# Kepa pays penalty as Son earns point for Spurs in thriller against Bournemouth

Credit Tottenham for their resilience. Credit their character for coming back into the game. Credit them for battling their way to a point that never really seemed plausible until Son Heung-min converted an 84th-minute penalty. But let nobody get carried away: this was a game that raised more questions for Spurs than it answered. It was not a performance that should reassure anybody.

The daffodils were out in front of the flats on the Seven Sisters Road. There was some warmth in the sun. Fans uncertainly cast off their thick winter coats. Finally, Tottenham’s injury crisis is beginning to ease. At last Ange Postecoglou has had some time to work with his squad. Spurs had won league games on three successive weekends. Even with  in their previous league game, it might have been possible to believe that winter is over, that renewal has begun.



Son Heung-Min goes down under the challenge of Kepa Arrizabalaga to earn a penalty which he then scored. Photograph: Marc Atkins/Getty Images



Although a  into the sixth round of the FA Cup last week, Bournemouth have been a little out of sorts recently, losing three of their previous four league games, a run that had dropped them into the mass of sides just outside the expected Champions League qualification slots. “Big teams find ways to win,” a frustrated Andoni Iraola said. “We need to be more efficient.” With 10 games to go, everybody in the top half has a realistic chance of a top-five finish – a broad grouping that, notably, does not include Tottenham.

That’s why frustration is mounting at the  Stadium, the greatest lower midtable arena in the world. Without Dejan Kulusevski, they look desperately short of creativity. Postecoglou picked a functional midfield of Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur but if the intention was to add an extra curtain of protection, it didn’t work and left Spurs entirely reliant on their wingers for creativity.



Evanilson dinks the ball over Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to put Bournemouth into a 2-0 lead. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

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Although a  into the sixth round of the FA Cup last week, Bournemouth have been a little out of sorts recently, losing three of their previous four league games, a run that had dropped them into the mass of sides just outside the expected Champions League qualification slots. “Big teams find ways to win,” a frustrated Andoni Iraola said. “We need to be more efficient.” With 10 games to go, everybody in the top half has a realistic chance of a top-five finish – a broad grouping that, notably, does not include Tottenham.

That’s why frustration is mounting at the  Stadium, the greatest lower midtable arena in the world. Without Dejan Kulusevski, they look desperately short of creativity. Postecoglou picked a functional midfield of Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur but if the intention was to add an extra curtain of protection, it didn’t work and left Spurs entirely reliant on their wingers for creativity.



Kepa Arrizabalaga



The introduction of Lucas Bergvall and Son at half-time, and then James Maddison on the hour, offered greater attacking threat, but it also made Spurs look terribly vulnerable to the counter. Although Son had a shot deflected against the base of a post and Sarr dragged inexplicably wide after neat work from Maddison, Justin Kluivert had already had one goal ruled out for offside when a shift of body weight took Kevin Danso out of the game as he slipped in Evanilson to dink Bournemouth’s second past Guglielmo Vicario.

When Sarr did eventually score two minutes later, it was a mis-hit cross that looped in off the far post. Bergvall had hit a post seconds earlier and Kluivert then hit a post from another breakaway as the game collapsed into a reckless openness. Nobody embodied that more than Kepa Arrizabalaga, whose lunge at Son when there was little immediate danger conceded the penalty that brought the equaliser.

Perhaps to an extent that is simply the nature of Angeball, but picking up the scraps from chaos doesn’t seem a plan likely to create consistently positive results. The problem is that Spurs are consistent at the moment, just not in a good way: they have now taken six points from nine home league games  in November. Is that enough to keep Postecoglou in the job next season? Perhaps not in isolation, which is why Thursday is such a big day for the club.

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