Three and easy for Thomas Frank? Well, not quite – this is Tottenham, after all. Instead it was Andoni Iraola’s outstanding Bournemouth who ended his 100% start thanks to Evanilson’s early strike as familiar failings returned to haunt Spurs.
Had things turned out differently this summer, Iraola could easily have found himself in the home dugout having been coveted by Tottenham before they eventually settled on Frank. But after Spurs won Frank’s first two Premier League matches since he succeeded Ange Postecoglou, their shortcomings were exposed by the Spaniard’s high press and only Bournemouth’s profligacy prevented their victory being even more convincing as Tottenham’s players left the pitch to a smattering of boos.
Xavi Simons, the new £51.8m signing from RB Leipzig, was paraded on the pitch beforehand and Frank will be desperate to integrate him as quickly as possible after it took until the 69th minute for his team to register a shot on target.
“Bournemouth played to their strengths and we didn’t handle it well enough,” said Frank. “I’d prefer [the supporters] not to boo but it was not a good performance and they have high standards.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he had decided against changing a winning formula and selected the same side that executed his gameplan to perfection against Manchester City last week, even if Dominic Solanke was ruled out with an ankle injury that the Spurs manager hopes will not keep him out beyond the international break. But he will be concerned by how easily the pedestrian midfield trio of João Palhinha, Rodrigo Bentancur and Pape Sarr were outclassed by Bournemouth’s technical superiority and it wasn’t until Frank introduced Lucas Bergvall in the second half that they at least looked more threatening.
“I liked almost everything we did today,” said Iraola. “You can see there is still work to do at the back with the new players but when you are getting the results it is easier to correct things.”
The visitors were also unchanged from the win over Wolves as their new-look defence, marshalled by their experienced captain Adam Smith – a product of Tottenham’s academy – had come prepared for a thorough examination. However, it was Bournemouth who seized the initiative from the very start with a zip to their play that Spurs simply couldn’t live with. A day after being handed his first senior England call-up, Djed Spence was brought back down to earth inside the first four minutes when he was caught out by Marcos Senesi’s through ball and played Evanilson onside. The Brazilian’s shot looped off Cristian Romero, over Guglielmo Vicario and into the net.
Evanilson almost doubled his tally when he drilled wide after good work from Antoine Semenyo before the Ghana forward headed a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot cross from David Brooks inches over. Tottenham could barely get out of their own half and when they did after a mistake by Tyler Adams, Richarlison was guilty of gifting possession straight back.
Even the departure of Smith with an injury just before the half-hour mark could not halt Bournemouth’s momentum and it required a last-ditch block from Micky van de Ven to keep the deficit at one when Marcus Tavernier was played in by Semenyo.
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Frank even had to gesture for the home supporters to calm down when yet another Tottenham attack broke down. But it was hard to blame them considering Spurs ended the first half without creating a single chance despite having almost 60% of possession.
Whatever Frank said at half-time didn’t appear to have worked as Bournemouth picked up where they had left off. It needed a sharp save from Vicario to deny Semenyo within 60 seconds of the restart after a lightning quick break before a deflected effort from Brooks struck the crossbar when a long throw caused chaos in the Tottenham defence. Somehow they remained only 1-0 down after another Vicario save from Brooks, with Frank turning to Bergvall and Wilson Odobert from his bench.
Spence was perhaps lucky to receive only a yellow card when he caught Bournemouth substitute Amine Adli late before Vicario gave away possession and Tavernier fired into the side netting.Odobert snatched at his chance when the ball dropped invitingly at the Frenchman’s feet and he blazed way over. At last Tottenham had woken up and a volley from Mathys Tel in injury time that missed by a foot would have brought the house down if it had gone in. But there was no way back.
