But the last game between the two clubs saw Howe victorious, as he took Bournemouth to a last minute win against the nine men of Spurs.  Whether that would have happened if Tottenham hadn't lost Son and Foyth to red cards (the first a dodgy one at that) is questionable.

To say that the Cherries have had an up and down season so far would be an understatement.  Wins over Manchester United, Aston Villa and Southampton have to weighed against losses to Arsenal, Newcastle and Wolves.  The lack of consistency is down to being unable to play a settled side, with injuries (and now suspensions) starting to eat into the squad's resources.  Long terms injuries have reduced the selection options for Howe, who has mixed things up with lots of players having the same name.

Harry Wilson has come in on loan from Liverpool in midfield to try and supply Callum Wilson, the England forward, while Lewis Cook has returned from a bad injury last season in midfield, in front of Steve Cook, the rugged defender.  In defence they have two Smiths - Brad out on loan to Seattle Sounders and former Spur Adam.  Confusing for opponents, but hopefully they have their roles worked out at Dean Court. 

Steve Cook has been the Bournemouth defender who has got stuck in and got the ball away, while alongside him, Nathan Ake prefers to play passes out of defence and wins a lot of ball in the air.  Howe likes his full backs to push on and in the past Spurs have had some profit in hitting Bournemouth on the break and that could be on the cards the way that Mourinho has been setting Spurs up. 

Ryan Fraser is a winger who is much sought after among Premier League clubs, being a top assister and also scoring a few goals, while there re plenty of old heads who will get a foot in with Dan Gosling, Jefferson Lerma and Chris Mepham amongst them, while they may have to rely on former youngsters who they signed in Dominic Solanke and Jordon Ibe to add to their attacking ranks, with injuries to Josh King and Junior Stanislas. 

Howe is an intelligent coach, who perhaps deserves a chance with a bigger club, but his spell at Burnley went badly and he returned to the South Coast where he was more at home.  Maybe his opportunity will come with a club that will act as a steeping stone to the top sides.  There could be a few more jobs coming up soon !

For Tottenham, there are selection issues too, with Mourinho playing the same team twice in five days and noting that there were some heavy legs.  It may be time to start rotating players and with Lo Celso, Ndombele and Sessegnon not having started a game, there may be opportunities for them to line up at the kick off.  Moussa Sissoko too has only had subs appearances under Jose, so could Harry Winks get a rest ? 

The Head Coach will be looking for players to come in and slot into the role the occupier filled, so whether he will start with Eriksen, who it is rumoured has already agreed a move to Real Madrid or give Giovani the chance to show what he can do.  If Jan is fit, will he feature and will it be at left back ?

So many questions and who has the answers ?  Mourinho we hope, as another win would beef up the home form and continue the good start he has made, but make no mistake, Bournemouth will not make it easy.  And we are still having trouble keeping clean sheets, so there may be a tighter final score-line than we might hope.
 

TV
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Internet :
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24  Serge AURIER
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
  6  Davinson SANCHEZ
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN

15  Eric DIER
28  Tanguy NDOMBELE  (27  Lucas MOURA  74)

17  Moussa SISSOKO
20  DELE Alli      (  8  Harry WINKS  90+4)
  7  Heung-Min SON  (18  Giovani LO CELSO  88)

10  Harry KANE  (c)

Unused subs: 
41  Alfie WHITEMAN
  3  Danny ROSE
16  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
23  Christian ERIKSEN

17  Jack STACEY
  3  Steve COOK  (c)
  5  Nathan AKE
21  Diego RICO     

14  Arnau DANJUMA Groeneveld
16  Lewis COOK  (  4  Dan GOSLING  74)
  8  Jefferson LERMA     
24  Ryan FRASER  (22  Harold WILSON  63      )

  9  Dominic SOLANKE
13  Callum WILSON

Unused subs: 
  1  Artur BORUC
25  Jack SIMPSON
33  Chris MEPHAM
53  Gavin KILKENNY
65  Christian SAYDEE
 

A game that echoed the two matches previous under the command of Jose Mourinho eventually saw Tottenham win 3-2, but Bournemouth had once more put Spurs to the test and only a last-minute intervention stopped them grabbing a draw. By that time, it should have been a foregone conclusion that Spurs were going to win by a large margin against the Cherries again and to keep their regulation clean sheet. However, the match nearly turned in the last 20 minutes plus added time.

At the start of the game, it was Bournemouth who took the initiative and it was much like the Olympiacos match, with shots coming in on goal from long-range. Firstly, Danjuma took aim from outside the box after coming in from the right side and the ball bounced difficultly for Gazzaniga and he shovelled the ball well wide of the goal. Next was Rico, who got the ball 25 yards out and crashed an effort at goal that served a lot and Paulo had to make sure he kept it out and the Davinson Sanchez made sure the loose ball was tidied up.

Both teams were guilty of giving the ball away too often and that led to a disjointed game for the first part of the match. This wasn’t helped by the odd refereeing of Lee Mason who failed to deal with a Bournemouth foul on Son, when he was hauled down in the centre circle and the game was waved on, but the official failed to go back and caution the transgressor.

Stacey was the next Bournemouth man to try a shot on goal, but his effort, also coming in from the right, flashed across the face of goal and a yard wide of the far post. When the next Bournemouth move broke down, the ball was played out to Kane, who set Son free on the left. He angled his run in towards the goal and put a left foot shot across the keeper, but agonisingly wide of the goal. The speed of the break is something we associated with our best play of the last couple of seasons.

In the 21st minute, Spurs were comfortably playing the ball about at the back until Toby played a straight ball into the depths of the Bournemouth half. With Stacey and Steve Cook not very close together, Son ran in between them to kill the ball and it went into the path of Dele, who side-footed the ball under the frame of Ramsdale, who had come out to meet him. It was a simple goal and one that looked route one, but it is a tactic Toby and Dele had teamed up on before. It had been Tottenham’s first effort on target, but the clinical finishing is becoming a trademark of the first few Mourninho matches.

The goal inspired Spurs to press forward more. Kane forced Ake into a block to stop his shot getting on goal, then brought a save out of Ramsdale at his near post after an exchange of passes with Son to the left of the box. From the corner, the ball came into the box, was cleared to the edge of the area and Sissoko hit a shot. It struck Sanchez, fell at his feet and he smashed it home from five yards out.  2-0 to Spurs with 26 minutes on the clock and it looked like West Ham all over again. But this time it was not to be, as VAR ruled it out for a handball by Davinson.

Callum Wilson tried a shot from way out, but it finished up way wide, while Spurs won a couple of corners at the other end. Tanguy Ndombele had been given a starting berth and had been quietly getting on with his work without being outstanding and he put in a great run before ending it with a shot over the bar. Sonny hit the side netting after Kane had been crowded out in the area and then Dele looked to cross the ball when found by Sissoko on the left, but the ball hit Steve Cook’s arm on  the floor, but I don’t even know if it was reviewed, as the big screens did not show the logo that would indicate  that it was being looked at.

Danjuma tried again from outside the area, but Gazzaniga got right behind it and apart from some spinning turns away from Cherries midfielders as Tanguy kept possession, that was it for the first half. Paulo had been the busier of the two keepers, but Tottenham had the goal.

There was still a long way to go, but a goal five minutes into the second half gave some breathing space. And it was almost a replay of the first, as Toby’s ball forward was chested down by Dele as he got between Steve Cook and Stacey once more, took two touches as he travelled right across the box and then shot over Ramsdale’s diving body to make it 2-0. It was another fine finish and the way that Dele took the ball down and went past defenders is reminiscent of how he played in his pomp.

The visitors almost hit back straight away when Gazzaniga decided to slap at the ball rather than try to catch it when he was stretching and it dropped to Lewis Cook, who blazed it over off a Spurs body.  Callum Wilson was guilty of following through on Gazzaniga, who needed treatment to his hand but there was no caution for the forward, who had spent much of the game bumping into people rather than going for the ball. Dele missed the chance to take the match ball home with him when Sissoko failed to get onto Aurier’s cross and it ran to Dele. He took a shot that he looked to curl into the opposite top corner, but over-cooked it and it went over the top.

With 63 minutes gone, Eddie Howe replaced the ineffective Ryan Fraser with on loan Harold Wilson, who is well-known as a dead-ball expert. He looked like he had trouble with the moving ball, as his first touch was a shot that rose too high and six minutes later Spurs made him pay for the miss. Jan played the ball up the left wing to Son, who flicked the ball inside to Dele. He returned the pass and with space and time, the Korean forward waited to cross into the middle where Moussa Sissoko did very well to keep the ball down as he volleyed it back the way it had come from past Ramsdale to score the third Spurs goal. The crowd roared the goal by one of their favourites and it has been such a long time since his last goal, the players also celebrated animatedly with the midfielder.

It was the goal we needed to put even more space between us and Bournemouth, as our final pass had not been great and that was proved to be necessary when Lewis Cook took a shot from the edge of the box and Paulo Gazzaniga threw himself to his right to push the ball wide at full stretch.  The escape didn't last long, as Mason have a soft free-kick 20 yards out when Ndombele bumped into Lewis Cook.  This gave Harold Wilson a chance to show off his speciality, which he did by putting the ball into the top corner to Gazzaniga's left to reduce the lead.  There was still just over 15 minutes left of normal time, so Spurs needed to manage the remaining time to see out the game.

Mourinho brought on Lucas for Ndombele and Lewis Cook went off, with Dan Gosling coming on.  Danjuma put an inviting ball across the Spurs goal, but without anyone from his side on hand to put the ball away, before Son was sent away in the left hand channel, but he seemed to slow up for Steve Cook to get back and tackle him.  Spurs then broke when Alderweireld's clearance came off Cook to send Dele away and his shot at the end of his urn had to be beaten out by the Cherries keeper.

Bournemouth started to build some pressure on the Spurs goal as they sought to get a second.  Some corners were followed by a cross from Rico that went behind the goal.  Gazzaniga needed more treatment when Gosling went in late after he had saved Solanke's shot.  The wonderful away fans booed the goalie for time-wasting as their midfielder got away with nothing more than a word in his ear from the referee. 

Another chance to wrap the game up came and went, when Spurs broke on three defenders with four of our players closing on the Bournemouth penalty area, but Dele's ball to hid right for Kane had too much weight on it and Harry had pulled back, so it went off for a goal-kick.  Paulo was hit again by Callum Wilson as he took a high ball that the forward had no chance of getting, but the ref just waved play on.

Son was given a rest ahead of Wednesday's visit to Manchester United and Giovani Lo Celso came on in his place.  Spurs were almost immediately awarded a free-kick as Lerma walked off with the ball.  As Spurs tried to get the ball off him, he grabbed Dele and threw him to the floor.   Just like last week with Snodgrass on Kane, the referee deemed it to be a yellow card.  It's a shame that Mason wasn't on duty at the end of last season when Lerma had the same happen to him, although it looked as if he had been half-killed and Son got dismissed.  The fact that a player who nearly got fifteen yellow cards last season and has already served a suspension for five this campaign must send a message out to referees.  But then, why should we expect them to be consistent when even VAR isn't ?

Six added minutes was shown by the fourth official and Bournemouth forced a corner that Gosling headed into the side-netting, with the away fans thinking it had gone in.  With Harry Winks coming on for Dele to shore up things before the final whistle, this time, it was Spurs who were caught out by a quick throw-in.  Danjuma turned past Sissoko by the line and made his way along it into the area.  The Dutchman pulled the ball back and Harold Wilson was there to shoot low through Callum Wilson, stood in front of Gazzaniga, into the net to make it 3-2.  There was a long pause for VAR to do its stuff, which takes forever and although he was obstructing the keeper, Callum WIlson wasn't offside.

With the game now down to a one goal lead, there wasn’t a lot of time for Spurs to see out, but a high ball lobbed forward from Rico caught Sissoko on the turn. He headed it back to Toby, who got a head to it, but the ball was played forward over our defence by Ake.  Callum Wilson was through on goal, with Harold Wilson leaving it as he was off-side and he got into the area with only Gazzaniga in front of him. Then, out of nowhere, Jan Vertonghen stuck out a leg to divert the ball, just as the forward was about to shoot and Serge Aurier came in to take possession and sensibly take the ball wide and away from danger. It was another fantastic tackle by Jan, similar to the one out in Dortmund last season, but turned into a match-winning one, just as valuable as any goal.

So, thanks to Jan and the saves that Paulo Gazzaniga made in both halves, the goals at the other end counted for something. But it was another game where we let a side back into it when the result should have been inevitable. Bournemouth had played well and had plenty of shots, but nothing looked like getting through until the end, when it all got a bit nervy.

Still things for Jose to sort out before we go to Gold Trafford on Wednesday, but there should be plenty that he will be happy about and enough to trouble the United defence.

Stanford Rivers