Tottenham 3 Wigan Athletic 1:TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR are known for their capacity to come alive as the transfer window starts to slide shut. The spoils here came in the shape of a victory that eased them from a slightly sticky spell.
The demons that would regularly circle White Hart Lane had shrieked in the previous home fixture when precious points had been squandered against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Defeat followed at Manchester City, albeit in unlucky fashion. Title talk cooled.
But they made no mistake against a disappointing Wigan Athletic team to haul themselves back on track and offer a tonic to the manager Harry Redknapp in the process, as he fights charges of tax evasion. The White Hart Lane crowd were generous in their vocal backing of him.
Inevitably, though, the most uplifting moments were provided by Gareth Bale, his 10th and 11th goals of the domestic season helping Tottenham to confirm the gulf in class. He might have had a hat-trick.
Bale’s second summed him up in so many ways. Taking a short pass from Benoit Assou-Ekotto and faced by Ben Watson, he simply shifted the ball on to his left foot and, almost in the same motion, whipped a low shot into the far corner. It was direct, clinical and unstoppable. Redknapp revelled in the moment.
Wigan came away with the consolation of the substitute James McArthur’s first Premier League goal, a deflected shot, and with time running out, Ronnie Stam fizzed a cross across the six-yard only for nobody to meet it and McArthur flicked over.
It would have been outlandish for Tottenham’s victory margin to be slim. Spurs have been pioneers of the deadline-busting bit of business and there were added factors here. It is not in every window that the manager has been up in the crown court and nor have the team had to play a match which finished just before the deadline. It was easy to imagine phones pressed to ears in the director’s box before, during and after these 90 minutes.
Tottenham kicked off having set up a deal for Everton’s Louis Saha and been linked to several other players, including the Wigan substitute Hugo Rodallega. The story went that Redknapp would sign him at half-time. It was revealing that Sebastien Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko, targets for Queens Park Rangers and Lokomotiv Moscow respectively, were not in Redknapp’s match-day squad.
The home crowd just wanted the points from the team that began the evening at the foot of the table and with five men strung across their back line, in what was a hard-working and fluid 5-3-2 formation. Tottenham dominated the possession but, for much of the first-half, there was an absence of tempo and it felt a little flat.
That changed when Bale, having been switched from left to right, took Luka Modric’s floated pass on his chest, after stealing in behind Jean Beausejour. He showed excellent technique to get over his shot, which beat Al Habsi. Tottenham turned the screw and their second was a horror show for Wigan.
Assou-Ekotto’s cross was cleared by Maynor Figueroa but it ricocheted off Jordi Gomez to leave the ball at Modric’s feet. He swivelled and rammed a low shot home from the edge of the area.
The first-half was one-sided and Tottenham might have been out of sight. Younes Kaboul went close with two headers from corners – McCarthy cleared the second off the line – while Al Habsi saved smartly from Bale. The only disappointment for Tottenham was the loss of Rafael van der Vaart to a muscle strain. It was difficult to locate any positives for Wigan.
Martinez’s team enjoyed an encouraging spell in the second-half but did not look like scoring. Bale showed them how and although McArthur enjoyed his moment and Wigan heads did not drop, the die had long been cast.
Guardian Service
TOTTENHAM:Friedel, Walker (Sandro 75), Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Modric, Parker, Bale, Adebayor (Lancaster 78), Van der Vaart (Livermore 31). Subs not used: Cudicini, Dawson, Rose, Pienaar.
WIGAN ATHLETIC: Al Habsi, Stam, Boyce, Caldwell, Figueroa, Moses, Watson (Crusat 87), McCarthy, Beausejour, Gomez (McArthur 70), Di Santo (Sammon 74). Subs not used: Pollitt, Gohouri, Jones, Rodallega. Booked: Crusat.
Referee: Lee Probert(Wiltshire).
