Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Bournemouth: Cherries crush subpar Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur returned to their home turf today for their final Premier League fixture before the first international break of the season, hosting Bournemouth in what many thought would be an exciting encounter. Instead, fans witnessed something of a bloodbath, as Bournemouth took the fight to Spurs, dominating proceedings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Both sides came out victors in their respective matches in the previous round, and Thomas Frank and Andoni Iraola probably felt loath to change up a good thing, naming unchanged starting lineups. The only questions coming in the form of bench spots: Destiny Udogie and Manor Solomon made returns to the Spurs squad, but Yves Bissouma and Dominic Solanke were mysteriously missing.

A bright start by Spurs forced Djordje Petrovic into an early save, but it was Bournemouth who opened the scoring via Evanilson. Marcos Senesi found the Brazilian forward in acres of space in the Spurs penalty area, due in part to Djed Spence playing Evanilson onside, and the shot took a wicked deflection to loop over Guglielmo Vicario. Antoine Semenyo then almost made it two within the first quarter hour, his headed effort narrowly over the bar.

The Lilywhites looked all at sea, with Bournemouth breaking through the previously stout Spurs defense at will, and the home side barely unable to get past the halfway line. A couple of Spurs’ defensive cadre in the form of Romero and Pedro Porro remonstrated on more than one occasion with their midfield counterparts, unable to find an outlet for a simple forward pass. Without mustering a single shot or corner, Spurs deserved to go into the half a goal down.

Semenyo almost doubled Bournemouth’s lead once more early in the second half, latching onto a long ball forward and unleashing a shot across the face of goal. Only an excellent save by Guglielmo Vicario saved Spurs’ blushes, but it felt like an omen unless changes came quickly. Chaos ensued in the following moments, with a long throw bouncing around the penalty area, Vicario making another incredible save, a penalty shout for the Cherries, and then Bournemouth hitting the crossbar. Semenyo could have been sent off too, already on a yellow and taking down Richarlison as he looked to break forward.

Thomas Frank had seen enough, as he rung the changes, bringing on Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert, Destiny Udogie, and Mathys Tel throughout the remainder of the match as Spurs searched for an equalizer. Spurs improved, but still couldn’t find a way through a determined Bournemouth defensive effort, slumping to a deserved 0-1 loss.

Reactions

• That went… poorly.
• That first half was incredibly bad. Up there with the worst of a number of awful performances we’ve seen over the last five years or so.
• Spurs’ lack of passing in midfield was laid bare by Bournemouth’s pressing. There were glimpses of it at times against City, but Bournemouth’s excellent structures capitalized on Palhinha’s inability to pass a football anywhere other than ten yards to the nearest center back. Bentancur was awful as well, misplacing routine passes.
• What worked against City in this case was going direct, with runners off Richarlison up front. Unfortunately, Richy was woeful today, and absolutely bullied by the Bournemouth defense. He should have been given fouls on a number of occasions, but as soon as the referee determined that was the way he was calling things, the Brazilian was on a hiding to nothing.
• Would’ve been really useful to have the perma-fit Solanke to bring on in Richy’s place, right? RIGHT?
• Bournemouth really used width well, pulling the fullbacks wide then exploiting the space between the center back and fullback. Weirdly, in preseason we saw Frank’s side cover this quite well, with the midfielders tracking runners into the penalty area to prevent square balls or shots; so why didn’t it happen today?
• The changes Frank made were good ones, but too slow. Changes needed to happen at halftime, instead, Frank delayed the inevitable and gave the team another 10 minutes. Whatever.
• When was the last time you saw two foul throws called in a match? Neither were great, but you see those let go all the time. It was part of an oddly pedantic yet inconsistent refereeing performance which played right into Bournemouth’s hands.
• Let’s just chalk this one off as a bad day at the office and move on, shall we? COYS.