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Tottenham Hotspur drew 1-1 with Sheffield United in the Premier League today at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in another largely disappointing performance from Mauricio Pochettino’s men.
After being under the cosh for the majority of the first half, Spurs actually took a somewhat undeserved lead through Heung Min Son on 58 minutes after the Korean forward pounced on a defensive error.
Chris Wilder’s Blades thought they’d equalised just minutes later, only for VAR to intervene and chalk off David McGoldrick’s close-range finish. But with just over ten minutes left in the game, George Baldock scored a somewhat fortuitous equaliser, handing Sheffield a well-deserved point.
Here are 3 reasons why Tottenham Hotspur drew with Sheffield United.
#1 VAR saves Tottenham’s bacon
It’s debatable whether Spurs deserved anything from this game; despite the stats suggesting they were the better side – they had 61% of possession and had more shots and more attempts on target too – that was far from the truth. In fact, Mauricio Pochettino’s side literally failed to record a shot on target throughout the first half of the match.
When they did take the lead, it was against the run of play – more on that later – but just minutes later it looked like Sheffield United had secured an equaliser. A quick change of play saw John Lundstram fire the ball across the Spurs box, where Enda Stevens collected it and crossed to David McGoldrick, who poked in from close range.
However, after a VAR check, the goal was disallowed due to Lundstram apparently being offside when the ball was played to him; the replay initially appeared to show Eric Dier had played him on, but when VAR’s controversial lines were added, it was decided that Lundstram’s foot was slightly off.
To be quite frank, this was a ludicrous decision; VAR has come under fire for many things this season but the offside rulings have to be the worst. It’s almost getting to the point now where it’s near impossible for a player to make a perfect run as the system is so picky. How can a player’s toe – as it appeared to be here – be judged to be offside? As it was, the decision saved Spurs today as they surely would’ve lost had the goal been allowed.
#2 Son shows no ill effects after an awkward week
The world of football moves so quickly that it’s hard to believe that it hasn’t even been a week since Heung Min Son was shown a controversial red card for his part in Andre Gomes’ horrific injury during Tottenham’s draw with Everton.
The Korean was sent off for a tackle that likely would’ve garnered him a yellow card at worst had the injury not happened, and it came as no surprise that the decision was later rescinded, allowing him to play today.
Judging by his reaction to the injury, though, it would hardly have been a surprise to see Son completely out of form in his next couple of games. The Korean seemed mentally broken by the incident; whether he felt guilt over the tackle he committed or he was just horrified by the sight of a fellow professional in so much pain is unknown, but he was as distraught as any footballer has appeared to be in recent memory.
Spurs’ 0-4 Champions League win over Crvena Zvezda on Wednesday seemed to suggest no ill effects, though – Son scored two excellent goals in that game – and the same could be said for today’s performance. The Korean was arguably Tottenham’s best performer, and his goal was taken extremely well.
Essentially, Son was the right man in the right place at the right time; he capitalised on a botched clearance from Enda Stevens to slot the ball through Dean Henderson’s legs, but if anyone was going to score for Spurs today it was him.
Of Tottenham’s 5 shots on target, 4 came from him, showing his importance to Pochettino’s side. Spurs fans will be very thankful there’ve been no lasting effects from last week’s incident.
#3 Spurs find themselves out of luck yet again
Last week’s Premier League match between Tottenham and Everton saw the Toffees steal a point away from Mauricio Pochettino’s side largely through the sheer incompetence of the officials; today’s match saw Sheffield United steal a point away through a very lucky equalizing goal.
Sure, it’s true that Spurs didn’t perform well in either game and the Blades more than deserved their equalizer – but it has to be asked how much longer Tottenham’s run of bad luck will continue.
With 12 minutes plus injury time to go today, Sheffield United were pushing for an equalizer but it appeared that the game was slipping away from them, with chances being missed throughout the second half. Cue George Baldock, who didn’t even mean to shoot on goal – he appeared to be attempting to cross to the oncoming Chris Basham, but instead both sets of players were fooled by the flight of the ball, which landed straight into the right-hand side of Paulo Gazzaniga’s goal.
Regardless of whether the Blades deserved this equalizer or not, there’s no disputing that this was a fluke goal – and to make things crazier, it was Baldock’s first goal in 38 appearances in all competitions! To say this was annoying for Spurs fans would be an understatement.
Right now Pochettino’s side have lost more points – 12 – from winning positions than any other side in the Premier League, and a lot of it has come down to sheer bad luck, even after VAR seemed to suggest today was the day their luck was in. Quite how much longer this run of frustration will continue is anyone’s guess.
