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Rare Werner goal inspires comeback win for Tottenham against Palace
What was it like to be at that wedding in Cana when the water was
turned into wine? How did it feel to be in Smyrna in 155 when the
flames refused to burn the body of St Polycarp? Do the holy waters of
Lourdes really cure the halt and the lame? Miracles, it turns out, can
happen, and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday witnessed one of
the most improbable there has ever been: Timo Werner scored.
Tottenham, not for the first time recently, got away with it.
They had fallen behind to Eberechi Eze just before the hour, but
Werner’s first goal for the club followed by a Cristian Romero header
and a neat finish from Son Heung-min gave them a win that keeps the
pressure on Aston Villa in fourth and increases their lead over
Manchester United to six points ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.
But it was a close-run thing and Oliver Glasner can feel that, with
performances like this, relegation shouldn’t really be a threat for
Crystal Palace. The shape may have been Glasner’s preferred 3-4-2-1
rather than Roy Hodgson’s beloved back four, but the approach will
have been comfortingly familiar to Palace: let the opposition have the
ball, keep it tight and look to keep it 0-0 till half-time. In which
they were extremely successful.
Spurs may have taken 11 points from the previous six league games and
lost only two of their previous 10, but the pizzazz and sparkle of the
early part of the season has gone. Palace were diligent and Spurs
couldn’t get going in a first half where the only opportunity was one
of those that somehow makes the scoring of a goal seem a feat of
implausible difficulty – which may simply be to say that it fell to
Werner.
There is something agonising about watching the German in the
contemplation of a chance. The shoulders stiffen, the stride becomes a
little tighter, a sense of unease descends upon the stadium. He is the
man who, midway through signing a stack of Christmas cards, suddenly
finds the pen sticking as he attempts to write his own name, enduring
an awful mental glitch as the capacity to do something that ought to
be second nature deserts him.
The longer Werner has to think about it, the worse it is and when he
was released by Son after 20 minutes, he had a long, long time to
think about it. Werner had run from inside his own half, charged on,
drifted right, seemed as though he might have gone past Sam Johnstone
and then found that the subterfuge of changing the angle of his run by
perhaps 30 degrees wasn’t enough, and that the keeper had scrambled
across to block. Good goalkeeping, yes, but that was Werner’s twelfth
shot in his fifth league start since joining on loan from RB Leipzig
in January.
There was more enterprise about Spurs after the break and Son clipped
a shot against the base of the post from a Dejan Kulesevski cross
after Emerson Royal had regained possession. But one of Spurs’
problems this season has been balance: they are perhaps never quite so
vulnerable as when they are at their most dangerous.
Palace have missed Eberechi Eze badly this season. He managed only 65
minutes on his return from a hamstrung injury but they were critical.
It was his forward surge on the break that drew the cynical foul from
Rodrigo Bentancur from which he flashed a free-kick into the top
corner. It was a high-quality strike, his sixth goal of the season,
but at the same time there must be questions about the position of
Guglielmo Vicario in relation to his wall, with neither seemingly
covering the right side of the goal.
And then, with 13 minutes remaining, it happened. Brennan Johnson
wobbled in from the right, crossed low, and Werner knocked the ball
into a gaping net. The sun pierced the clouds, and joy abounded in
north London. Romero nodded in James Madison’s lobbed cross to put
Spurs ahead soon after before Son made the game safe with a
well-worked counter.
It may not have been the most convincing win, but nobody will remember
that in years to come. This was the day Timo Werner scored.
turned into wine? How did it feel to be in Smyrna in 155 when the
flames refused to burn the body of St Polycarp? Do the holy waters of
Lourdes really cure the halt and the lame? Miracles, it turns out, can
happen, and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday witnessed one of
the most improbable there has ever been: Timo Werner scored.
Tottenham, not for the first time recently, got away with it.
They had fallen behind to Eberechi Eze just before the hour, but
Werner’s first goal for the club followed by a Cristian Romero header
and a neat finish from Son Heung-min gave them a win that keeps the
pressure on Aston Villa in fourth and increases their lead over
Manchester United to six points ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.
But it was a close-run thing and Oliver Glasner can feel that, with
performances like this, relegation shouldn’t really be a threat for
Crystal Palace. The shape may have been Glasner’s preferred 3-4-2-1
rather than Roy Hodgson’s beloved back four, but the approach will
have been comfortingly familiar to Palace: let the opposition have the
ball, keep it tight and look to keep it 0-0 till half-time. In which
they were extremely successful.
Spurs may have taken 11 points from the previous six league games and
lost only two of their previous 10, but the pizzazz and sparkle of the
early part of the season has gone. Palace were diligent and Spurs
couldn’t get going in a first half where the only opportunity was one
of those that somehow makes the scoring of a goal seem a feat of
implausible difficulty – which may simply be to say that it fell to
Werner.
There is something agonising about watching the German in the
contemplation of a chance. The shoulders stiffen, the stride becomes a
little tighter, a sense of unease descends upon the stadium. He is the
man who, midway through signing a stack of Christmas cards, suddenly
finds the pen sticking as he attempts to write his own name, enduring
an awful mental glitch as the capacity to do something that ought to
be second nature deserts him.
The longer Werner has to think about it, the worse it is and when he
was released by Son after 20 minutes, he had a long, long time to
think about it. Werner had run from inside his own half, charged on,
drifted right, seemed as though he might have gone past Sam Johnstone
and then found that the subterfuge of changing the angle of his run by
perhaps 30 degrees wasn’t enough, and that the keeper had scrambled
across to block. Good goalkeeping, yes, but that was Werner’s twelfth
shot in his fifth league start since joining on loan from RB Leipzig
in January.
There was more enterprise about Spurs after the break and Son clipped
a shot against the base of the post from a Dejan Kulesevski cross
after Emerson Royal had regained possession. But one of Spurs’
problems this season has been balance: they are perhaps never quite so
vulnerable as when they are at their most dangerous.
Palace have missed Eberechi Eze badly this season. He managed only 65
minutes on his return from a hamstrung injury but they were critical.
It was his forward surge on the break that drew the cynical foul from
Rodrigo Bentancur from which he flashed a free-kick into the top
corner. It was a high-quality strike, his sixth goal of the season,
but at the same time there must be questions about the position of
Guglielmo Vicario in relation to his wall, with neither seemingly
covering the right side of the goal.
And then, with 13 minutes remaining, it happened. Brennan Johnson
wobbled in from the right, crossed low, and Werner knocked the ball
into a gaping net. The sun pierced the clouds, and joy abounded in
north London. Romero nodded in James Madison’s lobbed cross to put
Spurs ahead soon after before Son made the game safe with a
well-worked counter.
It may not have been the most convincing win, but nobody will remember
that in years to come. This was the day Timo Werner scored.