Michael Dawson returned from suspension and replaced Sébastien Bassong as the only change to the team that beat Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Wednesday. Bolton Wanderers may play better footballer under Owen Coyle, but they still seem to have the attitude ‘why just take the player when you can take the man as well?’
In the third minute William Gallas became the second Spurs centre-back to try a Cruyff turn without success in a week. Luckily we weren’t punished. After five minutes Gary Cahill bear-hugged Jermain Defoe just outside the box. Rafael van der Vaart swung a free-kick in and we won a fortuitous penalty in the aftermath when Kevin Davies fell on the ball with his arm, stopping Vedran Ćorluka’s poke. Van der Vaart’s penalty was confident and out of Jussi Jaaskelainen’s reach.
Two minutes later we got a second penalty, which Van der Vaart scored, only for a retake to be ordered. Wilson Palacios and Defoe had encroached. Van der Vaart went left again – wide this time. Lennon had burst into the box and gone down under a Sam Ricketts challenge. The replays were not conclusive, but it looked to me like Ricketts got neither the man nor the ball.
A lovely move finished with an offside goal. Benoit Assou-Ekotto made a run from the left-back position to just outside the area where he hit a splendid pass to Van der Vaart, who crossed and Defoe headed in, but he was a yard off. Bolton’s most notable efforts of the first half were Johan Elmander’s header against the crossbar and Daniel Sturridge’s shot at the side netting at an angle he was never going to score from.
A couple of minutes into stoppage time the referee pointed to the spot for another penalty, but the decision was quickly reversed when he saw the linesman’s flag. Peter Crouch knocked the ball down to Van der Vaart and he struck the ball against Cahill’s hand. Crouch was correctly adjudged to have been offside.
Van der Vaart went off at half-time with a thigh strain (he’s only completed 8 of the 20 games he’s started this season) and was replaced by Steven Pienaar. Ten minutes later the team briefly lost its shape at the cost of a Bolton goal. Dawson’s soft clearance was dismal and Mark Davies picked up the ball and charged at him. He ended up on the floor, Assou-Ekotto was somewhere near the centre circle slowly jogging back when Davies’ pass found Sturridge on Bolton’s right. Palacios and failed to catch up with him and Sturridge made it two goals in two games with a shot straight at Heurelho Gomes that somehow went underneath him.
Pienaar had a good game even if his challenge on Cahill should have resulted in a penalty (to add insult to injury Cahill was booked for diving). He linked up well with Defoe seeing his shot saved from close range and Defoe hit the side netting after impressive exchanges. Jenas struck the post with a free-kick (he’s quite good at them, remember?).
I always had the feeling we would get a winner and we finally did a minute and a half into stoppage time. Niko Kranjcar came on for Palacios in the 78th minute and his goal was superb. He picked up the ball from Roman Pavlyuchenko, another second-half substitute, cut inside Zat Knight and hit a belter from 30 yards, right into the top corner.
When Kranjcar started making noises about leaving early in the season I thought it mighty short sighted. The only thing standing between him and a place in a potentially successful Spurs team is Gareth Bale. That’s quite an obstacle, admittedly, especially with Bale playing all but 49 minutes of European and league football this season before the Newcastle game two Saturdays ago. New boy Pienaar has been preferred and we may well have lost Kranjcar, but the Werder Bremen bid came to nothing. He would have been foolish to leave (what’s the hurry? It isn’t a World Cup/European Championship year), his chance was never that far away and yesterday he took it with both hands.
Arsenal became the first team to lose a four-goal lead in Premier League history. I say this not because they’re our local rivals, but potentially rivals to a top four spot. In the past making up 6 points on Arsenal has been beyond our capabilities, but we’ve won two league games in a row against them and if we make it three and they continue to show fragility they could find themselves battling Manchester City, Chelsea and ourselves for Champions League places.
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