London (AFP)
Slow and borrowed, Tottenham was beaten by promoted Sheffield United (3-1) on Thursday for the 32nd day of the Premier League, and won the top 6 which is competing for the places in the Champions League.
With 45 points, the men of José Mourinho (9th) are overtaken by the Blades (7th with 47 pts), which nevertheless remained in a draw and three defeats since the resumption of the championship.
They are mainly 7 lengths behind Wolverthampton (6th) and Manchester United (5th), the last virtual qualifier for Europe currently.
And they miss an opportunity to reduce their delay by 9 points on Chelsea (4th) and 10 units on Leicester (3rd), both beaten on Wednesday.
Although they had the ball almost two-thirds of the time, the Spurs failed to put enough pace into their offense.
The trio formed by Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min, behind Harry Kane at the forefront, however seemed cut out for this purpose.
They can still grumble against the goal of a 1-1 tie denied in the first period to Kane upon receiving a ball that had bounced on Lucas' arm, which fell after being pushed into the back by an opponent, but Sheffield's victory is anything but a heist.
Fighting and applied, they showed realism, with 3 goals scored on their first 4 shots on target. But this statistic also owes a lot to the catastrophic performance of London's defense.
Sander Berg pivot (1-0, 31st), the French Lys Mousset (2-0, 69th) - who had already found his way against Arsenal and Manchester United at Bramall Lane - and Oliver McBurnie (3-0, 84th ) have all scored closely, after actions well constructed, but well helped by the immobility of the opposing defenders.
Kane ended up saving the honor by taking advantage of a Berge error, exploited by Son (3-1, 89th), but Tottenham was far from the mark and fell back into faults which sealed his season, even after the change coach in November.
© 2020 AFP