Tottenham Hotspur’s FA Cup exit piles more pressure on under-fire Jose Mourinho
Tottenham Hotspur were knocked out of the 2020-21 FA Cup after suffering a 4-5 defeat to Everton. Wednesday’s game between the two teams was full of goals, and was a thrilling encounter for all neutrals, though.
However, for Jose Mourinho, the result was yet another blow to his side’s fortunes. The loss against Everton means Tottenham Hotspur have now won just once in their last five games in all competitions.
For a team that was sitting at the top of the Premier League two months ago, this result is simply not good enough. Nevertheless, Tottenham Hotspur were daring against Carlo Ancelotti’s side in a way that they haven’t played in for many months now.
However, they were ultimately undone by some naive defending at the back. Scoring four goals and still managing to lose the game is still something many Tottenham Hotspur supporters cannot possibly fathom.
An entertaining loss for Tottenham Hotspur
Despite being eliminated from the FA Cup, there were a lot of positives for Mourinho’s side. For many weeks, they have lacked attacking guile, but this was one of their best attacking displays of the season.
At half-time, Tottenham Hotspur were 3-1 down. Goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson did the damage following Davinson Sanchez’s early opener for Tottenham Hotspur.
The second half was, however, a totally different proposition, as Tottenham Hotspur rallied their way back to make it 3-3, with Erik Lamela and Sanchez grabbing the goals.
There was still time for Richarlison and Harry Kane to cancel each other out before the game proceeded to extra time.
Everton, though, had the last laugh with Bernard scoring the all-important winner seven minutes into the first half of extra time. It was an entertaining game, but one where Tottenham Hotspur were made to rue their missed chances and atrocious defending.
Pressure mounting on Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho was hired by Tottenham Hotspur to move the team to the next level, but things are not going according to plan so far. Despite making a strong start to the season, Tottenham Hotspur have been way off the mark in recent weeks.
The pressure is beginning to mount on Mourinho, whose side also risk missing out on a top-four finish in the Premier League. The only silver lining is that Tottenham Hotspur showed on the night that they could also play expansive football.
"I enjoyed it - and I didn't enjoy it. I enjoyed the way we played with the ball. We created, we had great movement, we scored goals, created chances. Showed great character to fight against incredible mistakes. But attacking football only wins matches when you don't make more mistakes than you create. We scored four goals, but it was not enough," the Portuguese said after the game, as quoted by Goal.
The Tottenham manager continued in this regard:.
"It hurts everyone. The feeling is we played really well with the ball; we were brave, we were the better team at 1-0, and in five minutes it was mistake, mistake, mistake, goal, goal, goal.”
Despite being under fire, Mourinho can still save Tottenham Hotspur’s season by winning the Carabao Cup, with Spurs scheduled to face Manchester City in the final.
Anything less, and Spurs could be heading towards a crisis after exiting yet another competition.