Son Heung-min sits on bench as Tottenham trails Bournemouth 0-1 at half-time

It's another poor performance. Tottenham Hotspur, who sat Son Heung-min (33) on the bench, allowed an opening goal at home.

Tottenham faced Bournemouth in a home game of the 28th round of the 2024-2025 Premier League (PL) season at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, on Nov. 9 at 11 p.m. (Korea time). As the first half ended, Bournemouth led 1-0.

Currently, Tottenham is in 13th place with 33 points (10 wins, 3 draws, 14 losses). If they lose this match, they could allow 16th placed West Ham United (33 points) to leapfrog them. Meanwhile, 9th placed Bournemouth (43 points) could potentially catch up to 5th placed Chelsea (46 points) with a win.

Tottenham started with a 4-3-3 formation. Wilson Odover, Dominic Solanke, Brennan Johnson, Pape Sarr, Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur, Jed Spence, Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso, Pedro Porro, and Guglielmo Vicario made the starting lineup.

Son Heung-min was included in the substitute list. In addition to Son Heung-min, vice captain James Maddison, Mathis Tel, Lucas Vázquez, Archie Gray, and Destiny Udogie also started on the bench. It appears to be in preparation for the UEFA Europa League second leg against Alkmaar next week.

Bournemouth faced them with a 4-2-3-1 formation. Édouard Mendy, Antoine Semenyo, Justin Kluivert, Marcus Tavernier, Tyler Adams, Ryan Christie, Miloš Kerkéz, Dean Huyse, James Hill, Lewis Cook, and Kepa Arrizabalaga made the starting lineup.

Tottenham came close to conceding in just 20 seconds. Romero made a shocking passing mistake right in front of the box, gifting the ball away. Édouard Mendy advanced forward and took a decisive shot, but Vicario tipped it away with his fingertips.

Tottenham continued to struggle against Bournemouth's Chonbang pressure. In the 4th minute of the first half, Bissouma made another fatal passing mistake from the back, leading to a shot from Kluivert. However, thanks to another super save from Vicario, they overcame the crisis.

Bournemouth continued to dominate the flow of the match. Tottenham was unable to cope with team pressing at all and repeatedly gave up ownership with urgent long kicks or lost the ball in the back. They squandered infrequent counterattack opportunities in a ridiculous manner. Despite having high possession, their performance was terrible.

Eventually, Bournemouth scored the opening goal. In the 42nd minute of the first half, Kerkéz intercepted a pass from Porro and made an explosive run. He cut into the left side and delivered a perfect early cross to Tavernier, who went in and finished with a one-touch effort. The first half ended with Bournemouth leading 1-0.

Stephen Kelly, a former Tottenham player who was watching the match, could not hold back a sigh. He criticized through the British "BBC," stating, "Tottenham can't retain possession of the ball at all. They are giving the ball away in really terrible areas. Porro has no choice but to give it away. It's really poor."

Kelly also noted, "They can't take anything away from Kerkéz. He ran with the ball for 70 yards (about 64 meters) and was all alone on the left side. Then he sent a perfect assist to the opposite side."

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