English Premier League – Fulltime Review: Tottenham Hotspurs versus Sunderland
Tottenham line up: Gomes, Hutton, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, Bentley, Huddlestone, Modric, Bale, Van Der Vaart, Pavlyuchenko. Subs: Cudicini, Jenas, Palacios, Crouch, Bassong, Kranjcar, Corluka.
Sunderland line up: Gordon, Onuoha, Turner, Bramble, Ferdinand, Henderson, Cattermole, Riveros, Richardson, Zenden, Gyan. Subs: Mignolet, Bardsley, Malbranque, Angeleri, Da Silva, Welbeck, El Mohammadi.
The match started off brightly as the first shot on target by a Tottenham player came in 3rd minute of the match as Luka Modric gathered a loose ball outside the Sunderland penalty area and unleashed a magnificent
drive which brought out a good save from Craig Gordon, the Sunderland goalkeeper.
Tottenham were the dominant team for the first ten minutes of the first period of the match as the likes of Modric and Van Der Vaart ran the show in the middle of the park for the Hotspurs. Harry Redknapp’s team lined up with Gareth Bale
on the left hand side of attack whilst Pavlyuchenko was given the lone strikers role by the former West Ham manager. In the 5th minute of the match, Younus Kaboul tried his luck on goal from a free kick which was around 35 yards out.
Kaboul’s effort was wide of the mark as the scores remained level.
In the 7th minute of the match, Roman Pavlyuchenko followed his team mate’s example and tried his luck but his effort narrowly missed the mark as Sunderland’s goalkeeper, Gordon thanked his lucky stars for the inaccuracy
in the Russian’s drive which was taken from around twenty yards out. Sunderland’s first effort towards the Tottenham goal came through Lee Cattermole in the 9th minute of the match as the U-21 English national’s shot missed the mark
by around three yards.
In the 10th minute, Sunderland broke forward once again but this time Spurs were lucky as Richardson’s shot cannoned off Kaboul’s leg for a corner. It was a really fortunate deflection for Tottenham as the ball
just missed the goal by a few yards yet again. In the 11th minute, Tottenham broke on a counter attack as the ball fell to David Bentley whose shot was blocked by the Sunderland defence.
In the 17th minute of the match, Tottenham had another corner which was taken by Bale. The set piece was cleared by Richardson but it wasn’t a proper clearance as the ball fell to Huddlestone who ripped out a brilliant
half volley shot which thudded against the bar as Tottenham failed to take the advantage at the White Hart lane. In the 34th minute, Van Der Vaart had a brilliant chance to open the scoring for Spurs but his shot was knocked away for
a corner by Gordon. Spurs were the superior team for most of the first half as they restricted Sunderland to defensive duties due to their better ball retention skills.
The first half came to an end with the score line still at nil all as neither of the teams did enough to really take the lead at the White Hart Lane. The second half kicked off with Tottenham and Sunderland both making their first substitutions
of the night. Spurs brought on Peter Crouch in place of Pavlyuchenko whereas Sunderland replaced Christian Riveros with Daniel Wellbeck. In the 51st minute, Van Der Vaart was on hand for Tottenham to flick on a header towards the Sunderland
goal which just missed the mark by a few inches as the White Hart Lane exhaled anxiously.
In the 52nd minute, David Bentley was booked by the referee Howard Webb for his supposed dive inside the Sunderland penalty area which was aimed at deceiving the official into awarding a penalty kick to the home
side. The replays however showed that the winger was brought to the ground by a challenge from Zenden. In the 61st minute, Tottenham had another good chance to take the lead but Gareth Bale’s cross was blocked by Michael Turner as the
Black Cats regained possession just outside their penalty area.
In the 64th minute, Spurs finally broke the deadlock with Van Der Vaart who capitalized on a header by Peter Crouch and then slammed it into the back of the Sunderland net on the turn. However, Sunderland quickly
equalized as Asamoah Gyan was played in by Daniel Wellbeck in the 66th minute. Regardless, the chance to score really came through due to a misunderstanding between Gallas and Kaboul in the centre of Tottenham’s defence. In the 85th minute,
Sunderland made their second change of the night as Steve Malbranque was introduced into the field by Steve Bruce.
On the 88th minute mark, Sunderland had a good chance to get the lead which was awarded to them by the referee outside the Tottenham penalty area. But Zenden’s set piece was deflected off the wall, out for a corner
kick. The match came to an end eventually with the scores level at nil all as both the teams gained a point each from the match.
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