It was a lovely day for football at White Hart Lane as Spurs amazingly found the net nine times. Aaron Lennon returned to the squad and Niko Kranjčar and Michael Dawson were two more changes from their winning squad two weeks ago. It was clearly Spurs’ day as they dominated the entire first half, scoring early on through Peter Crouch in the 9th minute. As the score stood only 1-0 at halftime, Wigan were looking for a comeback trail. However, in the second half, 4 goals were scored in only six minutes, and three were scored by Jermain Defoe for Tottenham. Paul Scharner had Wigan’s only goal of the game.
Now with a score line of 4-1, Spurs kept hammering them in and Lennon side netted past Kirkland in the 64th minute to definitely secure the game for the home side. Five minutes later, Defoe scored his fourth of the match and then a fifth about ten minutes later to put Spurs up by seven. Substitute David Bentley came on and scored off a wonderfully taken free kick. While it came off the cross bar and bounced from Kirkland’s back into the net and was officially counted an “own goal”, Bentley claimed it his. With four minutes of added time, Kranjčar scored a well deserved, fantastic goal in the 90+4th minute.
After an amazing day at the Lane, Harry Redknapp said, “I thought we started the game fantastically and for 25 minutes we were quick, sharp, scored the first goal, and could have scored more. Then we stopped pressing and closing and Wigan started to get a bit more space and came into the game a bit more. At half-time I just said that we had to get to where we were in the first 25 minutes or so, get back after them, press them all over the pitch, not let them play, win the ball back and then we can play. That’s what we did.”
He continued, “We scored some great goals. Jermain’s goals were fantastic, David Bentley hit an unbelievable free-kick and Niko was fantastic, he deserved the goal he scored right at the end. It was a great performance from Jermain and our strikers have been on fire this season. Jermain’s got five today, Robbie’s got a four, Crouchy’s got a hat-trick – it’s amazing how they’ve been in great form. He finished, “It was a great day for everyone, the fans loved it and it was a day where it all went right for us. As long as the fans enjoy it, that’s the main thing.”
Five goal Defoe is only the third player in the Premier League to net five times, the first in PL history to do so in one half, and only the fourth player in Spurs history to have five on the score-sheet. He described the game, “It was like a dream, brilliant. The lads can’t believe it. The finishing – look at Niko’s finish and David Bentley’s free-kick. All the goals were unbelievable.”
With their ‘unbelievable’9-1 win, they hold 4th place on the table, have 25 points, a goal difference of +14, and are now even with Arsenal. Next up Spurs will travel to Villa Park this weekend to take on Aston Villa who sit 5th behind them on the table. After their stunning last performance, everyone will be expecting another great game from them and they have what it takes to pull another shocking score out of the bag.
Jill Guthrie
