August 22, (THEWILL) – Tottenham Hotspur played a fourth consecutive 1-0 game on Sunday, three of which have been in their favour since pre-season, to beat hosts Wolverhampton Wanderers in their refreshing start to the season and Nuno Espirito Santo’s return at Spurs.
The winning goal came from an 8th minute Dele Alli’s penalty. It was enough to secure all three points available for grabs for Tottenham, who survived a very dominant showing by Santo’s previous team, Wolves.
The Spurs faithful were pleased to see their consistent goal-scorer Harry Kane back in the squad, but the momentum was mostly in Wolves’ advantage as they were electric from kickoff.
Muscular Adama Traore ceaselessly tormented Japhet Tanganga down the left flank while the Wanderers had numbers to disturb the defense.
It was as it looked possible that the hosts were going to make something out of their dominance that Spurs took the lead against the run of play. Left back Sergio Reguilon played in Alli who looked to round off Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa, but Sa brought him down and Stuart Attwell awarded a penalty.
A calm and composed Alli buried the penalty in the bottom-right corner with a side foot that sent Sa in the opposite direction to keep Spurs on top of the game and give Santo the confidence to leave Harry Kane on the bench.
However, Wolves immediately seized control of proceedings in their attempt to get back on the front foot. They were relentless in their pursuit of an equaliser and put numbers into their attack. Traore, Raul Jimenez and Joao Moutinho each went close, but there was no opening.
Wolves were so determined that they looked weary at the half-time whistle after 45 minutes of their domination left them behind. They resumed their assault of the Spurs goal in the second half and came desperately close when Traore was played through on goal only to have his effort blocked by the outstretched leg of Hugo Lloris in the Spurs’ post.
Before long, Lloris needed to be alert again to block double efforts from Jimenez and Traore as an equaliser loomed large but Tottenham were proving difficult to breach. Nuno introduced Kane to the cheering away fans that welcomed their favourite striker to the pitch with cheers but there were some jeers from the home crowd.
In the end, it was the Spurs fans that were celebrating as all of Wolves’ superiority proved insufficient to get them an equaliser. Instead, Spurs and Santo returned home with three points as they maintained their good start to the campaign.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
