Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Jose Mourinho’s Spurs moved up to fifth in the Premier League thanks to an injury-time winner at Molineux, courtesy of Jan Vertonghen.
After Lucas Moura gave the visitors an early lead, Wolves roared back with an equaliser from Adama Traore and looked likely to go on and win the game until the Spurs centre back delivered the killer punch.
These are two teams aiming for European football once again, and Wolves coach Nuno Espirito Santo will be disappointed to miss this chance as his team dropped to eighth in the table.
But for the Spurs boss, the good news just keeps on coming. He dominated the Premier League 2019 news at the start of the year when he departed Old Trafford under a cloud and now, as the year comes to a close, Mourinho is already becoming a big favourite in North London.
Highlights of the game
While Wolves dominated the early possession it was Spurs who struck the first decisive blow with just eight minutes on the clock. Moura found space just inside the penalty area to set himself and then hit a bullet of a shot past Rui Patricio and into the roof of the net.
Diogo Jota has been in a rich vein of form and the wide man was a constant threat down the Wolves left flank, beating Davinson Sanchez at will, and then firing a cross in, which hit Eric Dier and was scrambled clear.
With 13 goals last season and six already in this campaign, Raul Jimenez is Wolves most potent striker, and he linked up brilliantly with Jota before hitting a swerving effort inches wide of Gazziniga’s left-hand post. A minute later Jota beat Sanchez again but his shot was blocked when he should have spotted Adama Traore in space.
Spurs were so close to doubling their lead, on 36 minutes when Dele Alli chipped a ball over for Dier; the England midfield man hit his shot well but watched it bounce back off the post.
Wolves dominated the rest of the half and started the second in the same manner, Jiminez stinging Gazziniga’s palms with an early strike. And then the Molyneux crowd howled for a penalty when Jonny Otto’s effort hit Sanchez before Spurs had an appeal of their own when Harry Kane went down under pressure from Wolves skipper Conor Coady.
Spurs had another chance when Lucas Moura found Dele Alli who shot narrowly wide, but Wolves continued to knock on the door at the other end and eventually crashed through with 20 minutes remaining. Jimenez broke quickly and rolled the ball to Traore who looked up and fired a beauty beyond Gazzaniga and into the net.
Romain Saiss thought he’d won it for Wolves hen he glanced a Joao Moutinho free-kick towards goal but Gazzaniga got a strong hand to it to save a point.
And that save was soon worth three points when Jan Vertonghen, who’d been given the run around by Traore all game, popped up in injury time to score the winner. And it was substitute Christian Eriksen who whipped in a superb corner which he steered into the net.
Wolves just had time for one more chance as they threw the kitchen sink at it, but when the ball fell for Jota he fired just wide.
Key Statistics
After a 5-0 destruction of Burnley, this was a tougher assignment for Jose Mourinho’s team with the pre-match Wolves vs Spurs betting odds on an away win at 2.21.
Wolves won the shot count by 18 to nine, but each side had five on target.
It was a first defeat in 12 for Wolves after Traore had scored his first goal at home in 29 appearances.
What’s next?
Jose’s target for the season is a top-four place and Spurs have climbed to within three points of that target.
There’s plenty more excitement on the way for SBOBET Premier League fans, and Spurs have two winnable home games over Christmas, the first a big London derby against Frank Lampard’s Chelsea. The two head coaches are great friends after their success as coach and player at Chelsea and Lampard has made an impressive start as boss at Stamford Bridge. But the Blues have just registered back-to-back defeats and are just three points ahead of Spurs.
Then Brighton are the visitors to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Boxing Day, so by then, Spurs could indeed be in the top four.
Meanwhile, Wolves are away to relegation battlers Norwich City before hosting Manchester City on the 27th December.
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