Far from being cowed by recent experiences, the home team believed it was to be their day and they didn’t take a backward step in pursuit of a winning strike, which came from Nikica Jelavic.
Spurs were the victims caught up in the raucous Goodison atmosphere, and it is a scenario they are becoming far too familiar with. Already this season, Andre Villas-Boas’ side have shipped ten goals in the final fifteen minutes of games. All the scars, borne from that recent history, were readily apparent as the Lilywhites sat ever deeper, seeking firstly a clean-sheet and then to cling onto a valuable point.
One club who have a history of striking late are Liverpool, and despite their status not being at the exalted level of their halcyon years they show no sign of losing that welcome habit. Their goals which turned the game at Upton Park on Sunday didn’t come right at the death, as was the case in the day’s other two matches, but both came in the final quarter of an hour.
The Hammers’ support offered the day’s third example of a partisan crowd baying for their team to attack in search of a victory securing goal, after Joe Cole, returning to his spiritual home had levelled the scores. No matter that West Ham sat on the verge of a draw which would have taken the team into the top half of the table, and cemented a Premier League return which has surpassed even the most optimistic of East End expectations.
With so much at stake in the modern game thanks to the financial rewards any success can bring, it would be possible to forgive a more negative outlook from the majority of combatants. The opposite is happening, however, as more teams play at breakneck speed and are prepared, in a search for goals, to be exposed in their own half.
Much credit should go to Norwich and Swansea City for the manner in which they approached their inaugural Premier League season last term. The positive outcome from their purposeful and eye-catching styles has undoubtedly encouraged many of the division’s other lesser lights to adopt like-minded methods.
There is also evidence of managers adapting their own thought-processes. Roberto Mancini’s early days at Manchester City were characterised by an Italian cattenacio mindset, far removed from that on display yesterday. David Moyes , in his fledgling Everton career wouldn’t have contemplated sending out a team to play in the cavalier nature of his current charges.
Whatever the ultimate reasons, the abundance of Premier League sides wanting to win every time they step onto the pitch, and prepared to battle until the final whistle to do so, are contributing to a wonderful spectacle.
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