London (AFP)
Southampton spoiled Italian Anthony Conte the feat of becoming the first coach in Tottenham’s history to avoid defeat in his first seven games with the team in the Premier League, after forcing his London guest to settle for a 1-1 draw on Tuesday in the 20th stage.
And there was an opportunity for Tottenham to reduce the difference that separates it from its fourth neighbor Arsenal to three points, in light of the latter’s absence from this stage, to postpone his match with Wolverhampton due to the outbreak of the Corona virus in the latter’s ranks, but Conte’s men did not benefit from the numerical superiority since the 39th minute and were satisfied with a point.
This tie resulted in Tottenham ceding fifth place in favor of its neighbor West Ham, who returned to the winning streak by defeating Watford 4-1.
Conte would certainly have preferred to celebrate the achievement of becoming the first coach to go unbeaten in his first seven Premier League games for Spurs.
Since receiving the task of supervising the London club in early November, succeeding Portuguese Nuno Espirito Santo, Conte has won four of his seven matches as coach of Spurs in the Premier League, while drawing in three.
With the exception of the exclusion from the new continental competition “Conference League” due to the team’s failure to face Rennes in the last round of the group stage as a result of the outbreak of Corona in its ranks, Tottenham were completely successful in contracting with the former coach of Chelsea, Juventus, the Italian team and Inter, as they also reached the League Cup semi-finals. At the expense of his neighbor West Ham, the other neighbor will meet Chelsea next Wednesday, in the first leg and a week later, and between them is the third-round match of the cup competition against Morecambe from the third level (League One).
Despite the disappointing draw, Tottenham are still in a good position, as they have three games in hand that will put them at the center of the struggle for the lead, even if they emerge victorious, provided they do not stumble too much between now and their establishment.
The start of Conte’s men was not successful, as after a series of timid attempts, they conceded a wonderful goal by James Ward-Prowse, who dropped the ball in front of him almost on the outskirts of the penalty area, and fired it “on the fly” to the left of French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris (25), scoring his fifth goal of the season.
But Ghanaian Mohamed Salisu gifted the guests a penalty kick after dropping South Korean Son Heung-min in the forbidden area, to receive a second warning and expelled, giving Harry Kane the opportunity to score only his fourth goal of the season (41).
After two goals were canceled due to offside a few centimeters on Caen (53) and a mistake by Irish substitute Matt Doherty on goalkeeper Fraser Forster (67), Tottenham were unable to reach the net despite his many attempts, to settle for the fourth draw of the season, including three led by Conte.
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