Ben Davies was one of Tottenham’s standout players in the 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Saturday and his performance caught the eye of head coach Ange Postecoglou
There was to be one final twist as Tottenham’s nightmare week came to an end at Molineux. Fresh from that 4-1 defeat against Chelsea and the injury and suspension disasters that came with it, Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs team looked on course to bounce back at the first time of asking.
Leading 1-0 in the West Midlands courtesy of Brennan Johnson’s third-minute strike, Wolves turned the game on its head as soon as the clock hit the 90-minute mark. Substitute Pablo Sarabia was the goalscorer for Wolves, expertly controlling Matheus Cunha’s lofted ball before unleashing a venomous volley that flew past Guglielmo Vicario at his near post. It really was some strike from the Wolves attacker.
Tottenham were to then suffer another devastating hammer blow in the final seconds of stoppage time as Sarabia, following a quick free-kick from Tommy Doyle, picked out Mario Lemina’s run in the box and the midfielder duly found the bottom corner with a first-time finish. Six minutes proved to be the difference between Tottenham grinding out an important win at Molineux and falling to a cruel defeat against Gary O’Neil’s men.
Just not getting going in the final third, with the absences of Destiny Udogie and James Maddison certainly impacting the team going forward, Tottenham had appeared to have done enough after defending very well at Molineux. The hosts may have had 17 shots on goal over the course of the game but Vicario only had two saves to make in total.
That in part was down to Eric Dier and Ben Davies remaining strong in defence as they took on the centre-back roles in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven’s absence. Dier’s first start of the season after having to watch on from the bench since August, it was Davies’ second after previously starting in last month’s win at Crystal Palace.
The Welshman did in fact come out with the Player of the Match award after delivering a very impressive performance at centre-back. Used to playing on the left of a back three but having very little experience of operating as one of two centre-backs, the experienced player frustrated Wolves a number of times with some excellent defending.
Involved early on as he produced a great block to stop Rayan Ait-Nouri testing Vicario, Davies continued to contribute with a number of timely interventions, including one in the 80th minute from Lemina’s cross with the box loaded, as Tottenham kept Wolves out. It was perhaps no surprise to see why the 30-year-old came out on top with TNT Sports’ Player of the Match award when you take a look at his stats from the game (via FotMob).
In total, Davies chipped in with five blocks, five recoveries, three clearances, two interceptions and he also won two of his three tackles and five of his six duels. He was also accurate with 63 of his 67 passes to register a 94 per cent pass completion rate, with four of his five long balls successful.
Davies may have come in for some unfair criticism from some fans for his showing but Postecoglou certainly noted what the player had given to the team. Asked about Davies and Dier after coming into the XI with very little football under their belts this term, the head coach praised them both when speaking in his post-match press conference.
“Both of them and Emerson, and even for guys like Brennan and Pierre, who haven’t started many games because we’ve had a pretty settled line-up, particularly those two guys coming in, I thought their commitment, their endeavour to play our way was there the whole game,” said Postecoglou.
“They held out in the end, you could see they were feeling towards the end but they didn’t let their performance levels drop. For the most part, Wolves didn’t have many big chances, I think Vic had one or two saves to make but obviously, at the end there, I think the first goal was a really good goal and we probably ran out of steam in the last few minutes. Wolves, with the crowd behind them were able to lift.”
Set to be without Van de Ven until early next year due to the hamstring injury he sustained against Chelsea, Davies has certainly made his case to Postecoglou for the left-sided centre-back position. For now, the Wales international and Dier look set to continue at the heart of defence with Romero’s suspension ruling him out of the upcoming Aston Villa and Man City matches.
Very good on his return to the Tottenham team after missing out through injury on Monday against Chelsea, Davies certainly didn’t deserve to be on the losing side at Molineux after his rather impressive performance.