João Gomes scores double as Wolves end Tottenham's recent resurgence | first division

They looked for him here and they looked for him there, but even in Wolves' bright red away shirt, João Gomes was twice as evasive as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

As a result, Tottenham's external title hopes are in tatters and their recent resurgence is faltering again as their defensive line once again proved all too easy to undo with a frisson of cunning coupled with hours of careful planning.

In recent weeks, Tottenham have come up with results out of nowhere as they have been hampered by similar below-average performances across the team. They now have two weeks to lick their wounds before returning to action, but Ange Postecoglou, for all her affability and genius, has nothing up her sleeve to try to lift spirits to the levels that excited fans of the Spurs when he first arrived.

“There are no tricks, I'm not a magician, I'm a football coach,” he said. “It's the hard work these guys have put in all year. We've gotten to this point, which is pretty decent, through hard work and that's what we'll continue to do. I don't know if the two weeks are a blessing, it is what it is. There is no point in feeling sorry for ourselves. “You roll with the punches and you have to move forward regardless of what has happened in the past.”

Crystal Palace are the next opponents and with Roy Hodgson recovering from illness but still technically the club's manager, there was an awkward moment when cameras caught substitute-in-waiting Oliver Glasner in the stands.

Still, the Austrian's nerve in coming to the game was rewarded with a masterclass in how to beat Postecoglou's peculiar style of football.

In fact, Wolves' run-and-hit tactics worked perfectly to end the five-match unbeaten run Tottenham had achieved with the 5ft 9in João Gomes getting them underway just before half-time.

It was as if the Tottenham defense couldn't see the possible killer because of the trees. Max Kilman and Toti were deliberately placed on the edge of the six-yard box like mighty oaks, worried defenders jostling them ineffectively while Pablo Sarabia waited to take the corner.

The Spanish footballer's goal, however, took shelter in the lee of the central giants and effectively emerged to shoot from the center of a real clearing, having completely missed the entire maneuver.

That half-time lead was nothing more than Wolves deserved as Spurs' performance, lackluster despite captain Son Heung-min's return to the starting line-up following his return from the Asian Cup, was easily destroyed by the simplest of counterattacks. .

Already in the sixth minute, Hwang Hee-chan should have put the visitors ahead with a little more calm after Guglielmo Vicario could only deflect Nélson Semedo's shot.

Spurs tied it just 34 seconds into the second half after Dejan Kulusevski appeared to cross Craig Dawson before slotting the ball through José Sá's legs from tight angles, but even that always seemed like a temporary respite for a team concentrated on a defensive implosion.

Vicario's stop after a bad shot by Sarabia after being intercepted by Semeda should have been a warning, but it was not heeded.

Pedro Neto was a good 10 meters inside his own half when he began his unimpeded gallop towards the Tottenham goal line after 63 minutes and when he finally cut the ball, it was the surreptitious presence of João Gomes that had once again passed unnoticed and took at most as long as he needed to find a path for his shot that beat the Spurs goalkeeper.

Postecoglou's counterintuitive response was to remove his in-form goalscorer Richarlison and drop main playmaker James Maddison.

The Wolves, however, with those tree-like defenders now firmly rooted in their most usual spot, repelled any late blow Tottenham could throw at them.

“We counterattacked them, and we knew we were going to be able to do it,” Wolves coach Gary O'Neil said. “We defended well, but it was the way we counterattacked them and that's why we were able to get into so many good situations. “When Tottenham put pressure on us, we were able to find good solutions and we knew that we could press aggressively at times.”