The media coverage of Tottenham’s 2-2 draw away to Rochdale is completely different to when Arsenal bombed out of the FA Cup to Nottingham Forest.
When Arsenal lost 4-2 to Forest in January, the media tore into Arsene Wenger’s men. And rightfully so. They were terrible and showed little-to-no desire to retain what has become Arsenal’s trophy.
On Sunday, Spurs put in a similar display against League One side Rochdale.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side went 1-0 down to the home side thanks to Ian Henderson before ex-PSG winger Lucas Moura, who the media are suddenly obsessed with, drew the score level in the 59th minute.
An embarrassing dive from Dele Alli two minutes before the end of normal time, which resulted in a penalty was converted by Harry Kane (who else?).
This put Spurs 2-1 ahead but, thanks to a 93rd-minute goal from Steve Davies, Rochdale forced the tie to a replay at Wembley.
Spurs didn’t turn up on the day and although the League One side seem the luckier of the two due to the timing of their equaliser, Poch’s men should have put the game to bed early on and shouldn’t have had to dive to draw equal themselves.
Of course, it’s pretty hard to find much criticism in the Spurs today (Monday). Since, despite skating on thin ice recently with his diving comments, the media still have a massive crush on Poch.
Now here are the deadline after Spurs’ draw to a team that are 24th in League One.
All Spurs’ headlines mainly focus on how late, i.e. how lucky, Rochdale were to equalise against the Premier League side. They talk about the underdogs forcing replay with a last-ditch goal, rather than laying into Tottenham, who shouldn’t have struggled at all.
Only the Express mentions Alli’s dive in the headline.
Don’t get me wrong, Arsenal played terribly against Forest and deserved to be torn apart but I’m not sure how Spurs drawing against a club fighting to stay in League One is any better.