Tottenham Hotspur have encountered difficulty in despatching their "smaller" opponents at White Hart Lane this season and they certainly had their problems against Reading yesterday. Yet they persevered and, with the aid of an outrageously deflected third goal, collected their seventh win in nine matches and moved into third place in the Premier League.
When the teams last met in north London, in December 2007, they shared 10 goals with Tottenham winning 6-4. At the rate that they started off on Tuesday, it looked like another goalfest was on the cards. And Tottenham's frailties at home when taking on the so-called "lesser" teams – as experienced against Wigan Athletic, Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City – were again exposed.
Admittedly Kyle Naughton was harshly adjudged to have fouled Pavel Pogrebnyak on the edge of the Tottenham area. Yet there was no disputing the quality of Ian Harte's free kick, which thundered against Hugo Lloris's crossbar, or the swift opportunism of Pogrebnyak as he stooped to nod in the rebound before anyone could react. After six wins in their previous eight league games, it was not the start that Tottenham – nor their stunned and silent fans – had anticipated.
It also went totally against the grain, the first time that they had conceded a goal in the opening 15 minutes of a league game this season. It did, though, awake them from their slumber and they were level within six minutes. Gylfi Sigurdsson, the former Reading midfielder, curled over a cross from the left and Michael Dawson, the Tottenham captain, headed in at the near post. It was his first league goal for almost two years.
In a strangely muted, perhaps hangover-induced, atmosphere, Tottenham failed to build on their superiority and produced only a series of long-distance efforts to trouble Adam Federici, the Reading goalkeeper. Most of them did not trouble him – they were so wide of the target – but the Australian did well to keep out an attempt from Sandro that deflected wickedly off Alex Pearce. A save from Mousa Dembélé was not bad, either.
For all Reading's admirable resilience, though, they were severely limited going forward. So, too, in the second half, for which they were punished soon after the interval. Aaron Lennon had given Harte a torrid time and was at it again, twisting this way and that before clipping over a cross to the far post. Emmanuel Adebayor rose and nodded firmly past Federici for his first league goal in six weeks.
Tottenham did survive two scares, when Pogrebnyak headed wide after Lloris had saved his initial effort and when Jimmy Kebe was denied by a last-ditch block from Kyle Walker but Clint Dempsey soothed their nerves near the end. The American took aim from 20 yards and was helped by a cruel deflection off Mikele Leigertwood, the ball looping crazily over Federici.
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