Many thanks to Declan Mulcahy for this report:-

Premier League
Sunday December 2024, 3:00pm
Tottenham Hotspur (2) 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers (1) 2

Spurs scorers:-
Bentancur, 12
Johnson, 45+3

Wolves scorers:-
Hwang, 7
Strand Larsen, 87

Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1):
20 F Forster; 23 Pedro Porro, 6 R Dragusin, 14 A Gray, 13 D Udogie (3 S Reguilon 50); 8 Y Bissouma (29 P Sarr 64), 30 R Bentancur; 22 B Johnson (10 J Maddison 64), 21 D Kulusevski, 7 H-M Son (c) (16 T Werner 64); 19 D Solanke

Subs not used: 40 B Austin, 48 A Dorrington, 15 L Bergvall, 64 C Olusesi, 42 W Lankshear

Booked: Bentancur (90+7 foul on Rodrigo Gomes)
Captain's Armband: Son (Maddison 64)

Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-4-2-1): Vitor Pereira
1 J Sa; 2 M Doherty, 4 S Bueno, 15 C Dawson (19 Rodrigo Gomes 78); 22 N Semedo (c), 7 Andre (20 T Doyle 69), 8 Joao Gomes, 3 R Ait-Nouri; 27 J Bellegarde (29 G Guedes 45), 10 Matheus Cunha (9 J Strand Larsen 45), 11 H-C Hwang (26 C Forbs 78)

Subs not used: 21 S Johnstone, 37 P Lima, 33 B Meupiyou, 46 A Pond

Booked: Bellegarde (27 foul on Kulusevski), Semedo (45+2 foul on Solanke)

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Attendance: 61,284
Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant Referees: Richard West, Timothy Wood. Fourth official: Tim Robinson. VAR: Jarred Gillett. Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton.

Another sub-optimal performance

Spurs won their only point in the Premier League in the last three matches today against Wolverhampton Wanderers. They led 2-1 at half time but conceded an equalising goal against a team they should have been capable of beating to conclude the year on a disappointing note.

There had been fears that Ange Postecoglou might have to use a player without experience playing in the centre of the back line but the good news was that Radu Dragusin recovered from his ankle injury and was able to play. The manager made two changes with Yves Bissouma replacing Papp Sarr and Pedro Porro coming in for the suspended Djed Spence.

Wolverhampton Wanderers struggled for the first sixteen rounds of this season's Premier League. They then sacked Gary O'Neil and replaced him with Vitor Pereira who has had a peripatetic career as a manager over the past twenty years. He has made a very good start at Molineux winning his first two Premier League matches away to Leicester City and at home to Manchester United. He made three changes from the team which beat the latter with Craig Dawson, Bellegarde and Son's compatriot Hee-Chan Hwang replacing Toti Gomes, Strand Larsen and Guedes. (Note the Wolves squad features three players called Gomes. Toti is a Portuguese defender who featured in the last game but was injured today. Joao is a Brazilian midfielder who played the full 90 minutes of both games. Rodrigo is a Portuguese forward who played for three minutes as a substitute last time and was given 17 minutes today.)

Nelson Semedo the Wolves captain won the coin toss before kick-off and Spurs played towards the south end of the ground for the first half which is fairly uncommon.

Wolves had the initial advantage. Destiny Udogie fouled Matheus Cunha just outside the box. From the free kick Ait-Nouri squared the ball to Hwang on his left and he scored with a shot to the right corner of the goal from outside the box. The Spurs players contended that Brennan Johnson had been blocked by Bueno during the move but their appeal was rejected.

To their credit Spurs soon responded. Spurs were awarded a corner on the right and it appeared that Kulusevski would take it. However he stopped to tie one of his shoe laces. Porro joined him and Kulusevski deferred to him. Porro struck a lovely curving cross towards the near post and Bentancur rose to head the equaliser. Ten minutes later Porro delivered another good cross this time to the far post and Dragusin headed narrowly wide.

In between those two incidents Fraser Forster went down in his box and received treatment to his left leg. There appeared to be concern among the management team but he was able to continue after receiving assistance. (Ed:- I thought this was a game-management ploy to enable Udogie to change his boots!)

Kulusevski sent in a cross from the right. Bentancur and Solanke both intent on the ball didn't see each other and collided. It wouldn't have counted as the movement was deemed offside.

Cunha had a snap shot which went narrowly wide before Kulusevski set up Bissouma whose effort was high.

Johnson made a run into the box and had a coming together with Andre. The referee awarded a penalty. VAR decided there were no grounds for over-turning the decision. This was the first penalty that Spurs have been awarded in the Premier League this season. Son took it and struck a shot towards the left post but Sa saved it. Son should have done better.

A few minutes later Son tried to atone by making a run towards the box but was halted by Doherty.

In time added on Johnson and Kulusevski combined to give Spurs the lead. Johnson passed the ball to Kulusevski in the box and he cut the ball back for Johnson who had continued his run to score with a shot to the centre of the goal.

Pereira made two changes at half time with Guedes and Strand Larsen replacing Bellegarde and Cunha. One change was tactical but Cunha was replaced because he was injured.

Shortly after the restart Udogie went down with what looked like an injury to his right hamstring and was replaced by Sergio Reguilon who was making his first Spurs Premier League appearance since April 2022 against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Wolves were coming more into the game. Bentancur intercepted a cut back and Porro blocked Ait-Nouri on the edge of the box twice in quick succession.

Postecoglou made a triple change with Sarr, Maddison and Werner replacing Bissouma, Johnson and Son. A Maddison effort was too high after good work by Kulusevski and Werner.

Solanke made a good run but was blocked by Bueno. Werner sent an inviting cross which Solanke just failed to connect with.

Pereira made an attacking change with Rodrigo Gomes and Forbs replacing Dawson and Hwang.

Spurs best opportunity of the half came when Solanke set up Kulusevski. He rounded the Wolves goalkeeper Sa but Bueno cleared the ball before it could cross the line.

Ait-Nouri sent in a dangerous cross but Forster kicked it out. Then Strand Larsen made a run in the box from the left and scored with a high shot from a very narrow angle.

Wolves could have won the game in the final minute of normal time when Doyle crossed to Doherty to head goalward but Forster made a good save. Kulusevski provided a similar effort for Sarr whose header was saved by Sa.

In time added on Bentancur was booked for a foul on Rodrigo Gomes and will miss the Newcastle game being suspended for the eighth Premier League game out of the last ten.

It was another frustrating game. Spurs yet again conceded the first goal of the game from a familiar weakness a set piece. This was the fifteenth time this year that Spurs have conceded the first goal in a Premier League home game the most ever by a team in the competition's history. Having gained the lead despite missing a penalty they then conceded a second goal with three minutes remaining. They had enough chances to put the game to bed. At the end there was booing and not for the first time it was drowned out by the PA system.

At the half-way point in the Premier League season they sit in eleventh place eleven points off the top four. It is the first time in fifteen seasons that the club sits in the bottom half of the table at the end of the year. Spurs have failed to win in five successive home Premier League games for the first time since October 2008 that same season. There have been quite a number of injuries but for a club ranked in the top five in the league for revenues, injuries are not a credible excuse particularly when there are six clubs ahead of them with significantly lower revenues Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Newcastle United, Fulham, Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion.

By Ange Postecoglou's own admission if Spurs don't finish in fourth position he won't have met expectations. That being the case it is quite likely that senior management of the club will dispense with his services at the end of the season particularly if he is far off the target as he presently is.

Spurs face some challenging matches in the next sixteen days with league games against Newcastle United (h) and Arsenal (a) with Liverpool (h) in the Carabao Cup semi-final in between. If Spurs don't offer meaningful resistance in these fixtures Postecoglou's position will be further weakened perhaps to the point of being replaced.

Follow @spursodyssey

. Squad numbers,appearances,bookings & goalscorers
. Read the preview for this game.
. All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats