Tottenham teetering on the brink of crisis after being beaten by Bournemouth

Bournemouth (1) 1 v Tottenham Hotspur (0) 0

Huijsen 17

By Kaz Mochlinski at the Vitality Stadium

Premier League

Matchweek 14

Tottenham Hotspur’s season was left teetering on the brink of crisis after a desperately dispiriting defeat away at Bournemouth, which dropped Spurs down to 10th place in the Premier League table.

Ange Postecoglou was booed by a section of the Tottenham supporters at the end, and there were heated confrontations with the Spurs head coach when he went over to acknowledge the travelling fans.

He described it as receiving “some pretty direct feedback”, without wanting to divulge further details, accepting that the fans were entitled to be unhappy with the result but indicating that the incident was personally distressing for him.

“They’re pretty disappointed, rightly so” Postecoglou admitted. “We’ve got to get sort of ourselves out of this space we’re in at the moment where we’re just not able to get a real grip on our season.”

Spurs started both halves brightly, but there will be concern about how quickly they ran out of energy, and with 66% possession managed to only create four attempts on target over the course of the match.

In a contest which was exciting and absorbing throughout, but especially in an end-to-end second half, Tottenham also allowed their hosts to have a worryingly high number of 21 scoring chances themselves.

And yet again Postecoglou’s team was beaten by a set-piece goal, conceding from a corner that once more exposed a recurrent vulnerability of this Spurs side which is now widely known and specifically targeted.

It was perfectly delivered by Marcus Tavernier with a curling left-footed inswinger from the right corner for Bournemouth’s teenage stand-in central-defender Dean Huijsen to head in at the far post.

The six foot six inch Spain Under-21 international, who is also eligible to play for the Netherlands, had only come into the starting line-up because of a muscle injury suffered by Marcos Senesi.

Huijsen’s first goal in English football, following his £15.3 million summer signing from Juventus, made him Bournemouth’s youngest ever Premier League goalscorer, at 19 years and 235 days.

He was understandably given the man-of-the-match award, not just for his winning goal but equally for the way that he kept Dominic Solanke subdued on the striker’s first return to Bournemouth following his £65 million move to Spurs.

Solanke had a couple of very good early opportunities to score against the club he left in the last transfer window. However, his run and shot, then a near-post header from a corner, both missed the target.

Thereafter, he hardly had a sight of goal, as Bournemouth kept only their second clean sheet of the season. Coincidentally, the two times that the Cherries have not conceded have been in beating the great North London neighbours and rivals, Arsenal and Tottenham.

With another memorable victory in-between over the reigning champions, Manchester City, this is developing into an exceptional season for Bournemouth, who climbed into the top half of the table thanks to the success against Spurs.

They overtook Tottenham to go into ninth place, making this Bournemouth’s best ever start to a Premier League season after 14 matches. As with the previous big wins, this one was again entirely merited.

The home side importantly seemed to show a higher work-rate, enthusiasm and desire than their opponents, and were a constant threat with the pace of their forwards, who relished repeatedly running at the visitors’ back-line.

It was not dissimilar to the way that Crystal Palace overcame Spurs by the identical score in October. The excuse then was that adapting to playing straight after Europa League assignments was challenging.

This time Tottenham had a Thursday evening game, which they are extremely familiar with, and which should be developing into something of a speciality for Postecoglou’s players from all their European matches this season.

Instead, the biggest surprise was that their trip to Bournemouth concluded with only one goal being scored between the two teams. That was to a fair extent thanks to Spurs’ replacement goalkeeper, Fraser Forster.

He contributed to keeping the scoreline close, at times single-handedly, although he is yet to record a clean sheet in a Premier League away game for Tottenham, conceding 24 goals in nine appearances on the road.

The last time Forster did not let in a goal in an away league match was back in March 2021 for Southampton at Sheffield United. But there are much more significant statistics which Spurs will be unable to avoid.

Tottenham have now recorded just one victory in their last six games in all competitions - incredibly the 4-0 triumph away to Manchester City. In the subsequent 12 days, the mood around the club has changed completely.

Spurs have failed to win any of the three matches they have played in the space of eight days. The result at Bournemouth was the seventh time that they had lost in their last 11 Premier League away games.

Tellingly, Tottenham are on an unwanted run of 15 away league contests in which they have not managed to win after letting in a goal, a sequence that started in November last year and was maintained at Bournemouth.

Most of their forthcoming fixtures are going to be back at home, but they also include a Europa League journey to Glasgow to play Rangers, and none of the upcoming matches look totally straightforward.

Spurs will face Chelsea on Sunday with 24 hours less rest than the Blues, plus they are rapidly running out of fit centre-backs, after Ben Davies became the latest injury casualty among their defenders.

The Welsh international, who was celebrating the 300th Premier League appearance of his career, had to be taken off in the second half at Bournemouth with an apparent hamstring strain.

It was the excellent Archie Gray who finished up as the left centre-half, having begun at right-back, with the promising 18-year-old also having played at left-back and in midfield already this season.

Gray against Bournemouth was making his first Premier League start since his £40 million switch from Leeds United during the close season, as a consequence of all the injuries, illnesses and other absences which are testing Postecoglou.

In addition to Rodrigo Bentancur’s domestic suspension, Tottenham are now missing Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Wilson Odobert, Mikey Moore, Richarlison, plus Davies.

It means that Spurs are without eight significant squad members, including four probable players from their first-choice XI. Those remaining are getting more game time than ideal, and many are looking exhausted.

Solanke on the South Coast ran unceasingly but unsurprisingly could not sustain his level of effort after having been ruled out of the previous weekend’s match with Fulham due to an episode of illness.

Those who are missing may be mounting up for Tottenham, but the squad is looking less and less able to withstand the losses. However, the expectations on Postecoglou to find a way to cope are not relenting.

The Spurs supporters at the game have to be commended for the vociferous backing which they gave to the team despite the disappointing display and also the circumstances surrounding the match.

They made it there in extremely adverse weather conditions, with warnings of local flooding amid a rainstorm and high winds, which only eased close to kick-off, after the players had spent the warm-up slipping on the wet pitch.

Getting home was also a challenge, with no direct train services between Bournemouth and London after the game. And the Tottenham fans had to watch a side with their captain, Son Heung-min, left on the substitutes’ bench until the second half.

Plus the visitors needlessly turned out in another unfamiliar away kit, this one featuring pale blue stripes, officially “Cobalt Bliss / Binary Blue” according to the manufacturer, Nike. They are not lucky colours.

So far they have been worn three times, with Spurs losing on each occasion, at Newcastle United, Galatasaray, and now Bournemouth. But none of it excuses the excessive anger of the away section after the final whistle.

Some of the colourful language that was heard being shouted at Postecoglou was profoundly unpleasant, including comments about his weight, triggering an instinctively strong reaction from the upset Australian.

“I’ve got no issue with it” he insisted later, looking subdued and talking in an almost-inaudible whisper. “I didn’t like what was being said because I’m a human being, but you’ve got to cop it. I’ve been around long enough to know that.

“If things don’t go well, you’ve got to understand the frustration and disappointment. They’re disappointed tonight because again we’ve let a game of football get away from us. That’s ok, I’m ok with all of that.”

And Postecoglou also admitted: “We weren’t good enough. We conceded a really poor goal and we lost our way a little bit and allowed Bournemouth to play the game they wanted to.

“We had our moments in the second half but we weren’t able to get a goal. We just have this sort of propensity to shoot ourselves in the foot when really we should be taking control of games.”

Bournemouth: (4-2-3-1) Arrizabalaga - Smith, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez - Christie (Cook 77), Adams - Semenyo (Brooks 85), Kluivert (Ouattara 64), Tavernier (Billing 85) - Evanilson (Enes Ünal 85)

Tottenham Hotspur: (4-1-4-1) Forster - Gray, Drăguşin, Davies (Porro 62), Udogie - Bissouma (Bergvall 80) - Kulusevski, Maddison (Werner 80), Pape Sarr (Son 57), Johnson - Solanke

Attendance: 11,234