Reading 1-3 Tottenham
Tottenham started this season with high expectations however their performances in their first 3 games failed to meet what the fans had expected. With pressure mounting on Andre Villas Boas it seemed only a matter of time before the team either got going or the manager was going to be out of a job, thankfully for "AVB" his team has finally managed their first win under his guidance.
Going in to this match neither team had managed to get a win and whilst that was somewhat expected of Reading (who had played the always difficult Stoke and European Champions Chelsea) it wasn't expected from Tottenham (who had drawn with both West Brom and Norwich as well as losing to Newcastle) and both teams obviously needed the points.
The match started well for Tottenham who finally appeared to have found 3rd and 4th gears, and with in 20 minutes they had a well deserved lead though Jermain Defoe. Following the opening it looked like they were going to bang them in for fun and could easily have been out of site by half time due to their sheer domination of the match. Somehow Reading's defense stood resolute and managed to hold out at 1-0 for the first 45 minutes.
Tottenham's dominance finally paid off in the 71st minute as Gareth Bale doubled the Spurs lead before Defoe scored his second of the match to seal the 3 points with 15 minutes to go. Despite the 3-0 scoreline Reading fought on and chalked up a late consolation thanks to Hal Robson-Kanu, however the game was well done by then.
Reading struggled through out the game. This was admittedly no shock but they were thoroughly dominated by a team who were low on confidence themselves. The biggest surprise of the game was that Tottenham only managed 3, though that was in part due to Alex McCarthy who genuinely had a blinder filling in for Adam Federici. McCrthy aside there was little for Reading fans to take from this game other than solace in the fact that it's over.
The monkey is now off Andre Villas-Boas' back however he will need to keep his teaming playing like they did here. They looked strong and purposeful, they were able to take control of the game and showed a number of excellent threats in a game that their midfield ran, thanks mainly to Belgian Mousa Dembele who looks to be the missing jigsaw piece. If Spurs can build on this they can once again challenge for a Champions League position, however they do need to build on it quickly and can't waste any more games whilst the top teams run away from them
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