For the best part of 95 minutes, Antoine Semenyo was almost entirely anonymous. He can do that sometimes; drift in and out of games. When you possess the type of artistry Semenyo does, you can afford such periods of quiet absence.
Then came the type of moment that has convinced Manchester City to shell out £65m for his services; the gamechanging ability that can win games and, perhaps, titles for Pep Guardiola’s side.
When it became clear that City was Semenyo’s most likely destination of choice this month, Bournemouth were adamant their star player would remain on the south coast to face Tottenham before his anticipated departure. With his injury-time winner from the edge of the box, Semenyo showed precisely why. His wonderful strike ended a barren run of 11 winless games for Bournemouth and heaped further misery on a Tottenham side battling myriad problems.
It was some way to round off a 26th birthday that also included a standing ovation from all corners of the Vitality Stadium and a farewell lap of his home for the past three years.
As he meandered round the pitch after the match, a number of Spurs players remonstrated with some of their beleaguered away fans. The doubts over Thomas Frank grow ever more severe with each game his side fails to win. And there have been plenty of them – 10 of their past 12 in the league. To think, Tottenham even had designs on seeing if Semenyo fancied joining them this month.
“He deserved this moment. A moment he will never forget,” said Andoni Iraola, who confirmed Semenyo would now be completing the “formalities” of his move to Manchester City. “It’s not easy to do what he has done. A lot of players would have acted differently. He has never found excuses. He was ready to give whatever we needed. Sometimes football gives you these things.”
Having fallen behind when Mathys Tel scored a fine goal after five minutes, the hosts led at half-time courtesy of Evanilson and Eli Junior Kroupi, whose season tally of seven goals makes him the joint-most prolific teenager – alongside Lamine Yamal – across Europe’s top five leagues.
By the time João Palhinha scored a wonderful overhead kick to equalise with 20 minutes remaining, Spurs – wearing black armbands in memory of the club legend Martin Chivers, whose death was announced shortly before kick-off – looked the most likely winner. Richarlison hit a post and Micky van de Ven was awarded a penalty that was then overturned on viewing the pitchside monitor.
Another defeat is a sucker punch for a club in an increasingly desperate position. Of further concern is an injury problem heading towards crisis proportions. To Dominic Solanke, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Mohammed Kudus – all of whom missed this match – Spurs also lost Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur to issues in the second half.
“It’s very tough to sit here when we haven’t got anything out of an overall good performance,” Frank said. “The players gave everything. To sit here and concede in the five minutes of extra time is very painful, very tough. But that’s football.”
Spurs’ manager also inadvertently landed himself in an embarrassing situation when he was photographed drinking out of an Arsenal‑branded cup, following Arsenal’s visit to the Vitality Stadium last weekend.
“I definitely did not notice it,” he said. “It’s fair to say not winning every single football match, it would be absolutely stupid of me to [intentionally] take an Arsenal cup.”
The problems are mounting. Since the start of last season, only Wolves have endured more Premier League defeats than Tottenham’s 30, while their shots per game average under Frank is the lowest in the 25 years the statistics have been recorded.
Explaining the exchange of some strong words between Spurs players and fans after the final whistle, Palhinha said: “It was just the supporters were sharing their frustrations. We, of course, understand. We respect them, first of all. I just said we are fighting for all the same. We want to win, not just the players – the staff and the supporters. We are trying to get the wins that, in my opinion, we deserve in the last games. I felt we were the best team on the pitch. It’s a punch in the stomach.”
Defeat did seem cruel on the visitors. But Semenyo was working to his own script.
