Sportstar

There was not much for Ange Postecoglou to be happy about during Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest on Monday but perhaps the Australian would have cracked a smile knowing the VAR system was out of action for several minutes.

Postecoglou has long been a vocal critic of VAR and said in early April that the review system was “killing the game” after a Spurs goal was disallowed during a 1-0 loss to Chelsea.

ALSO READ | Burnley and Leeds United win promotion to Premier League

Thankfully for officials on Monday, no major incidents took place during the eight minutes VAR was unavailable due to what the Premier League said was a fire alarm at the Stockley Park facility in West London, where the match footage is monitored.

A similar incident occurred in November when Manchester United’s match at Ipswich Town continued without VAR because of a reported fire alarm at the same facility.

Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood scored his 19th Premier League goal of the season in a vital 2-1 away victory at Tottenham Hotspur which sent his side third in the table on Monday.

Back-to-back league defeats had slowed Forest’s push for Champions League qualification, but it got back on track thanks mainly to a superb start in north London.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side took the lead after five minutes when a corner fell to Elliot Anderson on the edge of the area, and his powerful deflected drive found the net.

New Zealander Wood then had a goal disallowed by VAR for a marginal offside decision before doubling Forest’s lead with a glancing header from Anthony Elanga’s cross in the 16th minute.

Tottenham improved after its calamitous start, and Richarlison rewarded its pressure with a powerful header to beat Matz Sels in the 87th to set up a nervy finale.

Forest hung on, though, to move above Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle United in the race for a top-five finish with 60 points. Europa League semifinalist Tottenham is 16th with 37 points after an 18th league defeat of the season.

ALSO READ | Burnley and Leeds United win promotion to the Premier League

Tottenham could still salvage its season by winning the Europa League, but a first home league defeat by Forest since 1997 will increase the pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou, who is in danger of leading the north London club to its worst Premier League points haul since it earned 44 in 1997-98.

After its dream start, Forest was content to cede possession, defend deeply and rely on counter-attacks -- a formula that has served it well this season.

Tottenham did carve out plenty of opportunities with Wilson Odobert a threat out wide and Richarlison twice thwarted by excellent saves, while Harry Toffolo made a superb goal-line clearance to keep out Dejan Kulusevski’s header.

There was clear relief at the end among the Forest ranks, and with a reasonably comfortable run-in to the season, it is now well-placed to return to Europe’s elite club competition that it won back-to-back in 1979 and 1980.

It season could get even better next weekend as it faces Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinal.

Ange Postecoglou says even the “good stuff” Tottenham Hotspur do is turned into a negative, acknowledging the “general sentiment” is that he will not be in charge next season.

Speculation over the Australian’s future has been rife for months following a tough, injury-hit season for Spurs, which is 14th in the Premier League.

The Europa League is the club’s only chance to salvage a difficult campaign, with Eintracht Frankfurt visiting on Thursday for the first leg of their quarterfinal.

Postecoglou said it was tough to change the narrative around Tottenham’s campaign.

“I just think we’re in that position now where even good stuff we may do is going to be turned into some sort of a glass half-(empty) rhetoric and from that perspective I don’t think that can be a driver in what we want to do,” he said.

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The former Australia and Celtic boss referred to a newspaper opinion piece that suggested even European glory may be too little, too late to save him.

“(Someone) wrote that even if we win it (the Europa League), I’m gone anyway. That’s not having a go at you, that’s just saying the general sentiment of people. So if you’re trying to use that as a motivation, you’re not going to win that anyway. There’s got to be something more in it for us.... We’ve been through a really tough time but we’re still in a position where we can make an impact,” Postecoglou said.

Postecoglou said that he arrived at Spurs in 2023 with a clear vision of what he could offer.

“As long as I’m in this position, that’s always my focus, irrespective of whatever noise there is or what there may or not be in the future,” he said.

“I don’t see that that should diminish my burning ambition, my desire and my determination to make that happen,’ he added.

This is Sportstar’s highlights of the match blog of the 2021-22 Premier League clash between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

MATCH REPORT: Spurs beats Man City 1-0 in league opener under new manager Nuno

FULL-TIME!!!! TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR BEATS MANCHESTER CITY 1-0

FOUR ADDITIONAL MINUTES!!!

SECOND HALF-UNDERWAY!!

City started strong but Spurs soaked the pressure and came back to launch dangerous attacks of its own.

The first half can be described as a fairly even contest by the two teams with City dominating the earlier stages while Spurs coming into the match after the 20-minute mark.

It can be anybody’s match. Stay tuned for the second half.

HALF-TIME (TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0-0 MANCHESTER CITY)

ONE ADDITIONAL MINUTE!!

READ: Not going to talk about Kane, says City manager Guardiola

LINEUPS ARE OUT!!!

Spurs XI (4-2-3-1): LLoris (GK) (C); Tanganga, Sanchez, Dier, Regulion; Skipp, Hoejbjerg; Moura, Alli, Bergwjin; Son

Subs: Doherty, Romero, Winks, Gil, Sissoko, Lo Celso, Gollini (GK), Davies, Scarlett

Coach: Nuno Espirito Santo

Man City XI (4-3-3): Ederson (GK); Cancelo, Ake, Dias, Mendy; Grealish; Fernandinho (C), Gundogan; Mahrez, Torres, Sterling\

Subs: Steffen (GK), Walker, Stones, Jesus, Zinchenko, Laporte, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo

Coach: Pep Guardiola

Preview

Manchester City begins the defense of its Premier League title with a trip to Tottenham, for whom the champions’ transfer target Harry Kane could feature.

Kane was back in training with the Spurs squad on Friday and manager Nuno Espirito Santo said he would make a late decision on whether to play the striker against a team Kane is keen to join.

City could give a first start to Jack Grealish, who signed for British-record $139 million in the offseason.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dejan Kulusevski is out of Thursday’s Europa League last-16 tie against AZ Alkmaar with an injury and unlikely to return before the international break at the end of the month, manager Ange Postecoglou said on Wednesday.

The Sweden international, who has 10 goals this season, has a foot injury and is expected to miss both legs of the knockout tie against Alkmaar as well as the Premier League matches against AFC Bournemouth and Fulham.

“Deki is the only one (who hasn’t travelled). He’s got a knock on his foot. He’s not really sure when (it happened) to be honest,” Postecoglou told a press conference.

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“It has been sore for the last few weeks. He was able to train and play, but it didn’t get any better, so further tests were necessary. We’re still waiting to find out the extent of the injury,” the manager said.

Ben Davies, Radu Dragusin and Richarlison also remain sidelined for the start of the Europa League knockout stages.

Meanwhile, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke all made the trip to the Netherlands after recovering from injuries, with the manager saying their availability will be assessed after training.

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland became the second player to score at least 20 goals in each of his first three Premier League seasons as the champion beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 on Wednesday to return to the top four.

Haaland, back after missing Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat by Liverpool because of injury, turned in Jeremy Doku’s low cross in the 12th minute and it proved decisive.

The Norwegian could have added to his tally as City dominated the opening period with home keeper Guglielmo Vicario making good saves from him and Doku and Savinho putting a great chance over the crossbar.

Haaland also had a stoppage-time goal ruled out for offside after City had weathered a Tottenham siege.

City’s first-half profligacy should have cost it as the host dominated the second period with Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel squandering glorious chances and Son Heung-min denied by City keeper Ederson after coming off the bench.

After Haaland’s late effort was disallowed, Tottenham almost snatched a point when Pape Matar Sarr headed over the crossbar.

City avoided a third defeat of the season against Tottenham and moved fourth on 47 points from 27 games.

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But it was another very mixed bag of a display by Pep Guardiola’s side who were hanging on throughout the second half after completely bossing the first.

In the end, however, the night was all about Haaland.

He was involved in the flowing City move that led to his goal, helping the ball out to Doku before popping up in front of goal to tuck an easy finish past Vicario.

The only other player to score 20-plus goals in his first three Premier League campaigns is Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United from 2001-02 to 2003-04.

Tottenham fielded its second-youngest starting side in the Premier League with Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Djed Spence all starting on the bench as manager Ange Postecoglou perhaps had one eye on next week’s Europa League last-16 tie.

After three successive league victories eased the pressure on Postecoglou, Tottenham will count itself unlucky not to have caused City more pain.

It stayed 13th in the table with 33 points.

Son Heung-min slammed Tottenham’s lack of focus after Sunday’s “painful” 2-1 defeat against lowly Leicester increased the pressure on under-fire boss Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou’s side blew the lead given to them by Richarlison’s first-half goal as Jamie Vardy equalised before Bilal El Khannouss bagged Leicester’s winner in north London.

Tottenham is languishing in 15th place in the Premier League, just eight points clear of the relegation zone, after a sixth defeat in its last seven top-flight matches.

Postecoglou’s decision to substitute Richarlison was jeered by angry fans, who also called for Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to quit as the atmosphere grew increasingly toxic.

Whether Postecoglou can survive much longer in a dismal second season in charge remains to be seen, but the Australian’s cause wasn’t helped by a scathing assessment of the performance from South Korea forward Son.

“It is very painful. Especially when you’re winning at half-time and conceding two goals in a short period of time. It let us down and is a very frustrating afternoon,” the Tottenham captain said.

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“We can’t just say tiredness because we just came out of the second half. Maybe it was a little bit sloppy.

“It is just a lack of concentration and a bit of sloppiness and in the Premier League table any team can punish us.

“It was not good enough and sometimes we made the wrong decision in the final moment. It is very disappointing to not get three points and to concede goals like this.”

The prospect of Tottenham dropping into the second tier is unthinkable for fans who last saw their club play at that level in 1977-78.

Asked if Tottenham could be dragged into a relegation battle, Son said: “It is definitely not good enough. We’ve had way too many losses, but there are still a lot of games remaining and we’ll have a lot of players back.”

Welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of the Premier League match between Everton and Tottenham Hotspur, being plated at the Goodison Park in Liverpool, England.

EVERTON STARTING XI

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STARTING XI

Tottenham endured the humiliation of being taken to extra time by Tamworth, an opponent nearly 100 places lower in English football’s pyramid, before winning 3-0 and avoiding one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history on Sunday.

Four days after beating Premier League leader Liverpool 1-0 in the English League Cup semifinal, Tottenham’s team of established internationals toiled against a group of part-time football players whose main jobs included bricklaying, selling zippers and being a financial advisor.

A massive surprise was on when fifth-tier Tamworth forced extra time with the score 0-0, only for the host to concede an own-goal in the 101st minute and then strikes by Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson to disappoint the majority of the 3,700 fans inside the tiny stadium called The Lamb.

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Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou felt compelled to bring on his top players including Son Heung-min, Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke from the substitutes’ bench to eventually overpower Tamworth, which is 16th in the National League and was playing in the third round for first time since 2012.

Ninety-five places were between the teams in the league pyramid.

In previous years, Tamworth would have earned a money-spinning replay by holding Tottenham to a draw in regulation time. However, replays were scrapped from this season because of the increasingly busy calendar.

Tottenham Hotspur is a dangerous opponent and Liverpool will have to work to prevent it from enforcing its style of play when the sides meet in a League Cup semifinal first-leg clash, manager Arne Slot said on Tuesday.

Liverpool and Spurs employ aggressive and attacking brands of football, with the last match between the sides in December resulting in a thrilling 6-3 win for the Merseyside club.

With both teams having scored more than 40 goals in the Premier League, another goalfest could be on the cards.

“We expect before we go into the game is that two teams have such a clear identity and playing style. Both teams are trying to force that identity towards the other,” Slot told reporters ahead of the match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“Large parts of the away game two weeks ago we could show our identity. But they in large parts showed how good they are. Scoring three goals against us is a big compliment,” he added.

Slot also hinted that he would shuffle his pack for the match, adding: “If you look at all the fixtures this season, there’s so many things going into a lineup. It’s going to be a decision made about what is the best lineup for tomorrow.”

“In my opinion, the best lineup might be ones who don’t start a lot... Maybe some of those players will play tomorrow. Maybe players who have played a lot will play,” he added.

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Slot added that midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, who has been dealing with illness, was unlikely to start the semifinal tie.

The Dutch manager also once again defended Trent Alexander-Arnold, after the right-back drew some criticism from pundits for his performance in their 2-2 draw with Manchester United amid reports of a move to Real Madrid.

“I think we were all disappointed, not only Trent. We were all disappointed,” Slot said.

“Parts of our game we weren’t completely happy with. It wasn’t only Trent, there were more things we could have done better. Trent didn’t play his best game, but some others also didn’t play their best. If you play 50, 60 games in a season, one of them won’t be your best performance. Maybe we should highlight these players are playing so well despite playing two games in a week,” he added.

Alexander-Arnold is part of a trio of key players including top scorer Mohamed Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk whose contracts are nearing an end, but Slot shot down any suggestion that the uncertainty was affecting the players on the pitch.

“If everybody plays well, nobody is distracted by their ‘contract distraction’. Nine times out of 10, (results are) down to how well the other team plays,” he concluded..