With Tottenham Hotspur playing well lately a Premier League home win was expected, Norwich City though had other ideas. Like Sunderland a few days earlier, they didn’t give Spurs any time on the ball, this lead to Spurs looking very shaky, especially in defence, where the usually very calm Ledley King looked anything but.
Norwich went ahead through Anthony Pilkington after they got a lucky break in the box.
Just before Spurs equalised, Norwich could have had a penalty after King held Grant Holt. For me, it looked 50/50 and would have been a soft penalty. Spurs though levelled the scoreline when Jake Livermore provided the perfect through-ball to Jermain Defoe, who chipped Norwich’s on-rushing ‘keeper John Ruddy.
Both teams had good chances to score in the second half, there was a lovely one-two between Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Emmanuel Adebayor, but his shot was saved.
Bradley Johnson fired wide for Norwich after a cross found him with space in the area, unfortunately for him, he fired wide. But it was Elliott Bennett who put Norwich ahead with a cracking curling shot from outside the box. Spurs’ defence failed to close the winger down. Poor defending.
Gareth Bale had a good game considering he’d played just 48 hours earlier. In the 30th minute he crossed for Defoe, who was inches away for tapping home.
In the 55th minute, Aaron Lennon laid off the ball to Gareth, but his shot was deflected over and wide.
The 64th minute saw Luka Modric run at Norwich’s defence, he passed out right to Bale but this time his shot hit the woodwork.
The Welshman had a chance in 75th minute with a header from a Benoit Assou-Ekotto cross, went just wide unfortunately.
Gareth Bale could have saved Spurs and got them a point in injury time, but his long range curling shot was saved by Ruddy and condemned Spurs to a surprising home defeat.
Spurs remain fourth, now joint fourth with Newcastle United in the league. This Sunday though sees Spurs looking for cup glory at Wembley when they take on Chelsea in an FA Cup semi-final. Let’s hope Gareth Bale and his team-mates can pull off a win!