Tottenham 2 Sheff Utd 1: Spurs bag two goals deep in stoppage time to snatch stunning victory
RICHARLISON put a nightmare week behind him to inspire a stunning late comeback and take Ange Postecoglou’s transformation to new heights.
The Brazilian striker was in tears during the international break and revealed his mental struggles, but returned with a goal and an assist from the bench to keep Spurs’ super start going.
Wind back not even 12 months and N17 would have been a toxic nightmare with players struggling to keep going having fallen behind to Sheffield United.
But this feels like a completely different club again – Spurs and their supporters stuck together and won a memorable victory.
Spurs had struggled to take any of their piles of chances against a robust Blades side until Richarlison was sent on following Gustavo Hamer’s opener.
But the Brazilian smashed in a 99th minute leveller before teeing up Dejan Kulusevski for a last gasp winner.
There was consistent, infuriating, timewasting from an impressive Wes Foderingham and his Blades team-mates which looked to have rocked Spurs towards the end, but they kept going.
Tottenham went into the break running riot at Burnley and yet to taste defeat in the Premier League.
Postecoglou named the same side from their thumping win at Turf Moor and it didn’t take them long to find their groove again back in N17.
Spurs dominated their newly promoted visitors all afternoon but looked like they would fall short.
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Having taken ten minutes to find their feet after a fortnight off, Spurs started laying siege to Foderingham’s goal.
Pape Matar Sarr had a long-range effort and a soft header stopped by the Blades keeper before Cristian Romero headed over from a corner.
The hosts were keeping their foot down as Yves Bissouma, reborn under Postecoglou, drove past two yellow shirts and fired low at Foderingham.
Son Heung-Min whipped an effort towards the far post and saw it tipped behind and both James Maddison and Manor Solomon hit the target from range.
There was a brief scare on the break when Guglielmo Vicario saved sharply from James McAtee, though the offside flag would have spared Spurs any embarrassment.
When Maddison sent a curling left foot effort into his hands on 34 minutes, Foderingham’s tally of stops was already up to seven – though none of them had required anything spectacular. Another frustration for Postecoglou.
Foderingham was having to do so much that he even charged down to the far corner of his box and tried to flick the ball back inside the penalty area.
Referee Peter Bankes quickly spotted the former Rangers man handling the ball outside of the area but deemed it only a yellow card.
The Blades stopper was stretching everything to the limit but made it with a fine clean sheet.
Not even a year ago that sort of first half, dominance without an end result, would have had the home fans ready to riot.
But this Tottenham is different with the popular Postecoglou patrolling the touchline – the support continued throughout despite Spurs quickly running out of ideas, and they were rewarded.
Heckingbottom had his defenders build a yellow wall inside their box and asked Spurs to knock it down after the break.
Almost any opening the hosts thought they had found was soon blocked by a flying blade, throwing themselves in front of crosses and shots.
When a rare gap was exploited as Kulusevski slipped a ball through to Solomon, the Israeli winger blasted over.
On the odd occasions Sheffield United did get forward – a corner was celebrated like a goal.
And why not given it was a set piece which brought the winner.
Jack Robinson’s long throw was allowed to bounce through the Spurs box where Hamer raced in at the far post, lashed a low effort against the opposite upright and in.
Postecoglou responded with a triple sub, sending on debutant Brennan Johnson alongside Richarlison and Ivan Perisic – hooking Son in the process.
Both Perisic and Johnson saw goals ruled out until Richarlison took over, heading in Perisic’s corner before laying off Kulusevski onto his weaker right foot, sparking pandemonium in the stands and on the pitch.
It was only made sweeter when Ollie McBurnie was shown a late red card.