Richarlison ended a difficult week by coming off the bench to score and inspire Tottenham to a dramatic 2-1 win over Sheffield United.
Spurs were heading for their first Premier League defeat under Ange Postecoglou after Gustavo Hamer put the newly-promoted side 1-0 up in the 73rd minute in north London.
Postecoglou turned to Richarlison and the £60million forward rewarded the faith of his head coach with a headed equaliser in the eighth minute of added time for only his second league goal since joining from Everton last summer.
There was still time for a grandstand finish and it arrived in the 10th minute of stoppage time when Richarlison set up Dejan Kulusevski to rifle home to make it four league wins in a row for Tottenham ahead of next weekend’s derby away to Arsenal.
It was a cruel ending for Sheffield United, who had Oli McBurnie sent off for a second yellow card before full-time and remain winless after five matches.
Tottenham were unchanged from their 5-2 victory at Burnley before the international break, which meant Richarlison was again restricted to a place on the bench after he revealed in midweek his desire to seek “psychological help” following a turbulent time on and off the pitch.
An excellent start to life under Postecoglou earned him manager of the month for August, but Spurs were provided an early warning by Sheffield United when McBurnie turned neatly in the area, only for his curled effort to hit strike partner Cameron Archer.
Eventually the hosts settled into their stride and Wes Foderingham saved well from Yves Bissouma’s left-footed effort in the 19th minute after a slick move.
Spurs captain Son Heung-min was next to test Foderingham with a curled strike before Guglielmo Vicario got down well to James McAtee’s low shot, which would have been ruled out anyway.
Postecoglou’s team continued to push for the opener and James Maddison called Foderingham into action before the Sheffield United goalkeeper required lengthy treatment for a muscle injury.
Foderingham was fine to carry on and penalty appeals had been waved away for the hosts by this point after Maddison went down under contact from Chris Basham.
The Blades goalkeeper was booked on the stroke of half-time for handling outside his area before boos greeted the end of the first 45 after only three minutes were added on despite several stoppages.
Foderingham was at the heart of the action at the beginning of the second period when he was caught by Micky van de Ven and needed a concussion check, but the ex-Rangers goalkeeper stayed on to lap up his role as pantomime villain.
Cristian Romero headed wide after fine work by Bissouma soon after, but frustration was starting to get the better of the hosts.
Play was twice halted by referee Peter Bankes after a second ball was thrown onto the pitch before Maddison and Manor Solomon were shown yellow cards in quick succession.
Solomon did fire over soon after and the Blades then provided Tottenham with a sucker-punch in the 73rd minute.
Jack Robinson’s long throw was not dealt with by Pape Sarr or Romero and it dropped for Sheffield United summer signing Hamer, who drilled in at the back post via the woodwork to delight the travelling faithful behind the goal.
Postecoglou reacted with a triple substitution as deadline day addition Brennan Johnson, Richarlison and Ivan Perisic were brought on, which lifted the hosts.
Perisic and Johnson both put the ball in the net not long after their introduction but the offside flag denied them and it was left to Richarlison to steal the show.
The Brazil number nine was pictured in tears last weekend following another blank in a 5-1 win over Bolivia for his nation but headed home Perisic’s corner deep into added time.
Better was to follow for Tottenham when a superb move involving Perisic and Richarlison saw the latter tee up Kulusevski, who fired through Robinson’s legs to spark wild celebrations as the feelgood factor at Spurs continues.
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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