January 13 – They came close to abject humiliation in what would have been one of the greatest FA Cup upsets of all time.
But after a major scare eight-time winners Tottenham Hotspur finally overcame non-league Tamworth, a part-time side who only train twice a week, in the competition’s third round on Sunday.
In the Premier League era, only twice before has a non-league side turned the tables on top-flight opposition. Spurs were in grave danger of becoming the third.
For large parts of the fixture, played on an artificial pitch in front of 4,500 excited fans packed into Tamworth’s tiny ground, Spurs were embarrassingly poor and almost crashed out in the dying seconds of normal time when their goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky saved crucially from Jordan Cullinane Liburd with literally seconds left.
They eventually needed extra time to get through, scoring three times without reply but only after manager Ange Postecoglou was forced to bring on his big guns to finish off a tired Tamworth who are 96 places lower in English football’s pyramid.
It was the harshest of scorelines but illustrated the unique nature of the world’s oldest domestic knockout competition.
At the other end of the scale, the battle of the giants ended with Manchester United beating Arsenal on penalties but that told only half the story.
Arsenal manager Mikel Areta wasn’t exactly gracious in defeat saying his team deserved to win “by a mile”, bemoaning their bad luck and highlighting their superiority.
“I love my players, I love our team and I love how good they are,” added the Spaniard. “In 1,000 games like this you lose one and it was this one. There are very few teams in the world that can play at that level.”
But he conveniently overlooked the fact that for over an hour, including the whole of extra time, his team were playing against 10 men after Diogo Dalot was sent off for two yellow cards in yet another notoriously fiery fixture between the two clubs.
And that Arsenal missed a harshly awarded penalty during normal time, Martin Odegaard’s spot kick saved by Altay Bayindir after Kai Havertz theatrically hit the turf clutching his face. United later posted ‘justice’ on X after they won the shootout when Havertz crucially missed.
Arsenal are now in danger of finish the season trophy-less, already trailing 2-0 from their League Cup semi-final first leg with Newcastle and trailing Liverpool by six points in the Premier League. “Are we going to win a trophy? I don’t know,” said a crestfallen Arteta.
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