John Brewin’s report has just landed so I’ll leave you with that.
Thanks for hanging with me. What a weird game. Surely Martin’s last. Big Ange has some breathing room after that thumping win.
Catch you next time.
James Maddison is recognised as the player of the match.
Here’s what he has to say:
A great night. It was an important night for us. You can see big teams struggling throughout the league. So make no mistake how important that victory and performance is. That was a big night for us.
[Spence] is a great lad. I told him before, go and do what you do. He got the ball and wriggled and that run is one I’ve been working on for years. So credit to him.
We can blow any team away in this league. We did it against Man City. That was a proper performance today and I’m proud of the lads.
Full-time: Southampton 0-5 Tottenham
Boos greet the full-time whistle. Spurs have their first win in five. Southampton are firmly rooted to the bottom of the table, four points behind 19th and nine from safety. A mad first half and a dull second. Will Martin be here tomorrow?
90+2 mins: There’s a sign being held up demanding Russell Martin’s sacking. I reckon they’ll get their wish. Walker-Peters dinks a ball to the far post but Gray beats Fernandes to the ball and it’s safely dealt with.
90 mins: Should be six. Werner’s ball from the left was superb and found Johnson about a few yards out. But rather than tap home he manages to mistime his side-foot and it’s wide.
89 mins: Dibling runs and runs but has no mate in support. He doesn’t shoot but continues to run, all the way to the byline but still has no mates around him. Eventually they come in support and he passes backwards. The attack comes to nothing. Can we call this now?
87 mins: Spurs have their first shot on target in the second half. The short corner is worked to Sarr outside the area in a central position. He takes one touch and then shoots, but straight down the middle of the goal and it’s an easy save.
86 mins: Johnson’s heavy touch takes him wider than he’d have liked so he has to cross rather than shoot. He wins a corner.
Paul Griffin keeps the chat alive:
“Carlo Ancelotti was sacked at halftime with his club, juventus, still in with a chance of winning the league.
”Of course Juve were criticised but future events vindicated them, as Carlo has gone for one year, or even longer, before winning a European Cup, and his current side, Real Madrid have never won a scudetto.”
83 mins: Spurs haven’t had a shot in this second half. Sums up a pretty dull period. C’mon! One more please. Lankshear chases a ball in the box but it’s over cooked and he can’t haul it in.
82 mins: A couple of changes now. Solanke off and Lankshear on for Spurs. Archer replaces Armstrong for Southampton.
80 mins: Fernandes heads the ball into the net but he’s a mile off-side. Good delivery from the right and Saints fans were off their seats. But not to be.
79 mins: Dibling keeps shooting and he’s getting closer. Picks up a loose ball on the edge of the area and whips in a shot with his left outside of the box. It’s wide, but not by much as he went for the top corner.
75 mins: This feels like one of those NBA matches where a team storms to a lead and then – for some strange reason I’ll never understand – agree to take their foot off the gas. Tottenham are barely trying. But that might change as Maddison, on a hat-trick, makes way for Timo Werner. The German will be desperate to prove his worth after some harsh words from his manager. He won’t cruise in second gear. Alfie Dorrington comes on to make his senior debut as well.
73 mins: Tottenham, with Kulusevski, find themselves in the Saints box. But they can’t work the chance. Southampton launch a counter and Dibling, off his left foot from the right of the box, delivers a whipping shot. It’s straight at Forster. The young lad is fighting til the end. He deserves better than this.
Ingo Herzke has delivered a beauty on half-time sackings:
Regarding Pat’s query – there’s a famous example from Germany’s 2nd division, exactly 25 years ago today (Dec. 15 1999). Toni Schumacher was managing Fortuna Cologne, who had a very colourful chairman at the time:
Jean Löring. After a spell of bad results they were trailing 0-2 at home to Mannheim at half time, Löring stormed into the dressing room and shouted: “Piss off, you wanker! I never want to see you again.” (That’s how Schumacher told it in his memoir.) To the press afterwards he spoke the immortal words: “As the club, I had to act.” Classic.
69 mins: Chance to swing in a corner for Saints. Fernandes has three centre backs to aim at. It’s an out-swinger that’s cleared but only as far as Ariba who dinks in a tasty looking ball to the far post from the left. Wood-Gordan runs onto it and leaps into the air to side-foot it across goal. Not sure if he was going for goal himself. Perhaps he should have.
68 mins: Spurs have powered down. They’re basically operating in first gear. Can’t see them inflicting a record score here, which is good news for Kári Tulinius:
“Häsenhuttl won’t be alone in turning his attention to this match if Spurs add a couple goals, Ipswich fans will start hoping that Tottenham knock them into joint second in worst defeats.”
Matt Loren with the swift work. Here’s Jol getting sacked at half-time: https://youtu.be/nS8E6Wrz2JA?si=1C87CwrUo7upSU7n
66 mins: Walker-Peters hits the side netting. A rare foray forward has him on the ball on the left (has he switched flanks). A step-over, then another then a low drilled shot towards the near post. But he dragged it just a little too much and I don’t think Forster was worried.
According to Matt Loren, Martin Jol was sacked at half-time by Spurs.
Anyone got the intel on this?
64 mins: All the sting has completely left this match. It’s become rather dull if I’m honest. No bite or menace in any tackle and no zip in any attack. Which I suppose is understandable. Fernandes does well to win the ball in midfield. He finds Dibling in a centre right position and the young lad fires from range. He hits it well but it’s blocked.
Gary Naylor knows exactly what he’s doing here:
“I don’t understand why these clubs, who just don’t have the players for it, insist on playing The Guardiola Way. I mean, what do Southampton, Ipswich and Manchester City expect?”
60 mins: Southampton have a corner. Their fans are in great voice. The set-piece comes to nothing and Manning can’t keep the move alive as he is shepherded out by Porro. He’s livid, he feels he should have won another corner. Complaining to the ref will be his last act. He makes way for Sugawara.
Pat [no surname] wants to know if a manager has ever been sacked at half-time. Martin is still there.
But as Keith [also no surname] says:
“It’s bad enough that your team is down 4-0 with a couple of minutes to go in the first half. What’s worse is when the coach turns his back and walks down the tunnel and isn’t around to see the fifth goal go in.”
I didn’t like that either.
58 mins: Johnson gets his name in the book. Not sure for what. Kicking the ball away I think after a foul. Saints enjoying more time on the ball but not doing much with it. The only threat is Dibling out wide and Armstrong on the edge of through-balls.
56 mins: Dibling’s ball for Armstrong is almost perfect. From the right wing, it was placed between the defence and keeper. Just a little too heavy with the outside of his foot. Southampton have definitely improved, but the bar was very low. Spurs sitting off them a touch.
54 mins: Armstrong shoots across the face of goal from outside the box. He was off-side so it wouldn’t have counted, but that’s better from the home side. Quick ball over the top finds his run and he flashes a shot from the half-volley with his left boot. Off-side. But better.
51 mins: Spurs break and Kulusevski has a one on one. But he doesn’t have the speed to tear away on his own so he’s waiting for Johnson to get up in support. Instead of playing it early Kulusevski waits, and waits, and waits. By the time he decides to move the ball on Southampton’s defence has hurried back and the Spurs man has no choice but to go backwards.
49 mins: Manning bursts down the left and keeps going. He gets a lucky break and finds himself in the box with a sight on goal. But rather than shoot he takes an extra touch and is then bundled over. He appeals for a penalty but he’s not getting one. Missed opportunity.
47 min: There are loads of empty seats. More than a few fans have not come back after the break.
46 mins: They’re back out there. Son has been subbed for Brennan Johnson. What an opportunity to blood some youngsters.
Five more? Peter Oh [and someone else] is hoping they can:
“Somewhere out there Ralph Hasenhüttl is watching, fingers crossed that Spurs score at least five more unanswered goals so he can finally lay that day in 2019 to rest.”
Not even Spurs could Spurs this up.
Well, not according to Eric Peterson:
Every goal simply reinforces how spectacular is the prospect of another Spurs collapse, only because it’s Spurs. Every goal makes me imagine a Saints board member barging into the dressing room at half time, a la Apollo 13. “This could be the worst disaster we’ve ever experienced!” Russell Martin: “With all due respect, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”
Loads of irate Southampton fans have written in. Here are a couple of them:
Michael Fry: “You said It’s astonishing how easily Tottenham are slicing through Southampton’s lines. Not to Saints fans these past one and a half seasons. Russell Martin has to go!”
Adam Griffiths: “Any Southampton fans know what’s happened to Armel Bella-Kotchap, the German international and apparently Southampton centre-back? Not sure he’ll make much difference now but surely he can’t be any worse than *gestures vaguely in the direction of Saints’s back-line*”
Half-time: Southampton 0-5 Tottenham
What a half of football. And it’s 100% a fair reflection on the state of the game. Southampton have been dreadful. Tottenham have been clinical. One-sided doesn’t quite cut it.
GOAL! Southampton 0-5 Tottenham (Maddison, 45+4)
My word! Oh yes they can! That’s a delightful finish from no angle at all from Maddison. Son’s ball down the right was perfect, with the outside of his boot, and found Maddison on the gallop. He cut back near the byline and then rifled it into the roof of the net.
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45+4 mins: Into the final minute of added time and Martin is down the tunnel. What is he going to say to his players? What can he say? Something has to change and that something might be him. Anyway, Spurs keeping the ball until the break. Can they add one more?
45+2 mins: Sarr is having a top game. More nifty footwork and he’s clear in midfield. But the move fizzles out. We’re crawling to the half-time break.
45 mins: Son’s weak effort from inside the box slides straight to McCarthy. Which is a shame as that would have been some goal. Wonderful work inside their own area, Tottenham were toying with Southampton’s forwards. Then Porro had it and drove on before finding Kulusevski. Son had it in space once again but this time his finish let him down.
43 mins: Porro wins the ball deep in his own half and drives forward. On he goes. His cross-field pass is blocked but Sarr sweeps up the loose ball and ticks it along for Maddison. Son bursts onto the ball on the left where. A couple of step-overs and he shoots, but it’s just wide of the near post. Angle was perhaps too acute. McCarthy looked to have had it covered anyway.
Paul Fourmy is keeping the faith:
“Why are they leaving? Do they know who we are? They’re gonna win 5-4”
That’s the spirit.
40 mins: Armstrong almost scores! Dibling on the ball delivers from the left for his skipper. The run is perfect but the finish is not. Just wide from about five yards.
37 mins: I’m loving the way Spence is impacting the game, at both ends of the pitch, across the left and right. He’s having a great game. But here come Southampton with Manning chasing down a ball from the centre towards the left, but he’s beaten to it and gives away a free kick.
36 mins: Fernandes is booked for shoving Bergvall into the post as they all jostled for space before Son’s corner. No penalty though. Once the corner is swung in, it’s headed away but Spurs come again. Maddison lifts a lob-wedge style ball into the mixer. It’s cleared away.
34 min: Another poor Southampton delivery from a set-piece, this time a corner , is easily dealt with and Spurs counter in a flash. The move ends with Son shooting on the angle and McCarthy does well to tip it over the bar.
32 mins: Ooh, half a chance for a fifth. Solanke couldn’t quite organise his feet as he controlled a cross from the right. He almost wriggled the space to shoot but the ball got stuck underneath him.
31 mins: The Saints free kick was poor. Straight at Forster. Spurs back on the ball.
29 min: It’s astonishing how easily Tottenham are slicing through Southampton’s lines. It has the appearance of a training session. Oh but there’s a rare mistake from a man in blue and Bergvall, after giving away the ball, commits a foul and receives a yellow card. Oppirtunity here for Saints to clip one into the mixer from centre left, about 35 yards out.
27 min: Udogie receives treatment as he was hauled down in the build up. Martin uses this break to talk to his players. As he does so more fans are streaming out the stadium. What on earth can they do here? They’d do well not to see double digits by the end of the game.
Udogie is replaced by Porro.
GOAL! Southampton 0-4 Tottenham (Sarr, 26)
They’re flooding out the stadium now! Udogie with a wonderful drive through the Southampton lines gets things moving before Sarr collects on the edge of the box, easily beats a nothing challenge from Wood-Gordan and then slams home a wonderful finish as he falls.
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23 mins: Kamaldeen Sulemana looks absolutely distraught on the bench. You feel for him, you really do. It’s not his fault the entire team is a shambles.
21 mins: Maddison fires over the bar. Several Tottenham players are lining up waiting to shoot. Maddison’s free-kick was wickedly delivered. Spence kept the move alive as he drove the byline and crossed. Son mistimed his volley but the ball was laid back for Maddison on the edge of the area. Rather than shoot first time he took a touch, which meant he had to snatch at his effort.
20 mins: Kulusevski shows great footwork to dribble past two players inside the box and get a shot away. It’s blocked and goes out for a corner. Tottenham look like scoring from every attack.
19 min: “They look shellshocked,” says Joe Cole on comms. He’s talking about the Southampton bench.
18 min: A decent chance for Armstrong gives Southampton’s fans something to cheer. He started the move by collecting a decent pass forward between the lines. He played it out to the right and continued his run and met a clipped cross with his head. The header was on target, but tame and straight at Forster.
16 mins: Martin has hooked Sulemana for Wood-Gordan as he switches to a back three. Not sure that’ll make any difference. Some fans are apparently leaving already.
14 mins: This is embarrassing. Russell Martin looks intently into a screen in front of him but this is just shoddy defending. Son, once again, had the freedom of St Mary’s. The cross wasn’t dealt with and there was no one in red and white to stop Kulusevski from tapping in Tottenham’s third.
GOAL! Southampton 0-3 Tottenham (Kulusevski, 14)
What is happening! A long ball finds Son who whips in a low cross. Solanki can’t get it but the ball is loose and swept home by Kulusevski from about five yards in front of goal.
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13 mins: This is now a mountain to climb for the home side and their boss could be out the door in the morning. They’ve looked so passive, so weak. That cross from deep wasn’t dealt with and the only man paying attention was Son. Southampton’s defenders were sleeping.
GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Tottenham (Son, 12)
Boos around St Mary’s as Son slams home the second! A pretty innocuous cross from the right takes a deflection and bobbles across the box and Son, totally unmarked on the left, runs onto the bouncing ball and crunches it home.
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11 min: Southampton cough up possession too easily. Despite the five man midfield there is no structure and Spurs can press and pinch it back as they like. Kulusevski is drifting off his wing and across the face of the defensive line.
9 mins: Sarr finds Son with a raking cross-field ball. Spence is in support and then Kulusevski on the overlap down the left fires a low cross that bounces out for a corner. Swift work from the men in powder blue. The corner routine didn’t quite work but Spurs have it back and Son shoots from the left of the box. Straight at McCarthy but things are looking grim for the home side.
7 mins: A dink into the box by Walker-Peters from the right is too deep and Tottenham clean up. They look less rushed on the ball than Saints so far. Already feels like the home side is chasing it. A stiff late challenge from Aribo catches Maddison and the goal scorer goes down clutching his ankle.
5 min: Spence beats a tackler down the right. What a dream first start this is becoming. A throw down the left flank has Sulemana scampering inside the Tottenham box, but he’s muscled off the ball.
3 mins: Southampton look spooked. Manning gives away a soft foul around half-way. They need to get themselves composed but here comes Son on the left, combining with Maddison. Gray and Sarr on the ball. Spurs are looking good.
1 min: Wow! What a goal. Spence, in his first start for Spurs, collected on the turn, drove and then slid in a wonderful ball for Maddison who kept his composure to slot home. Fantastic movement off the ball and a really good finish.
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Tottenham (Maddison, 1)
What a start! Maddison gets on the end of a through ball from and slots home from inside the box!
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Away we go! Saints in their classic red and white, Spurs in baby blue.
This has a bit of a desperate feel to it. Both managers on TNT were doing their best to mask their anxiety (at least that’s my pop psychology take). They know that the ice below their feet is getting thinner.
The players are now making their way out the tunnel. All the noise, all the pressure, all the injuries and absentees, this could be anything.
Young Tyler Dibling is getting heaps of praise in the build up. The 18-year-old is apparently on Manchester United’s radar with a rumoured £21 million offer on the table.
Russell Martin says he has worked on “lots of things” this week. That’s encouraging.
Ange Postecoglou says he needs “another performance of ours that reflects the kind of football we want to play”.
Southampton’s boss looks the more chipper of the two.
Ivan Victor has written in and taken issue with some of my phrasing:
“Maybe this is pedantic (I don’t think it is), with 8 or 9 players out injured and a bench with five academy players it’s hard to be able to select your preferred starting XI.”
Nope, I don’t think that’s pedantic Ivan. I think that’s totally fair. You’re right, it’s not been ideal for Big Ange.
History is not on Southampton’s side.
They have won just one of their past eight matches against Tottenham in all competitions with three draws and four defeats.
But we should expect goals. The three most recent meetings between these two have produced 16 goals in total.
Perhaps the best stat is that Southampton have scored in each of their last 15 league games against Spurs. Fifteen!
My colleague Luke McLaughlin wrote this week that Spurs’ style seems unsuitable.
He took the 3-4 reverse at home to Chelsea as a case in point and asked, “is it sustainable to play with all guns blazing, all season, as if the bell is about to ring for the end of lunch break?”
It’s not the first time this has been asked of a Postecoglou team. I do wonder, though, if Tottenham’s fans would accept anything other than swashbuckling go-forward footy?
Big Ange isn’t holding back. After calling out Timo Werner, stating that the german’s performance against Rangers this week was “not acceptable”, the Tottenham boss has claimed that he has no time for “bruised egos”.
It’s a heavy approach but perhaps that is what’s needed. A bit of a kick up the rear to jumpstart a spluttering season.
We’ll find out if it’s worked.
Tottenham team
Big Ange is still searching for his preferred starting XI.
Dejan Kulusekvski, Lucas Bergvall, Djed Spence, Pape Sarr and Dominic Solanke all start. Timo Werner, after getting chewed out by his boss midweek, is on the bench alongside a bunch of youngsters.
Tottenham 4-2-3-1: Forster, Gray, Dragusin, Spence, Udogie, Bergvall, Sarr, Maddison, Son, Kulusevski, Solanke.
Subs: Austin, Porro, Lankshear, Dorrington, Olusesi, King, Hardy, Werner, Johnson.
Southampton team
Four changes for the Saints from the team that lost to Villa last week.
Alex McCarthy returns in goal with Jan Bednarek in front of him. Joe Aribo and Kamaldeen Sulemana are also given an opportunity to show their stuff from the start.
Southampton 4-5-1: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Manning, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Sulemana, Downes, Aribo, Fernandes, Armstrong, Dibling.
Subs: Lumley, Bree, Wood, Sugawara, Amo-Ameyaw, Fraser, Lallana, Onuachu, Archer.
Preamble
Admittedly this is usually the case with football, but both these teams could really do with a win this evening.
Southampton are rooted to the foot of the table and haven’t won in over a month. Tottenham, down in 12th, have been doing that thing they do where they beat (or at least compete with) good sides but then stink the place up against everyone else.
The wolves are howling outside the doors of both managers and only a positive result on the south coast will keep them at bay a little longer.
Does this mean we’ll get a classic encounter where players fly into tackles and every blade of grass is fought over? That’s certainly the hope.
Kick-off at 7pm.
Teams and further updates to follow.
