Johnson’s early double sets Tottenham on way to emphatic win at Ipswich | Premier League

Some afternoons come like a kick in the teeth. Not only did Ipswich suffer a fourth successive home defeat in a game that never felt as one-sided as the scoreline ultimately suggested but fourth-bottom Wolves inflicted on Bournemouth only their second defeat in 16. After weeks of bubbling along in touch with the last safe spot, Ipswich find themselves five points adrift and survival is becoming an ever more distant prospect.

There was no sense in which this was an undeserved win for Spurs, some sort of smash-and‑grab to offend notions of dignity and propriety, but equally it was not entirely convincing. Not for the first time this season, there was a feeling that if only Ipswich had been able to seize their opportunity, it might have been very different.

“I’m really frustrated by the result,” said Kieran McKenna, the Ipswich manager. “We’re at the stage of the season when you’d like the points but we can’t lose patience with the good things that are going on. We started really well; we should have been ahead. That’s a couple of home games in a row we should go in with a lead and we go in with a deficit. Their execution whenever they got their big moments around our box was better than our execution and that was the difference.”

For five minutes there was only one team in it as Liam Delap tore at Archie Gray, creating two good chances and heading a free-kick against the post. But the opportunities passed, Tottenham rallied and Ipswich fell behind.

Gray had, unusually, been deployed as the right-sided of the two central defenders, and that helped create the angle for him to pick out Son Heung-min with a glorious long diagonal. Faced by Ben Godfrey and Dara O’Shea, Son jinked both ways to create room for a low cross that Brennan Johnson turned in for his eighth goal of the season.

Eight minutes later, Johnson, making his first start in a little over a month after recovering from a calf injury, had another. His was rarely the first name mentioned in discussions of the Spurs winter injury crisis, but his movement and instincts have been missed.

Son, again, was the provider, slipped through this time by Rodrigo Bentancur. It would be premature to say the South Korean is back to his best, but he made the most of being up against a full-back as heavy-footed as Godfrey, who was withdrawn at half-time.

As McKenna pointed out, lamenting the way the margins have gone against Ipswich this season, Godfrey was playing only because of Axel Tuanzebe’s harsh red card last week. The sense of misfortune was compounded as both central midfielders were forced off: Jens Cajuste after turning his ankle and Kalvin Phillips with a calf problem.

There is no side in the country, though, who inspire less confidence with a two-goal lead than Tottenham, who led 2-0 against both Brighton and Chelsea and lost. For a time after Omari Hutchinson had swept in Jack Clarke’s first-time pass, Ipswich had hope – but the truth is they are simply not good enough defensively. Any team who concedes at over two goals a game is going to struggle.

James Maddison’s quick feet set up Djed Spence to fire in his first league goal via a deflection off Luke Woolfenden to make the game safe after 77 minutes, and Dejan Kulusevski bent in a fourth seven minutes later. Ipswich protested that Jacob Greaves was down after a minor clash of heads with Dane Scarlett but, while they may have had a point, that was not why they lost.

Spurs have little to play for in the league, but at least the sense is of the gloom dissipating, and of players and energy returning as they try to ready themselves for the challenge of AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League. “We’ve benefited from a couple of midweeks off,” said Ange Postecoglou. “I thought we did the hard things very well. We lost a bit of concentration in the first half but our front-third play was exciting and clinical. Sonny was unplayable in the first half and it’s good to get Brennan back.”

Ipswich, meanwhile, for all McKenna vowed to keep on fighting, should probably start preparing for a return to the Championship.