Tottenham 2-1 Sheffield United: Spurs score two in extra time to dispatch Blades

VIBES! VIBES! VIBES! Tottenham Hotspur had a frustrating match against Sheffield United at home today. Despite dominating the match pretty much from the opening kick, Spurs couldn’t find the back of the net in 90 minutes of open play and went down a goal late in the second half from a Gustavo Hamer header off of a set piece.

So it’s a good thing the match lasted 110 minutes! Tottenham were down 0-1 in the 98th minute but scored two late goals after that — a header from Richarlison for his first league goal of the season and a 90+10’ winner from Dejan Kulusevski to send what was an acutely frustrated Tottenham home crowd into raptures. Tottenham turned a match where they were getting football’d into another huge win, their best start in the top flight since 1965. The final score — 2-1.

Ange Postecoglou had great success against a recently promoted team two weeks ago when they ran out to a big win over Burnley, and Big Ange opted for the same starting XI today against another promoted side in Sheffield United. Brennan Johnson and Richarlison started on the bench.

Reactions:

• A lot of guys on both sides of the ball were slipping on the grass early on. Did they overwater the pitch?
• Opening 20 minutes Spurs looked slow, but boy that changed quickly. United were well structured in defense while Spurs had the ball, causing frustration in the buildup play initially, but Spurs kept turning the screws. United’s keeper Foderingham had five saves in the opening half hour.
• HUGE save from Googly Elmo relatively early on. Sheffield United didn’t have a ton of offense but they did manage a couple of dangerous chances in the first half.
• That was a stone cold penalty against Maddison in the box, he got caught right on the back of the heel. I have no idea how VAR cleared that. It’s a also a second yellow on Basham. Ridiculous to not overturn that.
• The yellow card on Foderingham for handling outside his box very nearly could’ve been red, but I suppose the official felt it wasn’t deliberate since he was so close to the line. Still, big mistake and Spurs nearly capitalized.
• 12 shots in the first half. Spurs deserved a goal.
• Sheffield United’s time-wasting was elite level in this match. Foderingham should’ve gotten a yellow, especially after his “injury” in the second half, which would’ve been his second. Honestly, Foderingham just displayed a very cynical way to get away with murder in that area because no official in England is brave enough to send off a keeper with a second yellow for wasting time.
• Look, I’m not really a blame the ref kind of guy (and it worked out in the end) but this official was absolutely GARBAGE. He lost control of it early in the second half and made some really confusing and at times bizarre calls. Half the time I had no idea what was going on or why a card was shown or a call made. There were at LEAST three penalty shouts that weren’t called because... reasons? Man, I dunno. This was bad.
• Triple sub by Ange was warranted, but boy I wanted it ten minutes earlier.
• Tom Davies should’ve been off for that awful scissor tackle on Pedro Porro. Terrible tackle, could’ve seriously injured Pedro.
• Tottenham were definitely relying on the athleticism of Micky van de Ven and Cuti Romero to snuff out chances, which I guess is the point? If you’re going to push so far forward you need athletes in the back to prevent counters. I thought both Micky and Cuti weren’t as
• Johnson’s called-back goal was pretty impressive, gotta say. But he was offside. Early returns on Johnson from me are: good skills, very fast, but his off the ball movement was pretty meh. Hopefully that comes with time.
• SO HAPPY FOR RICHY! He needed that goal so badly after the last couple of weeks, the admission that he’s struggling with mental health, and the season he’s had, and it’s no less than he deserved. Hell of a header. Picked up an assist for Deki’s winner, too — this is the kind of match where he should excel.
• Feel like 9 times out of ten Spurs lose that match. Last season, we DEFINITELY lose that match. This is the kind of late scoring that feels like Arsenal and Liverpool do all the time, but we never do, except now we’re doing it because Postecoglou is magic and this team is all good vibes.
• That was apparently the latest winning comeback in Premier League history. Damn.
• Next week — the North London Derby. That may tell us a lot more about this team than anything we’ve seen in the opening five games.