West Brom vs. Tottenham: Winners and Losers from Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur have missed a great opportunity to move within one point of the summit of the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion.
The Baggies were deserving of their point and could easily have had more in the frantic late stages of a game that neither side was ever able to control.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino will be disappointed to see his side lose a lead again. For the fourth time in just 15 Premier League matches, Tottenham had the lead but let it slip and ended with only a draw.
The eight points dropped in those stalemates against Stoke City, Leicester City, Arsenal and the Baggies could prove costly by the season's end.
Winner: The Streak
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This result has justifiably been met with some frustration, but it should not be forgotten that Tottenham remain unbeaten since August 8.
That is 118 days; just shy of a third of a year.
It is a remarkable achievement for Pochettino's men.
West Brom provided a genuine test of Spurs' undefeated run. They beat Arsenal in their last home fixture and played with confidence born of such a result.
They had no fear of Tottenham and mastered the difficult conditions far better than the visitors.
West Brom could easily have won this game. They disrupted Spurs' game plan and were able to adapt their own after conceding an early goal to Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli.
Loser: Referee Jonathan Moss
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Referee Jonathan Moss allowed this fixture to deteriorate into a nasty affair quite quickly.
A failure on his part to intercede in several early physical clashes appeared to encourage the players to continue in that vein, and it produced an unattractive spectacle.
Players on both sides were losing their cool, but Moss was unable to influence things in a positive direction.
He also refused to prevent Tony Pulis' favoured tactic of surrounding the opposition goalkeeper at set pieces.
His failure to issue bookings for a number of bad first-half tackles was dangerous, and his inconsistent application of the advantage rule was frustrating in equal measure.
This was a poor performance from a referee with a history of failing to take control.
Moss was the same referee abused by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho during the Blues' defeat to West Ham in November. That incident produced the Portuguese manager's hugely controversial sending-off.
Winner: Tony Pulis
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Tony Pulis is a nightmare.
The West Brom boss set out his team to play a tight, controlled game, with a focus on defensive solidity and counter-attacking.
Spurs punctured that plan when Dele Alli raced between the Baggies defenders to open the scoring after 15 minutes.
Pulis' teams are consistently difficult to play against because they are so well drilled.
Despite their obvious game plan being upset by Alli's goal, they maintained belief in their style of play and managed to force Spurs away from theirs.
West Brom fought and fouled their way back into the game, equalised and made enough chances to win.
Pulis has wrenched his team away from being the soft touch that they were last season and remade them in his own image.
Loser: Harry Kane
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It may seem harsh to criticise Harry Kane's performance when few of his team-mates were any better at the Hawthorns, but his importance to the team means the standards are higher.
Kane had one of his most anonymous games for Spurs. Consistently surrounded by both West Brom defenders and ersatz midfielder Jonny Evans, Kane had no space to move and little supply.
Isolated and largely inconsequential, Kane was forced to drop deep in order to involve himself in the game.
Kane is capable of creating chances, but without the likes of Nacer Chadli and Heung-min Son on the pitch, none of his team-mates can replace him as a target.
This was reminiscent of the League Cup final last season, when Chelsea cut him out of the match by marking him heavily.
This tactic should free up others to threaten the opposition goal, but nobody was able to step into the breach in this game.
Winner: Mousa Dembele
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Mousa Dembele was not at his best against West Brom, but then, nobody was.
In a poorly performing team, Dembele stood up to be counted.
He was the conduit through which all of Spurs' possession flowed, and he was seemingly the only player on either side capable of retaining it.
Dembele has produced many more impressive performances in the remarkable career renaissance that he is enjoying, but perhaps few with the same resolve and determination that marked out this one.
With Eric Dier and Dele Alli both producing their worst performances of the season, Dembele was alone.
He was surrounded by the howling wind and forced to deal with a barrage of uncultured challenges from West Brom's midfielders.
He was unable to carry his team to victory, but there was nobody on his team who looked more likely to do so.
