A potentially important result in the Premier League title race was also a significant one for Fantasy managers, as Wolves produced an impressive second-half display to defeat Spurs on their own turf.
There were goals and assists from well-owned FPL options on both sides but as we will discuss, there will be a significant number of Matt Doherty and Raul Jimenez owners who would have been displeased to see their assets bank attacking returns.
We’ll round up the key Fantasy talking points, manager quotes and injury news from a shock away win at Wembley.
Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Goals: Harry Kane (£12.6m) | Willy Boly (£4.6m), Raul Jimenez (£6.3m), Helder Costa (£4.8m)
- Assists: Son Heung-min (£8.8m) | Joao Moutinho (£5.2m), Ivan Cavaleiro (£5.2m), Matt Doherty (£5.2m)
Harry Kane (£12.6m) and Son Heung-min (£8.8m) continued their impressive sequence of attacking returns on Saturday afternoon but that was as good as it got for a lethargic Spurs, whose run of five straight league wins was brought to a juddering halt.
Even with the score at 1-0 in Spurs’ favour, with just 20 minutes to go, all was not well.
Wolves have produced some impressive away performances this season, at West Ham, Arsenal and Manchester United particularly, and they were again admirably stubborn in this contest, restricting Spurs to only shots from distance.
As the graphic below illustrates, all but one of Spurs’ ten attempts on goal came from outside the Wolves area (the green dots are efforts on target), with their only shot from inside the box being a blocked Christian Eriksen (£9.3m) attempt from an acute angle:
Spurs’ goal indeed came from distance, a superb Kane strike from 25 yards that put the Lilywhites 1-0 up on 21 minutes.
The hosts’ only other two attempts on target also came from way out: a Kieran Trippier (£6.1m) free-kick forcing a comfortable save from Rui Patricio (£4.6m) and another Eriksen strike being pushed onto the bar and over by the Portuguese shot-stopper.
Kane didn’t register a single penalty box touch in this game, dropping deeper than ever to get involved and being booked for simulation as frustration mounted, while all four of Son’s shots on goal came from outside the box – none hitting the target.
Son was the brightest spark for Spurs early on and sent one 25-year effort just wide of Patricio’s post, with the Korean also registering 20 more touches in the final third than Kane over the course of the match as the England striker roamed around in central midfield.
His and Spurs’ goal threat evaporated after the break, though, with the Lilywhites not registering a single shot in the second half.
Wolves deserve every credit for their smothering performance at the back but that last statistic underlines just how jaded Spurs looked in this game. Perhaps as much we can take from today from a Spurs point of view is that it was simply one match too far: five of their six midfielders/forwards had started all three of their fixtures over Christmas, with a rusty-looking Dele Alli (£8.9m) joining that quintet in this encounter after his return from a hamstring injury.
Mauricio Pochettino seemed to agree when asked if fatigue was a factor in his post-match presser:
Maybe, maybe yes. We conceded the first goal and in the last 20 minutes it was tough for the team to find energy to be competitive or to try to win the game. Of course, we started to feel it a few minutes before we conceded which is why we were ready to add a fresh player like Oliver Skipp to help the team and we couldn’t because we conceded in the action before we were going to make the change.
Yes, I think the game was under control in the first half, maybe it was easier than we expected in the first half to dominate the game and to play so easily. They played so deep, chasing us and we didn’t concede one chance.
But in the second half maybe we started to feel that the game was over and when you start to feel the game is over and you play in the way that you play, you start to decide in a wrong way. We started to play too many long balls and then it was difficult to recover the ball and to play more with your heart than your head and we started to expend a lot of energy. Then when you need the energy in the end you miss that.
We can perhaps expect changes for the trip to Cardiff on New Year’s Day, then, with the likes of Lucas Moura (£6.9m), Oliver Skipp (£4.5m) and – who knows – maybe even Fernando Llorente (£5.6m) returning to the first-team fold in Gameweek 21.
Erik Lamela (£6.2m), incidentally, missed this match after picking up a calf injury.
All credit to Wolves, though, who defended stoutly in the first half without posing any kind of attacking threat.
Their seemingly superior fitness levels showed late in the game and the counter-attacks that had fizzled out in the opening 45 minutes became more potent after the interval, with Raul Jimenez (£6.3m) and Helder Costa (£4.8m) sealing the win for the visitors with two strikes on the break.
Nuno Espirito Santo discussed his side’s performance in his post-match interview:
We played a very good game in the second half, but even in the first half we were organised. Tottenham have a lot of qualities, they have talent, they have ability which creates a lot of problems, so we had to stay with them, stay balanced.
In the first half, I felt we stayed in the game, but the game changed in the second half, in our favour. We had the ball more, and when we have the ball more we can manage the game better.
We had possession, we had chances, we had goals, and the boys worked very hard, were very organised against a very good Tottenham side.
We had a lot of belief after the equaliser, but we cannot rely [on one goal], we want more, we want to improve, I would have said a draw was a good result, but I cannot control the emotions of the boys if they see space in front of them.
I told them [at half-time] to keep it the same, stay with them and do enough to stay in the game. Let’s have the ball and play, play to win. The way we have been playing for more than a year-and-a-half now.
Matt Doherty (£5.2m) supplied the assist for Wolves’ third goal to bank his fourth attacking return in seven Gameweeks, but many of the Irish wing-back’s Fantasy owners won’t see the points from their gung-ho defensive asset: Doherty was the second-most-benched FPL asset of Gameweek 20 and 48.6% of his owners didn’t line up with Doherty in their initial starting XI.
Four of the 15 other most-benched FPL assets of this Gameweek were also Wolves players, including Jimenez, who walked away with maximum bonus from this match.
While Spurs struggled to create anything in the opposition 18-yard box, Wolves had nine attempts – including blocked efforts from Doherty and Jimenez and Willy Boly‘s (£4.6m) headed equaliser – in the Spurs area.
Three of Wolves’ four shots on target found the back of the net and Santo was delighted with his side’s ruthless streak in front of goal:
Today we were clinical. That was the difference, no doubts about it. Against Tottenham and these kinds of teams you have to be clinical and take the chances that you have. If not, you will be punished.
Jimenez led the line superbly for Wolves and his FPL stock rises by the week: the Mexican striker has been involved in over half of Wolves’ 23 league goals this season and his side now enjoy three home fixtures in the next four Gameweeks.
Doherty remains as adventurous as ever, meanwhile, with Ivan Cavaleiro (£5.2m) the only one of his team-mates to record more final third touches in this encounter.
The lively Adama Traore (£5.2m) was substituted just before the hour-mark with what appeared to be a minor hamstring strain, though Santo said the injury was “nothing special” in his post-match press conference.
Spurs XI (4-3-1-2): Lloris; Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Davies; Sissoko, Winks, Eriksen; Dele (Moura 68′); Son, Kane.
Wolves XI (3-4-3): Patricio; Bennett, Coady, Boly; Doherty, Dendoncker (Moutinho 68′), Neves, Jonny; Cavaleiro (Gibbs-White 85′), Traore (Helder Costa 59′), Jimenez.
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