I guess let’s start with the good news: we are four points away from the top five positions in the Premier League table. I felt like Tottenham had three points in the bag. There was a complete difference between the first and second halves of the game. Mathys Tel had a shot in under two minutes, which set the precedent for the game. We pressed well against Sunderland, and it’s likely fatigue played a part in the second half, when we let Sunderland back into the game.
The intent right from the off was good from Tottenham, and it looked like we would go on to win the game quite comfortably. Hopefully, Thomas Frank sees the difference between the two halves and understands that the approach to winning football matches is how we played in the first half.
Let’s give Sunderland credit: they have had a dream start to the Premier League, and Manchester City couldn’t break them in their previous game. However, even with all our injuries, Sunderland have had six first-team players away at the AFCON tournament.
We are lacking attacking options, and now that Brennan Johnson has left for Crystal Palace, Kudus is injured as well, with the extent of that still to be confirmed. We don’t bring on Palhinha, who would sit back, and we all knew that we would then sit back and hold on to the one-goal lead.
It’s a far cry from last season, when we played all-out attacking football under Big Ange with our “this is who we are, mate” philosophy. We played horrendously in the domestic league, and they are not playing great either this season. Perhaps the issues are not with the manager, but with our players.
