Tottenham Hotspur vs. Hull City: Winners and Losers from Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur boosted their Europa League hopes with a 2-0 win over Hull City on the penultimate day of the Premier League season, leaving Hull needing a huge final day to avoid relegation.
After a low-key first half, Nacer Chadli and Danny Rose scored within seven minutes of each other after the break to put Spurs in control, after Hull had actually started better in the second half. The Tigers missed a handful of chances and one big goalmouth scramble, but were ultimately lacking in quality.
Here are all our winners and losers from the match.
Loser: Jake Livermore
1 of 5
The biggest loser of the game was already apparent even before kick-off, with Hull City's Jake Livermore missing the game against his old club after being suspended for a positive drug test.
Capped two years ago by England, Livermore is a regular member of the Tigers' midfield and they could ill do without his services as they battle to avoid relegation. Yet he saw fit to seemingly indulge in recreational drugs and as such has been suspended by both club and league for cocaine use.
Whether he would have altered the scoreline is irrelevant; as a professional sportsman, he'll know he has let himself and his club down in a big way and he may well not be seen again in the top flight, with a potential two-year ban ahead of him.
Winner: Nacer Chadli
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With Harry Kane up front, Spurs have to get runners from midfield to get the best out of him and for the rest of the team—that's how he plays, dropping off and linking, so others need to break beyond the attacking midfield line.
Nacer Chadli is really the only one of their offensive players from the second line who does that, running beyond the striker and looking to get inside the box on a regular basis.
And that's exactly how he was rewarded with a goal.
Chadli may have been offside for the game's opening strike, but it wasn't spotted and his endeavour in roaming from his natural starting point was deserving of a goal in an otherwise poor game in terms of final third movement and finishing up until that point.
Loser: Nikica Jelavic
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Former Everton and Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic has struggled with injury throughout this campaign and only recently came back from his latest set-back, but even so he needed to do better with the chances which came his way at White Hart Lane.
His first half was marred by alternately missing the target with presentable chances, and costing himself further opportunities to shoot by running offside. His timing was wrong, his first touch lamentable too often.
The one time he did break through and was incorrectly flagged offside, Hugo Lloris saved his shot anyway. Jelavic struck the woodwork from a narrow angle in the first half, but even there he should have done better to ensure he hit the target.
Winner: Erik Lamela
4 of 5
He hasn't been the superstar many expected and hoped of him, and certainly he hasn't contributed to the goal tally in the way he should do, but Erik Lamela has been quietly and effectively putting in impressive performances for Tottenham.
From the right of their three attacking midfielders, he cuts inside, shows good invention and dribbling ability and picks spaces and timing for passes very well. Indeed, he has emerged into a more important and effective playmaker than Christian Eriksen for his team in the past few months.
When Mauricio Pochettino is looking for signings to link up with Harry Kane next season, don't be surprised if Eriksen makes way for a more direct attacking threat as the No. 10, while Lamela continues to play the role of chief tormentor in deeper areas.
Loser: Steve Bruce
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Steve Bruce will shake his head and bemoan injuries, the woodwork and misplaced offside flags, but the fact is his side spent in excess of £40 million this season and have come up woefully short in quality and consistency.
The 3-5-2 system favoured over much of this year certainly allows for plenty of crosses from their pacy, energetic wing-backs, but Michael Dawson and Paul McShane in particular in the back three continue to make horrendous errors of judgment on a regular basis. In midfield there is no real dominant force or creative schemer, and the attack is naturally lacking confidence or belief after a season of misadventure.
Bruce signed a new contract in March, but his first milestone since then looks like leading Hull back down a division; they need to beat Manchester United on the final day, which he has never managed, and hope either Newcastle or Sunderland take a beating too. It doesn't look good.
Bruce was quoted by the Hull Daily Mail as saying:
"We've beaten Liverpool, we've played well against Chelsea.
We've got to beat Man United and I haven't done that in 17 years. I've got to turn the tables. Maybe there's a twist in it.
Maybe Man U owe me something after wrecking my knee, my hip and my ankle.
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