Paul Merson claims West Brom left Jose Mourinho confused after ‘atrocious’ displays
Paul Merson has claimed that West Brom will have left Spurs boss Jose Mourinho confused after their clash on Sunday afternoon.
The Sky Sports pundit admitted that the Special One will have been expecting an easy game after watching their previous outing against Fulham.
In the end, it took a last-gasp winner from Harry Kane to snatch all three points from a game where the Albion could and probably should have won themselves.
Writing in his Sky Sports column, Merson claimed that the battling display from the Baggies proves how hard the Premier League can be.
“You watched West Brom against Fulham and they were atrocious,” he said.
“You start to think Tottenham have only got to turn up on Sunday morning and as long as they don’t forget their boots, they’ll win the game and move on.
“But in the end, it was a very hard game and Mourinho is probably sitting there asking himself why they didn’t turn up and play like that against Fulham.”
This is exactly the type of reaction Bilic will have demanded from his side.
Everyone at the Hawthorns recognises that the Fulham display was well below what is expected, and the Spurs game kept the doubters quiet.
The Baggies made 19 tackles, won 31 aerial battles and dispossessed their opponents 13 times, and their defensive performance saw them catapult plenty of assaults on the Spurs goal.
On any other day, Karlan Grant, Callum Robinson and Darnell Furlong all would have scored and everyone would have been praising the Albion.
It is a step forward, but this level of performance must stick around after the international break – starting with Manchester United.
In other West Brom news, Slaven Bilic eager to explore Baggies system change
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