Ipswich Town won 2-1 at Tottenham Hotspur yesterday afternoon. Stuart Watson reflects on the action.
ATTACKING THREAT
Tottenham were strong favourites for a reason. Theirs is a squad that cost in excess of £500m to assemble. They went into game week 11 as the Premier League's leading scorers. They'd won seven of their eight home games across all competitions. Only Man City and Arsenal had got victories at their impressive 62,000 capacity home this calendar year.
Town boss Kieran McKenna insisted in his pre-match press conference that he believed that his side could get a result, but that they would need absolutely everything to go to plan. Well, that's exactly what happened.
Let's start with the offensive part of a near perfect away performance.
Spurs don't have the best record at defending set-pieces. Town put some early pressure on from those, with Cameron Burgess heading against the face of the crossbar at one corner.
Spurs play with a high line and can be vulnerable at turnovers. Town pressed high and hard at appropriate moments and attacked with numbers on the counter.
There was some composed building from the back too. The 31st minute opener came following a spell of possession. The impressive Jens Cajuste teased the cross in from the right, Liam Delap attacked the ball with gusto, the ball span up in the air and Sammie Szmodics produced a fine overhead kick finish. A man who has climbed every rung of the Football League has now scored goals at both the Etihad and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The second goal, in the 43rd minute, actually originated from some slack play at the back. The situation was rectified though, an attack was executed with real intent and, following good work by Ben Johnson, Omari Hutchinson, Leif Davis and Szmodics, keeper Guglielmo Vicario pushed the low cross into defender Radu Dragusin, with Delap there to get the final touch on the line. There was no way he was letting that one go down as an own goal.
Delap was a one-man wrecking ball once again. He repeatedly crashed into opponents, Romero in particular, and constantly ruffled feathers with a look of devilment. That's six goals from his first 11 top-flight appearances now. Even the likes of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Alan Shearer and Michael Owen didn't manage that.
STANDING STRONG
Tottenham have had eight comeback wins at home in 2024. They'd averaged three goals a game in front of their fans this season. Never has '2-0 is a dangerous scoreline' felt so true.
Town had defended with organisation and bravery in the first half. That had to go up a notch after the break as the hosts inevitably increased their intensity.
Defender Axel Tuanzebe, playing with his badly injured hand in a solid cast, had replaced forward Conor Chaplin in the team. It meant the Blues could play with a solid 5-4-1 when required and quickly transition into a 3-4-3.
O'Shea didn't look a man playing with a back issue. He charged down shots, won duels, foot races and made vital interceptions. It was an outstanding display from the Irish centre-back.
Burgess was no-nonsense. Hutchinson's crunching tackle on Pedro Porro early on sticks in the memory. Johnson made a perfectly-timed hooked slide tackle to prevent Destiny Udogie bursting into the box.
Aro Muric pushed a Dominic Solanke shot round the post in the first half, tipped over a curling Son Heung-min and Timo Werner efforts in the second half and, in the fifth minute of stoppage-time, made a big save with his leg to deny Solanke. On top of that, the big Kosovan confidently claimed several crosses to prevent pressure building.
Tottenham may have been a little leggy after a Thursday night trip to Galatasaray, but take nothing way from the way Ipswich forced them to play with desperation and frustration.
FORTUNE AND VAR
This was a Town display that deserved some good fortune.
It could have been a different story had Brennan Johnson not stabbed the wrong side of the post in the second minute. The Blues were fortunate that substitute Timo Werner, a player looking desperately short of confidence in front of goal this season, lifted a shot well over the bar in the 84th minute too.
Ipswich were also on the right side of not one, but two VAR calls.
In the 50th minute, after a corner was glanced on, Solanke's shot found the net. Town players instantly appealed en masse. VAR quickly informed Darren England the striker's shot had hit his own hand. A clear and obvious error. The goal was correctly chalked off.
Ten minutes later, Porro's cross hit a leaping Davis, from relatively close quarters, as it entered the box. A corner was given. Spurs players appealed and VAR took a look. Had the ball hit Davis' chest or flailing arm? The replays were inconclusive. Had he been inside or outside the box? Again, it was hard to tell. No clear and obvious error, so the original call was stuck with. That's how the technology is meant to be used.
Maybe that Mark Ashton meeting with Howard Webb did do some good.
When Rodrigo Bentancur thumped his header at a corner high into the net there was still plenty of time to go.
Spurs were effectively playing with a front four by now. The home fans, accustomed to their team finishing strong, turned up the volume.
There was no way that Town could just sit deep and defend for their lives for more than 20 minutes.
After riding out a bit of a mini storm, the players showed superb game management to run down the clock.
Hutchinson was at the heart of that. Time and time again he received the ball on the half turn in pockets of space and drew clever fouls to earn the defence a breather. When Johnson won a throw-in high up the field, Hutchinson wheeled his arms to whip up the Town support. The 21-year-old is tenacious off the ball, skilful on it and is playing with increasing maturing.
Unlike against Brentford and Leicester there was to be no stoppage-time heartbreak this time.
Hutchinson slumped to the turf in pure exhaustion at the final whistle. Sub George Hirst, who'd battled on after tweaking his knee, had to be bandaged up during the celebrations after being hit by a vicious Dragusin elbow.
Ipswich had out-fought and out-thought a very good team.
THE WAIT IS OVER!
Finally, after a 22-year wait, Ipswich Town have won a Premier League game again.
You can't really understate how big a result this is. Without it, all the talk would have been about how the Blues were the only team left in the 92 without a league victory to their name.
Instead, everyone - players and fans alike - goes into the third international break with boosted belief.
Ipswich have been competitive in virtually every game since stepping up. The first 10 performances deserved more points than were on the board. The longer that winless run went on though, the more it was beginning to feel like things were not meant to be and the season could slip away.
But now a very good team has been beaten on the road, the injury list is shortening, Town are out of the drop zone and three of the next four are at Portman Road, starting with a mouth-watering match against Manchester United.
All of a sudden, anything feels possible again.
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