8 April 24, 2022The Sunday Times 2GS
Football Premier League
- MAN. UTD
P34
PTS^54
Apr 28Chelsea (h)
May 2Brentford (h)
May 7Brighton (a)
May 22C Palace (a) - WEST HAM UTD
P33
PTS^52
TodayChelsea (a)
May 1Arsenal (h)
May 8Norwich (a)
May 15Man City (h)
May 22Brighton (a) - ARSENAL
P33
PTS^60
May 1West Ham (a)
May 8Leeds Utd (h)
May 12Tottenham (a)
May 16Newcastle (a)
May 22Everton (h)
back. That brought Eriksen into the
left-hand corner of the ground for sev-
eral corner kicks, where he was sere-
naded by the visiting Tottenham fans
with chants of, “You’re Spurs and you
know you are.”
Amid the flattery, Eriksen floated
over a couple of well-placed corners
to the far post, where they were met
by volleys from Toney that were
blocked by Tottenham’s defence in
what were virtually identical phases
of play. However, it was from the other
side that Brentford created their best
chance, this time with an Eriksen out-
swinging corner.
This was attacked by Toney, who
obliterated Tottenham’s zonal mark-
ing but saw his header crash off the
crossbar. The woodwork was rattled
and so were Tottenham momentarily
T
he clamour for Christian
Eriksen to return to Totten-
ham Hotspur will grow after
this flat performance by
Antonio Conte’s team, who
looked as though they had
nothing to play for, while it
was Brentford who resem-
bled a side challenging for the top
four.
Tottenham lacked both inspiration
and perspiration and were fortunate
to come away with a point, as Ivan
Toney twice headed against the wood-
work, with Eriksen constantly prob-
ing for openings.
Eriksen’s contract with Brentford
finishes at the end of this season and
Tottenham could desperately do with
bringing him on board for the next
campaign.
For now, they will struggle to make
the Champions League with a team
lacking any real playmaker if Harry
Kane is kept quiet, as he was. Spurs
failed to register a shot on target for a
second game in a row after the defeat
last week by Brighton & Hove Albion.
Conte refused to criticise his team
or be drawn on whether he would like
to be reunited next season with Erik-
sen, who he managed at Inter Milan.
Thomas Frank and everybody else in
the Brentford camp are desperate for
him to still be their player next season.
“I am very positive and very hope-
ful that he will stay here,” said Frank,
who was keen to stress Brentford’s
overall excellence. “If Christian had
played for Tottenham today, I think
we would still have won. We did after
all have ten other players.”
Eriksen started on the left side of
midfield but began popping up all
over the place and was at the heart of
most of Brentford’s good work as they
dominated the first half.
Most of that threat came from set-
pieces delivered by the Dane, as
Brentford initially pushed Tottenham
SPURS ATTACK FALLS FLAT
Paul Rowan
Jansson
8
Lloris
7
Dier
6
Hojbjerg
5
Betancur
5
Royal
5
Sessegnon
6
Davies
6
Romero
6
Son
5
Kulusevski
5
Kane
6
3-4-3
Raya
6
Henry
7
Roerslev
7
Ghoddos
7
Mbeumo
8
Jensen
6
To n e y
8
Sorensen
7
Janelt
7
Eriksen
8
4-3-3
PREMIER LEAGUE
PWDL FAGDPts
1 Man City 33 25 5 380 21 5980
2 Liverpool 32 23 7 28322 6176
3 Chelsea 31 18 8 56627 3962
4 Arsenal 33 19 3 115240 1260
5 Tottenham 33 18 4 115638 1858
6 Man Utd 34 15 9 10 53 51 254
7 West Ham 33 15 7 115243 952
8 Wolves 32 15 4 13 33 28 549
9 Newcastle 34 11 10 13 40 55 -15 43
10 Leicester 32 11 9 12 47 51 -4 42
11 Brentford 34 11 7 16 4149 -8 40
12 Brighton 33 9 13 11 2940 -11 40
13 Southampton 33 9 12 12 38 54 -16 39
14 Crystal Palace 32 8 13 11 4341 2 37
15 Aston Villa 32 11 4 17 42 46 -4 37
16 Leeds 32 8 9 15 38 68 -30 33
17 Everton 31 8 5 18 34 53 -19 29
18 Burnley 32 5 13 14 28 45 -17 28
19 Watford 33 6 4 23 31 67 -36 22
20 Norwich 33 5 6 22 22 69 -47 21
as Hugo Lloris appeared to hurt him-
self trying to keep out Toney’s effort,
but after some treatment the Spurs
captain soldiered on, with David Raya
a virtual spectator at the other end.
After the break, the threat on
Lloris’s goal grew even greater and the
Frenchman averted one dangerous
move by sprinting 20 yards out from
his penalty area and making a full-
blooded challenge that caught the ball
and then Toney.
The Brentford centre forward
shrugged off the challenge and a
moment later set up an opportunity
for Bryan Mbeumo, who blasted over.
The game was opening up and at
the other end, Pontus Jansson did well
to block an effort by Kane that looked
goal-bound. The ball went out for a
corner, one of several that Tottenham
forced in their best spell up to that
point, but Son Heung-min’s deliveries
were nothing like as dangerous as his
former team-mate’s and nor did the
current crop of Spurs players look
inclined to attack the ball with the
same fervour as their opponents.
Still Brentford could not break
through, despite posing the greater
threat. When Eric Dier gave the ball
away, it was moved swiftly to Eriksen,
whose shot from the edge of the area
was pushed wide by Lloris. Eriksen’s
corner stretched the defence further
and Kane had to clear the ball off his
own line from Jansson’s header to pre-
vent a goal in the 66th minute.
Eriksen’s free kick on 90 minutes
summed up the game. From that cross
Toney sent in another towering
header that crashed off an upright and
Mbeumo hit the side-netting with his
follow up.
A spectacular bicycle kick from
Kane in stoppage time could have
snatched the game for Spurs, but the
ball drifted just wide. “When you
score a lot of goals the opponents pay
more defensive attention,” said Conte.
“We have to accept this result and to
try to continue to work.”
RACE FOR FOURTH PLACE
- TOTTENHAM
P33
PTS 58
May 1Leicester (h)
May 7Liverpool (a)
May 12Arsenal (h)
May 15Burnley (h)
May 22Norwich (a)
31
PL clubs Harry Kane has
faced, with Brentford the
only one he has failed to
score against
Star man Pontus Jansson (Brentford)
Substitutes: Brentford Y Wissa (for Ghoddos 78),
J Dasilva (for Jensen 78).
Tottenham D Sanchez (for Sessegnon 74),
L Moura (for Emerson 86).
Referee M Atkinson.
00
BRENTFORDTOTTENHAM
HOTSPUR
Grant McCann’s late attempt to save
Peterborough United from
relegation ended in failure (Peter
Wilson writes). They lost 1-0 at
home to Nottingham Forest,
sending them back to League One
along with Derby County and
Barnsley.
McCann returned to
Peterborough in February for a
third spell in charge after Darren
Ferguson left the club, and they
responded with 11 points from their
past six matches going into
yesterday’s game against their
promotion-chasing opponents.
Only victory would have kept their
hopes alive, but Sam Surridge’s goal
sent Peterborough down and
secured Forest a seventh win in
eight games.
“I’ve had this experience before
at Hull not so long ago,” McCann
said. “We dusted ourselves down to
bounce straight back and hopefully
we can do that.”
Paul Ince’s Reading survive,
despite losing 3-0 away to Hull City.
Fulham will have to wait a bit
longer to celebrate winning the title
after Dominic Solanke’s penalty in
the eighth minute of stoppage time
gave Bournemouth a 1-1 draw
against the promoted Londoners.
P WDL F A GD Pts
1 Fulham (P) 43 26 9 89938 6187
2 Bournemouth 42 22 12 8 6636 3078
3 Huddersfield 44 21 13 10 60 46 1476
4 Nottm Forest 42 21 10 11 6637 2973
5 Luton 44 20 12 12 62 48 14 72
6 Sheff Utd 44 19 12 13 56 44 1269
7 Millwall 44 17 15 12 50 44 6 66
8 Middlesbrough 43 18 10 15 53 45 8 64
9 Blackburn 43 17 12 14 53 45 8 63
10 QPR 44 18 9 17 58 56 263
11 Coventry 44 17 12 15 58 56 263
12 Stoke 44 17 10 17 55 48 7 61
13 West Brom 44 16 13 15 47 45 2 61
14 Swansea 43 16 12 15 54 59 -5 60
15 Preston 43 14 16 13 44 50 -6 58
16 Blackpool 43 15 12 16 52 51 1 57
17 Bristol City 44 14 10 20 57 75 -18 52
18 Hull 44 14 8 22 40 48 -8 50
19 Cardiff 43 14 7 22 48 65 -17 49
20 Birmingham 44 11 13 20 48 72 -24 46
21 Reading* 44 13 8 23 54 85 -31 41
22 Peterborough (R) 44 8 10 26 38 84 -46 34
23 Derby** (R) 44 13 13 18 43 52 -9 31
24 Barnsley (R) 43 6 12 25 32 64 -32 30
*Deducted six points, **deducted 21 points
McCann fails
to save Posh
as Surridge
sends them
down to
League One
Marco Silva, the Fulham manager,
was sent off in the final minute of
stoppage time. Referee Graham
Scott had sent Silva down the
tunnel for his protests to the fourth
official about the penalty decision.
“Harsh decision, a big mistake
from the ref in my opinion. For me
it’s not a penalty,” Silva said. “We
wanted to come here and celebrate
the title. It was a tough game like we
expected, very tight — a lot of
challenges, a lot of falls. It wasn’t
the best game to watch.”
Aleksandar Mitrovic struck his
41st goal of the season to give
Fulham a 56th-minute lead. That
goal looked set to give them the title
until the former Bournemouth loan
player Harry Wilson tripped Adam
Smith, and Solanke scored the
penalty to earn Scott Parker’s side a
point that takes them a step closer
to automatic promotion.
Luton Town could have all but
confirmed a place in the play-offs
with a win against Blackpool, but
they were pegged back to a 1-1 home
Surridge scored Forest’s winner
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