Tottenham Hotspur 3 Eriksen 31', 46', Sigurdsson 90'
Southampton 2 Rodriguez 19′, Lallana 28'
Man of the match Christian Eriksen (Tottenham)
LONDON // It was ludicrous, it was entertaining and it ended with Tottenham Hotspur completing an improbable comeback that lifted them back above Everton to fifth place in the Premier League table, six points off the top four.
To suggest this was anything other than a chaotic game in which Spurs somehow scrapped their way to the win, on desire and effort as much as anything else, would be misleading, but it did at least stop the rot of four games without a win.
The opening goal was a nonsense, rooted in the sort of error that speaks of a fundamental breakdown of confidence and clear-thinking within the club.
Artur Boruc’s long clearance should have been headed clear but Kyle Naughton inexplicably misjudged the bounce and when the ball looped over him, with neither centre-back dropping off to provide cover, Jay Rodriguez ran on to finish calmly. Naughton was badly at fault for Southampton’s second goal, too, his poor attempt to clear his lines presenting the ball to Rickie Lambert, who slipped it outside for Adam Lallana to run on and score.
It may have been Naughton who made the vital errors – and as his manager Tim Sherwood pointed out after the match, he did much to make up for them with a decent second half – but they were symptomatic of deeper problems.
Yet again, Spurs played with a high line without ever pressing with the requisite intensity or coherence. As a result, Southampton spent the first half hour looking as though they could slice Spurs apart at will.
With the England manager Roy Hodgson in attendance, it was a good day for most of Southampton’s young English talent – Lallana looks certain to be part of the World Cup squad and Luke Shaw, Lambert and Rodriguez have an outside chance of making it – but Nathaniel Clyne joined Naughton in consolidating Glen Johnson’s position as England’s first-choice right-back.
Two minutes after Southampton had gone 2-0 up, Clyne miskicked his attempt to clear Naughton’s right-wing cross and Christian Eriksen swept home from six yards.
The goal also added another chapter to the increasingly anarchic comedy that is Sherwood’s managerial career.
After the gilet-throwing incident against Arsenal last week, Sherwood had consigned himself to the stands, as he had in the 2-2 draw against Benfica in the Europa League on Thursday. Once his side had gone 2-0 down though, he came downstairs to the bench.
The impact was immediate.
“I wanted to play a high tempo game and press them high up the field and we didn’t have the energy for it,” Sherwood said. “I didn’t doubt them; we just needed to tweak it and the tweak we needed was more energy.”
This time, Sherwood was wearing a jacket over his gilet – making it very hard to tell if he was “wearing his heart on his sleeve”, the character trait on which he blamed his loss of control last Sunday – but he was as active in his technical area as ever, shouting, gesticulating, spreading his arms in disbelief.
It is hard to believe players in the heat of battle can be too aware of their manager’s antics, but Tottenham’s level did seem to lift. Their reward came 46 seconds into the second half, by which time Sherwood had returned upstairs: Roberto Soldado dispossessed Dejan Lovren on the right and crossed low for Eriksen to knock in his fourth goal in his last five games.
Sherwood came downstairs again for the final 10 minutes, and somehow the magic worked again: in injury-time, Eriksen knocked a ball square for the half-time substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson, who smashed a shot low past a slightly sluggish Boruc.
After Sherwood’s criticism of his team’s character after the defeat to Chelsea two weeks ago, here was the spirit he has demanded. “We’ve took a couple of knocks and we’ve come back,” he said.
Despite the three points, it remains to be seen whether Sherwood will still be Tottenham manager beyond the end of the season.
That may be the right decision for Spurs, but it is bad news for the gaiety of the Premier League public.
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