Tottenham Hotspur: Jose Mourinho is Still a Rock Star
Guardiola has been the one exception to Jose’s dominance in one-off match situations. Their rivalry is the stuff of Games of Thrones and Star Wars legends combined.
Prior to Sunday, they had faced off 22 times with Guardiola holding a commanding lead, winning half of those matchups. Their 23rd matchup had its fiery moments.
In the 14th minute, City’s Raheem Sterling was booked with a yellow for a high tackle on Spurs Dele Alli, which could have been a red, but VAR settled on a yellow as Mourinho fumed. Sergio Aguero of Manchester City was brought down in the penalty area for a penalty kick (though it took nearly three minutes of additional play for VAR to review and call it a penalty).
Inexplicably, Ilkay Gundogan, badly botched the penalty. Sterling attempted to get the rebound and was also brought down in the penalty box by Spurs’ goalie, Hugo Lloris, which almost started a bench-clearing brawl in every part of the stadium. VAR, the mysterious oligarch, seemed unimpressed – no penalty.
In the mini-fracas, the Blues Oleksandr Zinchenko picked up a yellow card and Mourinho continued his rock star prancing, tossing his hands all about, making card gestures to the referees on the sidelines. The stadium was riveted and was eating out of his hands.
https://twitter.com/SuperSportTV/status/1224026852580319232
The match turned when Zinchenko got his second yellow, which inevitably led to a red card and was sent off in the 59th minute. Tottenham took advantage of their limited opportunities in the following ten minutes as newcomer Steven Bergwijn miraculously got a shot through a bunch of bodies to score in the 62nd minute.
Son Heung-Min took advantage of a slow City defense and scored the final goal eight minutes later. Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho created a meme-worthy moment in his odd interaction with Son after the goal.
No worries. It’s all part of the show.
The numbers in this match were insane. City’s expected goals for the match were 3.23 versus 0.42 for Spurs. Tottenham was out-shot 18 to 3.
City only allowed on average 6.69 passes (in the home side’s half) before a defensive action (PPDA). Looking only at the numbers, this could have been a City guitar smashing session.
As Jose was sitting in that chair, smiling like a puppet master whose puppet had just set off a bonfire, I believe he was simply admiring his own work and celebrating his own success. In a one-match setting, his club using his tactics found a way to win a match they should not have won.
Typical Jose.
Tottenham grabbed Jose Mourinho off the TV studio stage on November 20th of last year. Spurs had jettisoned Mauricio Pochettino whose message had stopped resonating in a locker room that had become stagnated and divided. At that time, the club was in 14th place in the table.
Quick quiz.
If the Premier League started upon Mourinho’s arrival which teams would be in the top four? Liverpool, Manchester City, Leicester City, and Tottenham.
The Spurs have played thirteen league matches, winning seven, drawing two, and losing four. They have climbed from 14th place and now sit in fifth place, only four points behind a slumping Chelsea for that last Champions League slot.