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Tottenham keeps Champions League hopes alive by beating Southampton 3-2
Tottenham rallies from 2-0 down at home and scores an injury-time winner
Spurs pull to within six points of fourth-place Arsenal in the Premier League
Arsenal lost 6-0 to league leader Chelsea in English football’s Premier League and it looked like another side from North London would suffer a heavy defeat Sunday when Tottenham fell behind 2-0 to Southampton.
But unlike the Gunners on Saturday, Spurs rallied and kept their slim Champions League hopes alive by downing Southampton 3-2 with a dramatic injury-time winner at White Hart Lane.
Gylfi Sigurdsson’s low shot handed Tottenham all three points and pulled Tim Sherwood’s men to within six points of Arsenal in the race for fourth, the final Champions League spot.
Sherwood – who replaced the axed Andre Villas Boas in December – publicly criticized his team following a 4-0 reverse at Chelsea two weeks ago and Tottenham has since put in better performances, even if it lost to Arsenal last week and was bundled out of the Europa League.
“You know what it took – guts, character and spirit,” Sherwood told Sky Sports. “They know how to dig deep now, they know how to respond, they know how to grind out a result and that’s what they did today.
“They know now that capitulations aren’t acceptable.
“It wasn’t silky, it wasn’t fantastic flowing football, but it was effective. We have quality players and when we fight and work for each other, then the quality players show what they can do.”
Southampton possesses quality players, too, with the English trio of Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez all impressing this season and hoping to be on the plane to Brazil for the World Cup.
Rodriguez’s good finish after a Kyle Naughton mistake made it 1-0 in the 19th minute and the right back’s error also led to Lambert setting up Lallana in the 28th.
Christian Eriksen began the comeback in the 31st minute before adding a second in the 46th, just minutes after Sherwood’s halftime talk.
Sigurdsson, a substitute, settled the affair when it appeared as if the points would be shared.
“We got a little speech at halftime and in the second half we were new guys,” Eriksen told Sky.
In Sunday’s other game, Aston Villa – which defeated Chelsea last week – lost 4-1 at home to Stoke. Stoke leapfrogged Villa for 10th in the standings.
