Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 813: Back to Winning Ways

***30th September 2021***

NS Mura arrived at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first group stage match of the Europa Conference League.

They arrived, brimming with confidence, eager to take advantage of the home team’s poor run of form to get the best start possible in the competition.

The Tottenham players on the other hand were looking to boost their morale by defeating a much weaker team than them and then carry on with that momentum to the following games.

Both sides had an agenda, but as for whose agenda would agend would only be decided on the pitch.

The match began shortly after and Tottenham, being the much better side and also having the advantage of the home ground, quickly got things going with quick paced attacking football.

Within the first three minutes of the game, the Tottenham side dominated possession, constantly looking for a chance to break and in the fourth minute the space finally opened up.

The ball quickly found its way forward and Dane Scarlett soon arrived at the edge of Mura’s 18-yard box, the ball at his feet. The opposition defenders however didn’t plan to let him run through and a rough tackle brought him down at the edge of the box.

The referee blew for an advantage as he saw Dele Alli recover the ball after the tackle and advance into the center of the box.

Forcing the goalkeeper off his line because of the threat he presented, he chipped the ball over Obradovic but was swept off his foot the next second.

This time the referee’s whistle went off and the referee called for a penalty kick that Dele Alli slotted away with perfect accuracy.

Bolstered by their early lead, the Tottenham side pushed even harder and another four minutes later Harry Winks found Locelso who controlled the ball with his chest.

Holding off his marker, he broke into the opponent’s penalty box and drove a left footed shot at goal that was too much for Obradovic to handle.

With that, it was two.

Less than ten minutes and Tottenham had recovered their morale splendidly.

The opposition coach shouted at his players from the sidelines to defend as much as they can and stop the Tottenham players from building any more momentum.

However that could only slow things down as shots continued coming from every angle.

Defensively, the Tottenham side was also outdoing themselves this game as they limited their opponents to only one shot throughout the entire first half.

The second half came with more attacking from the NS Mura opponents who scored a 25 yard stunner after a corner was seemingly headed clear.

Kous watched the ball all the way and hit it as it came his way, unleashing a shot that was too powerful for anyone to get to or stop and sent the net flying.

With the opponents scoring one goal, the Tottenham fans began to feel uneasy as the form that their team had been usually caused this kind of situation to end one of two ways, but fortunately for them, the Tottenham side had a completely different showing in mind for them today.

A triple substitution of Kane, Son and Moura in the 59th minute was Nuno’s response to the situation and it changed the game completely.

In the 68th minute, Kane found himself at the end of a low cross from Moura on the left and like the great striker that he was, he put it away instantly and perfectly.

In the 75th minute, this time from Son, Kane found another perfect opportunity and he put it away as well, scoring a brace, but that wasn’t the end of his night and he continued on with a performance that would give his opponents nightmare for months to come.

A pass came from Lo Celso in the 88th minute and Kane doing what he did best once again beat Obradovic, scoring his third goal in just twenty minutes.

The opponents were long discombobulated and this was the final nail in the coffin.

They didn’t manage to make any ripples till the final whistle was blown and Tottenham took home their first win in five games.

Both the players and the fans were over the moon with the big victory, but they didn’t lose themselves as this was just a small team.

There needed to be more done from the Tottenham team before they could admit that they were back to winning ways.

For Nuno, he could finally heave a sigh of relief as he was sure that if he lost this game too, he might be seeing an early departure from the Tottenham side.

However he also knew that he wasn’t out of danger yet and right from the game, he had already gone back to the drawing board, looking at ways to adjust his tactics to get the best out of his players.

The defend deep, counter quick that he favored was a tactic that needed players who could break quickly and weren’t easily stopped by opposing defenders when on the counter.

He had players like that who could do that, but the player who could do that best was injured and the others weren’t consistent at those daring runs.

The quick fix for that problem had been Lo Celso who had been outdoing himself in the center lately.

His wide range of passing had ensured that the people who needed the ball got it at the appropriate time, however he could be stopped and that was what sometimes led to their long spells where nothing seemed to be connecting for the team.

The urgent situation at hand was to find another way of getting the ball forward or he might have to change the tactic itself and that didn’t appeal to him that much.

***3rd October 2021***

Nuno’s final response was a slight tweak to the formation for the next game, changing from his usual 4-3-3 formation to a 4-2-3-1 formation for the match against Aston Villa.

Changing the arrangement of his midfield players, he had two of them sit back a bit more, playing as center or defending midfielders when necessary.

Then he had one player sit up front as the connection between between the midfielders and the forwards.

The AMF would attack the spaces, make decoy runs and connect the midfield and the frontline, and the wingers would fall back a little more to help with the midfield when needed.

Right from the start of the game, Nuno could feel the difference as his team could do more build-up in the center and didn’t lose the ball as much because of the extra support they had from the wide players.

Hojberg who was playing in the attacking midfield position was also causing problems for the opposition and he found a goal in the 27th minute.

Receiving a pass from Son at the edge of the box, he eyed the bottom right corner of the goal and sent the ball there with steady composure, giving Tottenham the lead.

Aston Villa pushed for an equalizer and finally hit back with Ollie Watkins in the 68th minute finishing off a perfect cross.

Aston Villa hoped to end Tottenham’s dreams of a full three points, but three minutes after Tottenham hit back with a cross from the left making its way to the far end of the post.

Moura and Targett tried to reach the ball, but in a bid to clear the ball, Targett hit the ball wrong and it ended up in his own net.

It wasn’t a pretty sight but Tottenham was willing to take the win either way.

Doubling back defensively, they did their best to hold on to their lead and the game ended with Tottenhams’s win.

The Tottenham fans had no reason to be unhappy on their way home from the game apart from the fact that there wouldn’t be Premier League football on the weekend for them.

Their team was back to winning ways and the injury situation was slowly being sorted with Jason back to being the only one unfit for selection.