1 day ago
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For 95 minutes, Antoine Semenyo had done nothing other than receive a yellow card for his 26th birthday. Then came the farewell moment he had dreamed of.
Delivered the ball on the edge of the Tottenham penalty area, he struck the sweetest of shots past a helpless Guglielmo Vicario to end Bournemouth’s longest barren run of their Premier League era and sign off in the most perfect fashion. With a move to Manchester City imminent, he can depart the south coast with the blessing of everyone at the club where he has developed into one of English football’s most dangerous players. After 11 winless games, Bournemouth again know what it feels like to win.
For Spurs, the misery continues. They led early through Mathys Tel and then equalised courtesy of João Palhinha’s beauty. But Thomas Frank’s problems run deep after just two wins from the last 12 league outings.
The fear among those of a Spurs persuasion – born from all too frequent experience – was that their side would sit back and seek to protect what they had after Tel had given them an early lead. Such concerns had proven unwarranted by the interval, by which time they had not only let their lead slip, but fallen behind.
Making his 50th Premier League appearance, Evanilson scored Bournemouth’s opener, nodding home a lovely cross from Marcus Tavernier when afforded far too much time and space down the right to identify his target inside the Tottenham box.
The second came from the same source when another Tavernier cross found Marcos Senesi beyond the far post and he pulled the ball back inside for Junior Kroupi to turn in from close range.
Andoni Iraola has admitted Semenyo will be “almost impossible” to replace, but Bournemouth may have unearthed a gem in the 19-year-old, who is looking more like a man every time he takes the field. This goal took his tally to seven for the season, drawing him level with Lamine Yamal as the highest-scoring teenager in Europe’s big five leagues.
That Spurs – wearing black armbands in memory of Martin Chivers, the club legend whose death was announced shortly before kick-off – had taken the lead five minutes in seemed an unlikely occurrence given the absence of their most potent attackers in Dominic Solanke, James Maddison, Mohammed Kudus and Dejan Kulusevski, all injured.
Thomas Frank’s side came into this fixture with the club’s lowest average shots per game in any season since the statistic began being recorded more than 25 years ago. That it was Tel who scored the opener should at least offer some source of encouragement. The Frenchman has yet to catch light since making his loan move permanent in the summer, shuffled across the left, right and middle, but most commonly sat on the bench.
Making only his fifth league start of the campaign, he had plenty to do on the left byline when given the ball from Xavi Simons’ deft backheel but neatly cut inside James Hill and curled inside the far post. It was quite some finish, although it had been long forgotten by half-time.
To compound Spurs’ misery, their extensive injury list received another addition soon after the restart when Lucas Bergvall went down clutching his thigh and hobbled off, burying his face in his shirt as he went. Lacking a cutting edge that has been absent all too often this season, Tottenham’s frustration increasingly played out not in attacking threat but ill-discipline and rash challenges. They did, though, come close to an unlikely equaliser when Richarlison, on as a substitute, nodded against the base of the post from a corner with 20 minutes to go.
When Micky van de Ven then tumbled to the deck inside the Bournemouth penalty area following one of his trademark marauding runs from deep, the referee, Darren England, pointed to the spot, only to be summoned to the pitchside monitor. Replays showed the Dutchman had flicked out his leg towards Hill rather than the other way round, prompting a reversal of the decision and a yellow card for Van de Ven.
Then came a moment of marvel from the boot of Palhinha. With the Spurs midfielder facing away from goal as the ball bounced around following a corner, he unleashed an acrobatic overhead kick that flew into the top corner.
It looked like it would be enough to grab a point. But Semenyo was working to another script.
