Football: Soccer-Gomes double fires Wolves to win at Tottenham

LONDON (Reuters) -Wolverhampton Wanderers put a dent in Tottenham Hotspur’s top-four ambitions as Joao Gomes scored twice in an impressive 2-1 away victory in the Premier League on Saturday.

Brazilian Gomes headed Wolves in front shortly before halftime and struck again in the 63rd minute after Dejan Kulusevski had equalised immediately after the break.

It was Wolves’ fourth win in their last six Premier League games at Tottenham and completed the double this season after their victory at Molineux in October.

Defeat, combined with Aston Villa’s win at Fulham, dropped Tottenham down to fifth place with 47 points from 25 games.

Wolves moved into 10th with 35 points.

Once again Tottenham found Wolves troublesome opponents and could have no real complaints as Gary O’Neil’s counter-attacking side thoroughly deserved the three points.

Missing the thrust of injured full backs Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie Tottenham were stodgy in an opening half in which they failed to force Wolves keeper Jose Sa into a save.

Wolves took the lead in the 42nd minute with a goal that summed up Tottenham’s afternoon.

Richarlison needlessly gave away a corner and when Pablo Sarabia swung in the delivery Gomes was unmarked to dispatch a header past the helpless Guglielmo Vicario.

Tottenham urgently needed a lift and got one just after the interval with a curious equaliser.

A throw-in was held up by Richarlison and the ball broke to Kulusevski who out-foxed Craig Dawson before prodding a shot past Sa from a narrow angle.

With the shackles off both sides the game opened up and Wolves were close to restoring their lead with Sarabia’s shot from Nelson Semedo’s pass well saved by Vicario while at the other end Kulusevski’s shot was turned around the post by Sa.

But Tottenham’s revival was brief and Wolves struck in devastating fashion with a 63rd-minute counter-attack.

Tottenham’s Yves Bissouma lost the ball on the edge of the Wolves area and Pedro Neto showed searing pace down the right wing before cutting back inside and picking out Gomes to smash a first-time effort past Vicario.

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou made a triple substitution around 20 minutes from time with Rodrigo Bentancur, Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson sent on to try to save the day.

But unlike the previous week when they snatched victory against Brighton & Hove Albion with a storming finish, they were unable to respond and Wolves looked capable of extending their lead.

Tottenham’s best chance of an equaliser arrived deep in stoppage time when Ben Davies headed wide of a gaping goal.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ed Osmond)