Wily striker Raul Jimenez struck a superb 73rd-minute winner as Wolverhampton Wanderers twice came back from a goal down to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 and leap-frog them into sixth place in the Premier League table yesterday.
Steven Bergwijn gave Jose Mourinho’s Spurs, who lost 2-1 to Chelsea last week, the lead in the 13th minute by slamming home a rebound to spare the blushes of Dele Ali, whose weak shot with the goal at his mercy was parried by Rui Patricio.
The visitors struck back 14 minutes later through Irish international Matt Doherty, who took advantage of some poor defending to score after Spurs failed to clear Ruben Vinagre’s cross.
Serge Aurier restored the lead just before halftime, collecting the ball just inside the box before curling a sublime left-foot shot inside the far post, but again Wolves came back as Diogo Jota scored from close range in the 57th minute. With Spurs striker Ali spurning several decent chances, Jota then set up Jimenez for the winner, sliding the ball into his path in the 73rd minute for Jimenez to cut swiftly inside before curling a sweet left-foot strike into the net.The win lifts Wolves into sixth spot with 42 points after 28 games, just behind Manchester United on goal difference, while Spurs slip to seventh, two points behind Wolves.
With Manchester City set to be banned from the Champions League for breaching UEFA’s financial rules, Wolves striker Jimenez said he and his teammates were setting their sights on a spot in Europe’s premier club competition.
“This is our spirit, it’s what characterises us. We fight to the end in every game, keep going and keep winning. We’re proud of this game and we have to keep going to achieve more goals, we are looking at top five” he said.
For Mourinho, the defeat makes the task of qualifying for the Champions League that little bit more difficult but he did not see his side as being second-best against Wolves.
“They are so powerful on the counter-attack,” he told a news conference. “We tried different solutions, it worked in a way because we scored two goals.
“I think it’s unfair, the result, totally unfair,” Mourinho added, before calling for more fight from his players.
“We don’t have that aggression. We are too good, too nice. That was maybe the only difference between the teams.” Meanwhile, Everton and Manchester United drew 1-1 at Goodison Park in an enthralling game which ended in VAR drama.
A dreadful error from United keeper David De Gea gifted Everton a third-minute opener — the Spaniard dawdled on the ball after a pass-back from Harry Maguire and his attempted clearance was charged down by Dominic Calvert-Lewin and flew off the Everton striker into the net.
United responded well to the early setback though with Nemanja Matic hitting the cross-bar with a long-range effort and then forcing Everton keeper Jordan Pickford into a diving save with another well-struck drive.
It was January signing Bruno Feranandes, the Portuguese midfielder who has brought some much-needed creativity to the United side, who put the visitors level with a superb low shot from outside the box in the 31st minute.
There was VAR drama in stoppage time when Everton thought they had a winner. Calvert-Lewin’s low shot deflected off Harry Maguire and span past Sigurdsson who was lying on the floor in what the video referee ruled was an offside position.