Sunderland 3 Spurs 1 Review « Football Blog – Football News

Sunderland 3 Spurs 1

Darren Bent scores twice against his former club Tottenham to help Sunderland to a 3-1 win.


GREAT START: Bent scores inside the first minute

Tottenham’s hopes of a Champions League spot suffered a huge blow when they succumbed to a 3-1 defeat to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Bent struck after just 34 seconds to open the scoring for the home side. He doubled their lead with a 29th minute penalty, before missing two from the spot. Substitute Peter Crouch got one back for Spurs but a stunner from Boudewijn Zenden assured all three points.

Sunderland got their perfect start when Tottenham keeper Heurelho Gomes could only parry Fraizer Campbell’s shot and Bent was on hand to tap in. He scored right in front of the Tottenham fans behind the goal and celebrated in determined fashion.

Bent got the opportunity to double the Black Cats’ lead on the half-hour mark, when Steed Malbranque’s shot was saved by Gomes, but right-back Kyle Walker handled whilst clearing and referee Lee Mason pointed straight to the spot. Bent stepped up and powered his penalty into the corner of the net for his 22nd goal in the Premier League this season.

The home side were then awarded another penalty when Campbell surged into the box and tripped over Luka Modric’s outstretched leg. Bent, on a hat-trick, had his spot kick excellently saved by Gomes as Sunderland went into the break two up.

Tottenham needed to make changes, and needed to do it fast. Harry Redknapp made two at half-time, bringing on Nico Kranjcar and Jermain Defoe for Benoit Assou-Ekotto and David Bentley respectively.

Defoe almost made an immediate impact five minutes into the second half, but the English striker’s shot was saved by in-form goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

Sunderland were then awarded their third penalty when David Meyler was tripped by Wilson Palacios. Malbranque volunteered, but Bent waved him aside, only to see his kick saved by Gomes again.

Redknapp then made his third change, bringing on Crouch for Roman Pavlyuchenko. The 6 foot 7 inch striker made an immediate impact, when he towered over his marker and headed Kranjcar’s cross into the bottom corner.

Anxiety started creeping into the Sunderland fans and the two missed penalties started to look more prominent than ever.

Bent was replaced by Kenwyne Jones and the Trinidad and Tobago forward should have killed the game off when he was picked out by Campbell, but he missed his kick, and Zenden’s effort was cleared off the line.

The former Liverpool man was not to be denied though when he smashed his volley spectacularly into the top corner 5 minutes from time to make it 3-1 and seal the points for Sunderland.

Manchester City thrashed Burnley 6-1 later on to capitalise on this slip-up from Spurs to go fourth in the table with 6 games to go. Aston Villa also won at Villa to move closer to Spurs.

Harry Redknapp’s men entertain Arsenal next week in what promises to be a fiercely-contested North London derby and with both sides having as much of an excuse to win it as the other, this one could make or break both these teams’ seasons.


Source: Sunderland 3 Spurs 1 Review « Football Blog – Football News