tottenhamhotspur.com

Tottenham’s chances of finishing fourth and qualifying for another stab at next year’s Champions League took a blow today as they were held 2-2 at White Hart Lane by West Brom. An 81st minute equaliser by Simon Cox gave Roy Hodgson’s team a point, and all but secures the Midlands club’s Premier League survival.

Harry Redknapp started with Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe up front, and both strikers found the back of the net. The Baggies goals came from substitute Cox and a Peter Odemwingie strike.

In the blazing sunshine in North London it was the visitors who started the brighter, and Odemwingie stunned the home support with the opener five minutes into the game. Arsenal loanee Carlos Vela was the architect of the goal, firing a cross field pass into the Nigerian striker’s pass, who dispatched the ball past Heurelho Gomes under pressure from Benoit Assou Ekotto to give the away side a 1-0 lead.

Tottenham’s Cameroonian international left back was injured in attempting to stop Odemwingie’s shot, and was replaced by Sandro, with Gareth Bale moving back to left full back. The Welshman still tried to break forward as much as possible and set up a chance for Pavlyuchenko soon after with a cross that the Russian headed across the face of goal.

The ex Spartak hitman made amends soon after as he converted on 27 minutes to make it 1-1. A Tom Huddlestone pass bobbled and made it’s way to the Russian, who made a yard of space for himself amidst West Brom players and fired a low strike home off the post. Pavlyuchenko had a chance to double his tally soon after, as Scott Carson diverted a Rafael van der Vaart effort into his path, but the striker could not control his effort or hit the target, and the game went into the break 1-1.

Brazilian goalkeeper Gomes made a smart save early in the second half from an Odemwingie header keeping the teams tied, following good work down the left from Nicky Shorey. The home faithful were starting to get a bit restless and Redknapp tried to inject some urgency into the Tottenham attack by introducing Aaron Lennon from the bench in the place of Tom Huddlestone.

The hosts did not have to wait much longer to find themselves in the lead, as Defoe scored a wonderful individual effort, which looked to have given the London club the lead. The England forward picked the ball up 40 yards from goal and attacked the West Brom defence, before firing home past Carson’s outstretched hand to make it 2-1.

It looked like the three points were going the way of Redknapp’s team, but the introduction of Simon Cox proved to be good management from Hodgson, and the substitute fired home a sublime equaliser on 81 minutes. Cox received the ball on the left wing and cut inside to fire a curled effort over the despairing Gomes and get the Baggies back to level pegging.

It could have gotten worse for Spurs, as Odemwingie fired a low shot wide in the dying minutes, but the game finished 2-2. The result means that Tottenham stay fifth and are one point behind Manchester City having played one game more. West Brom have reached the much publicised 40 point mark with the result, and sit in mid table security.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Barclays Premier League Football News Tottenham West Brom