Wolves Beat Tottenham 2-1
Wolves manager Gary O’Neil praised his side’s “almost perfect” performance as Joao Gomes’ double sank Tottenham – nudging Spurs out of the Premier League’s top four.
The visitors went ahead just before half-time when Gomes was left unmarked eight yards out and rose well to powerfully head home Pablo Sarabia’s right-wing corner.
But Tottenham made it 1-1 after only 34 seconds of the second half.
Wolves failed to clear a Spurs throw-in and Dejan Kulusevski ran past Craig Dawson and prodded the ball through Jose Sa’s legs.
Tottenham had fought back after conceding the first goal to beat Brentford and Brighton in their past two home games and Kulusevski had two chances to put the hosts in front this time.
However, Sa made an excellent save low down to his left and Nelson Semedo blocked a goalbound effort to keep it level.
Those squandered chances proved significant as Wolves sprang a quick counter-attack with Pedro Neto pulling the ball back for Gomes to side-foot home what proved to be the winning goal.
The hosts pushed for a late leveller, but Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies missed chances late on as the visitors held on for the victory.
“We were close to perfect,” said a delighted O’Neil. “I’m proud of the group. It’s a tough place to come and we deserved to win.
“We knew we could get Hwang [Hee-chan] and Pedro in behind and we thought we could play through the press. We pretty much envisaged it how we got it.
“But we were more than just counter-attacking and when we had the ball we caused them loads of problems and kept missing chances. I was a little bit frustrated that we weren’t more clinical but we kept going and kept threatening.”
Spurs began the day in fourth place, but Aston Villa’s 2-1 win at Fulham saw them move above Ange Postecoglou’s side.
For Tottenham, this result ended a five-game winning run at home in the league.
Wolves completed the double over Spurs, having beaten them 2-1 at Molineux in November, and briefly moved up to 10th in the table, only to drop back to 11th when Chelsea drew 1-1 at Manchester City in the late kick-off.
Spurs welcomed captain Son Heung-min into their starting line-up for the first time since he represented South Korea at the Asian Cup. He made an impact as a substitute when setting up Brennan Johnson’s stoppage-time winner in the 2-1 win over Brighton last weekend, so his selection was expected.
Wolves also recalled their own South Korean, Hwang, and he came in for the unfortunate Matheus Cunha.
The Brazilian forward, who has nine Premier League goals this season, suffered a significant hamstring injury in the 2-0 loss to Brentford and faces a lengthy absence.
Hwang should have got his 11th league goal of the campaign after only five minutes.
Semedo’s effort was parried by Guglielmo Vicario and, with the keeper still on the floor, the rebound fell to Hwang but he produced an awful attempt and fired over from six yards out with the goal gaping.
Spurs had scored in each of their past 36 Premier League games but were off form in the first half with visiting goalkeeper Sa not having to make a save.
Wolves took a deserved lead through Gomes’ first goal since he scored a late winner on his debut in the 2-1 win at Southampton on 11 February 2023, just after his £15m move from Brazilian side Flamengo.
The goal also meant Spurs have only kept one clean sheet in their past 16 Premier League games and again tested the recovery powers of Postecoglou’s side.
This was the eighth time in this campaign his team had conceded the first goal, although they had gone on to win four and draw twice in the seven previous occasions.
Spurs had to improve in the second half and instantly did with Kulusevski’s goal.
But a failure to add a second proved costly, as did an error from Yves Bissouma 25 yards out from the Wolves goal that led to the counter-attack which brought Gomes’ winning goal.
“Both goals conceded are disappointing from our point of view,” said Postecoglou. “We paid the price for not being as concentrated or disciplined in our football.
“It wasn’t through the lack of effort. We had them camped in their half and then they break and score the goal.
“You can’t keep coming from behind and doing that every week. We needed to be better in the first half.”
