Mathys Tel’s stupid penalty concession underlines being Spursy is just who Spurs are to leave them still within sight of West Ham
Y
ou’re 1-0 up with 20 minutes to go. You’re about to win your first home league game in 156 days. You’re well on top and playing your best football in 18 months. If you can just see it through you’ll be four points clear of the relegation zone with two games to go, crisis all but averted. And then your left winger attempts an overhead in the corner of your own box and kicks an opposing centre-back in the head nearly eight feet off the ground. It may have been the highest altitude penalty awarded in the Premier League this season; it was certainly the stupidest. Never underestimate the Spursiness of this Spurs.
The gap to West Ham is two points. Spurs must go to Chelsea four days after the FA Cup final then face Everton at home. West Ham have Newcastle away and Leeds at home. But perhaps the most important aspect is the sense that the momentum has shifted. The pendulum that had seemingly been swinging decisively towards Tottenham has slowed; it could easily swing back again.
What a waste those five league games under Igor Tudor seem now. Spurs took one point from them; even two or three more would have made an almighty difference. Those 44 days of confusion, of ever-changing formations, mystifying selections and brutal press conferences seem another world now. It was hard to square this side, at least in the first hour of the game, with the team that lost limply at Fulham and was told by their manager it lacked only four things: attack, midfield, defence and brain.
