Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
- Goals: Adama Traore (£5.2m) | Lucas Moura (£7.0m), Jan Vertonghen (£5.2m)
- Assists: Raul Jimenez (£7.5m) | Eric Dier (£4.9m), Christian Eriksen (£8.6m)
- Bonus: Traore x3, Vertonghen x2, Lucas x1
Just one of the six Spurs and Wolves players with a double-digit Fantasy Premier League ownership avoided a blank at Molineux yesterday.
With the FPL god being a vengeful one, it was naturally the most-sold player of Gameweek 17 – Raul Jimenez (£7.5m) – who delivered an attacking return out of that half-dozen-strong group.
Meanwhile, Dele Alli (£8.7m) and Son Heung-min (£10.0m), the two most-bought midfielders of the Gameweek just gone, failed to pick up anything other than appearance points.
There was encouragement for Fantasy managers who have invested in either team, though, in an entertaining game.
Make no mistake, Wolves were the better side.
A point was the absolute minimum that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side deserved from this encounter, with their 11-match unbeaten league run brought to an end by Jan Vertonghen‘s (£5.2m) stoppage-time header.
The West Midlands side bossed their visitors all over the park, with Spurs losing the midfield battle for possession and tormented by Wolves’ potent front three.
Jimenez, whose creativity we highlighted last week, banked his fifth assist of the season when teeing up Adama Traore (£5.2m) for Wolves’ superb equaliser but could have easily been on the scoresheet himself, flicking a header wide on 20 minutes, dragging a shot narrowly off-target soon after and forcing Paulo Gazzaniga (£4.6m) into a stop just after the break.
Diogo Jota (£6.1m) couldn’t follow up Gameweek 16’s brace with further attacking returns but was his usual busy self on the ball, spurning the best of his opportunities when opting to shoot rather than play in the unmarked Adama on 27 minutes.
Encouragingly, Jimenez and Jota recorded nine shots between them – the same as Spurs managed overall on Sunday.
The pick of the front three was Adama, however.
He is in the form of his life at present and, if not as productive as Jimenez in terms of FPL returns, is certainly offering value for money.
At the time of writing, Adama has more FPL points to his name than any other Fantasy midfielder or forward priced at £6.0m or under.
With consistently excellent performances comes unwelcome attention from opposition players, however.
Three Brighton players were booked for fouls on Traore in Gameweek 16 and Spurs repeated that trick at Molineux on Sunday, with the in-form winger needing treatment for a painful-looking shoulder injury late in the game but able to continue.
Santo said of the roughhousing after full-time:
I think the referees know. They realise they should punish the tackles – just like that – to protect the players, players that have talent like Adama.
It is tough to defend and opponents do what they have to do but it’s up to the referee to judge. If it’s over and over again, it should not be allowed.
Speaking of his rampant attackers, Santo added:
It was a good goal.
It’s one of the things we must do. He has the talent, but it’s not only Adama – Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez had clear moments too.
We keep on improving to try to transform these chances into goals.
Wolves’ back three were solid but were breached yet again, meaning that they have recorded only one clean sheet in the last nine Gameweeks, despite riding high in our Season Ticker over that time.
There was a similar story last season, with Santo’s troops among the best teams in the division for various key underlying defensive stats but frustratingly banking fewer clean sheets than the likes of Cardiff City and Bournemouth.
As for Spurs, this was perhaps their toughest remaining test of the festive period, with an out-of-sorts Chelsea, Brighton, Norwich and Southampton to come between now and New Year’s Day.
Only five clubs have had less possession than the Lilywhites in Gameweek 17 so far and Mourinho will be hoping and expecting to see more of the ball in the fortnight ahead.
Still, despite having soaked up pressure for much of this game and not been at their best, the Lilywhites looked sporadically dangerous on the counter-attack and had a handful of decent chances.
Alli, operating in his now-familiar number ten role, could very easily have emerged with an attacking return for the fifth match in a row.
It was the former MK Dons midfielder who teed up Eric Dier (£4.9m) for the only ‘big chance’ of the game, with Dier’s shot striking the woodwork and bouncing out.
Alli was himself denied from a narrow angle by Rui Patricio (£5.2m) early on and then overhit a pass to Son when Spurs were rapidly breaking, later curling an effort narrowly wide of Patricio’s goal on the hour mark.
Lucas Moura (£7.0m) notched his third goal in four league starts under Mourinho, meanwhile, with his fine solo effort giving Spurs the lead after just seven minutes.
It wasn’t a particularly productive afternoon for Son or Harry Kane (£10.9m), however, as the Wolves backline dealt with their threat fairly comfortably.
Son, again playing on the left wing, stung the palms of Patricio early on but had little joy thereafter, while Kane didn’t record a single effort on goal until the final quarter of an hour.
Clean sheets have been in short supply for Spurs this season and Mourinho’s arrival hasn’t been a fast-acting remedy in that department, with the Lilywhites recording only one shut-out in the five league games he has overseen.
No side has conceded as few big chances as Spurs in Gameweeks 13-17, however, and for all their possession and shots, Wolves didn’t have too many clear-cut chances.
Mourinho was also content with the way his side dealt with opportunities created from set-piece situations, saying afterwards:
I don’t have stats in here but they were super dominant in corners and lateral free-kicks and then we had a couple of corners and in one of them we win the game. Why? Because we coped so well with our set pieces.
It was something that a couple of weeks ago we were struggling, conceding goals every game in set pieces. We managed to come here and be very dominating in that area of the game too.
Spurs still had to rely on their goalkeeper on four occasions, however, with Gazzaniga producing one excellent stop to keep out a goalbound Romain Saiss (£4.4m) header with the score at 1-1.
Hailing his shot-stopper, Mourinho said:
Magic hands. Again it’s important in that situation.
My father played in this stadium against Wolves in the UEFA Cup as goalkeeper. He was always telling me, a goalkeeper of a top team had to be different to the others because the goalkeeper of a top team doesn’t have ten saves to make. You have one, but when the one comes the magic hands have to be there and Paulo did it for us.
It was very important for Paulo and for us that save and then we put ourselves in a position where we could win the game.
