs missing and every time
he got challenged, he fell to the floor looking for a free-kick and then
sat there whingeing about it. The other player who should have
done a lot better was Robbie Keane. Again, appealing for fouls on
him and then giving the ball away regularly throughout the match made
his contribution minimal. With Berbatov having one of the games
where he fails to show sufficient strength against the opposition's
central defenders and then starts giving away petty free-kicks, we did
not need Keane to drop deep and then be ineffective there.
Once more, as poor first game means
Tottenham will be playing catch-up and it is a game that they will have
to get used to very quickly, as Everton are next up on Tuesday.
And that won't be an easy one.
BARRY LEVINGTON |
Sunderland
(Away)
)
