No manager, a fading top-four challenge and a home defeat to relegation candidates. Modern football protocol dictates such a state of affairs will lead to a club’s ownership being targeted. Calls for Daniel Levy to step aside are not uncommon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but they have become especially loud from the White Wall Stand when Spurs are losing.
As fans peeled to the exits after a solo goal by Burkina Faso’s Dango Ouattara, surging past a labouring Pierre-Emile Højbjerg in the final seconds, the chants resumed, but with added venom. Like the Glazers at Old Trafford and FSG at Anfield, Levy and the Enic Group felt the white heat of failure. Even if Tottenham’s defeat could be explained by poor finishing, absent-minded defending and the excellence of an inspired, disciplined Bournemouth, the money men, the ownership, were castigated as the root cause.
Not that the players escaped censure. The first-half substitute Davinson Sánchez lasted 22 minutes before being subbed off after his comedic assist for Dominic Solanke to score Bournemouth’s second. “I’ve never seen this in my career,” said the Tottenham goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris. who said his colleague had been booed on every touch. “I feel really bad for Davinson. He’s a teammate, he’s a friend and he’s been fighting for the club for many many years now. It’s just sad.”
Defeat arrived as Spurs seemed to have relocated the luck of last week’s VAR-assisted defeat of Brighton. Arnaut Danjuma’s shot from the edge of the box fizzed in to make it 2-2 when Harry Kane looked in the Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto’s sightline. VAR ruled Kane had not been interfering with play. Redemption? It ended up preceding only fury and the away fans’ chants of “we are staying up”.
“Their second goal was offside but the lads were incredible and showed quality,” said the Bournemouth manager, Gary O’Neil. “You can’t lose every game in the last minute. We have lost a few this year. For one to go our way was big for us.”
On the sideline O’Neil had kicked almost every ball. His intensity embodies a Bournemouth fight against relegation that now looks likely to be successful when many had them down after the first few matches of the season. They ended the day six points clear of the bottom three.
A game delayed by Bournemouth’s slow passage down the Tottenham High Road had begun with the visitors on the end of Son Heung-min’s smooth opener. Clément Lenglet’s ball found Ivan Perisic and a reverse pass allowed Son to sweep home. A Tottenham stroll seemed in session.
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Son’s partnership with Kane at times flickered. After a tough winter for the Korean it remains their club’s best route to salvaging anything from the season. After an injured Lenglet was replaced by Sánchez, Spurs continued to use Son as their out-ball, but it was down Bournemouth’s same, inside-left channel their equaliser came. Pedro Porro idled before Phillip Billing combined with Solanke to send away Matías Viña to score. The Uruguayan debutant, on loan from Roma, finished coolly.
Viña did not get a chance to add to his glory, pulling up with a back problem. Instead, Solanke scored Bournemouth’s second, his run beginning the move that ended with Sánchez inadvertently playing him through. A game that might have been out of sight had lurched into a trademark Tottenham existential crisis. Bournemouth flushed with belief as the stadium filled with “Levy out”. Cheers broke out when the unfortunate Sánchez was subbed off, the speed of his exit suggesting no injury. “We need to support him, it’s a tough moment for him and the team,” said Cristian Stellini, Tottenham’s caretaker manager, aghast. “We allowed them to score the first two goals too easily. Too easy, too easy.”
Had Bournemouth scored too early? Tottenham ploughed forward, the home fans turning their disquiet towards time-wasting. Joe Rothwell and Jefferson Lerna screened the defence as a heavy barrage of crosses came in. Danjuma, Sánchez’s replacement, was pushed to the wing with Kane withdrawn as playmaker and long-range marksman.
Held at bay, Stellini’s team were reduced to potshots. On 77 minutes, Richarlison was introduced as a fifth attacker, the record signing still yet to register a Premier League goal. It briefly looked as if his moment had come – he had even begun his celebration – only for Danjuma to be ruled offside against his former club.
Seconds later, Danjuma’s own redemption looked to have arrived. But then: enter Ouattara. “He finishes it really well,” said O’Neil, with some understatement before eventually admitting: “yeah, incredible.” His team had been a credit to him.
Tottenham meanwhile continue to ache with self-loathing.
