(Credit: Imago)

Ben Palmer

Tue 8 April 2025 17:53, UK

Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch reacted to a message from Tottenham star Mathys Tel on social media after the French striker was involved in a controversial moment with a teammate.

Ange Postecoglou has endured a dismal second season in charge at Spurs, but a 3-1 win over Southampton gave him some reprieve on Sunday (6 April).

Two goals from Brennan Johnson, with an excruciatingly long VAR intervention in between to rule out a Lucas Bergvall strike, gave Tottenham a two-goal lead.

Southampton showed some fight, with Mateus Fernandes finding the back of the net for the visiting side, before a penalty was awarded to Spurs late on.

Johnson was brought down in the box and took the ball, ready to slot home for his first professional hat-trick.

Mathys Tel scores first Tottenham league goal vs Southampton

However, Pedro Porro and Cristian Romero intervened to hand the ball to on-loan striker Tel, giving the Frenchman the opportunity to score his first Premier League goal for the club.

Johnson was visibly frustrated by the incident and had to be consoled by several teammates after the incident.

Rather than addressing the moment, Tel instead chose to post an image of himself celebrating the goal to Instagram, captioned: “Focus for the next game, thank you for the support and this great atmosphere”.

The post was then liked by the Frenchman’s former Bayern Munich teammate, Ryan Gravenberch.

Tottenham dressing room issues exposed following penalty debacle

Football Insider Verdict

It’s not often that a goal in the 96th minute of a game that’s all but won already exposes so many issues, but this is Tottenham we’re talking about.

The goal, for all intents and purposes, was relatively meaningless. In spite of Southampton showing some fight, they had no real chance of getting back into the game, the penalty was just a stat-padding opportunity.

However, some stats and some status should be considered in a moment like this. Johnson, Tottenham’s top scorer in the league this season, had earned the penalty and also earnt the respect of fans after a slow start to his career in North London.

This was an opportunity for his season individually to receive the cherry on top, a first career hat-trick.

Instead, the ball was inexplicably stripped from him, in order for Tel, a loanee who has shown very little during his stint at Tottenham, to be given a freebie to register his first goal in a Spurs shirt.

It is difficult to think this will have anything but a negative affect on morale in an already struggling dressing room.

Johnson had earned his moment, and yet it was callously taken from him by his teammates, you have to feel for the hard-working Welsh winger.