Tottenham’s PR team did not have the ideal start to the weekend when the club were forced to condemn a photo showing three of their players flouting social distancing guidelines by attending a Christmas party. But on the pitch, there is nobody better at restoring Spurs’ image when it is in danger of faltering than Harry Kane and Heung-min Son following their latest heroics in the 3-0 win over Leeds.
Of the guilty trio, only Sergio Reguilon was named on the bench at lunchtime on Saturday, with Giovani Lo Celso and Erik Lamela both absent. The recurring theme about Tottenham’s problems, on and off the pitch, has been that they are often soon forgotten when their attacking duo get going.
The opening exchanges looked to be another victory for advocates of the expansiveness with which Marcelo Bielsa’s men play. The Argentine famously conceded, however, that he loses matches only because his players are “human” and he was reminded of their mortal frailties again at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Spurs made the breakthrough when Steven Bergwijn was felled by Ezgjan Alioski, despite a VAR check casting doubt on whether the incident had taken place in the box. Kane converted from the spot, becoming the first player in any of Europe’s top five leagues to surpass both 10 goals and 10 assists for the 2020-21 season.
Impressive though those numbers may be, there is even more to Kane’s all-round contribution than they suggest. In Leeds’ periods of dominance, the striker was often to be found deep in the midfield making recoveries, and covering for Eric Dier on more than one occasion.
A solitary penalty was hardly going to convince the naysayers that the visitors had not been the better team early on. Fortunately, we had Jose Mourinho to remind us at Anfield that wider quality is not everything and that individual moments decide games.
Kane and Son equal Premier League record
Leeds gave the ball away again, allowing Kane to combine with Son down the right for his 100th Spurs goal, the South Korean scoring with one touch shortly before half-time.
It is hard to accuse Spurs of lacking quality when their star duo continue to dazzle. They have now equalled the Premier League record held by Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton at Blackburn in 1994/15 with 13 goal contributions inside a single campaign – and we are still just 16 games in.
Son was to turn provider for Spurs’ third, Toby Alderweireld’s header sneaking over the line in the arms as Illan Meslier bundled the ball into the net with him.
Aside from a heart-stopping moment when both of Tottenham’s goalscoring forwards went down simultaneously and later, when Matt Doherty was needlessly sent off in injury time, Mourinho will have enjoyed himself.
There is no better vindication of his siege mentality than when he is able to overcome a manager with such contrasting ideas by a significant margin, whether that is Pep Guardiola or on this occasion, a visibly furious Bielsa.
If he holds little regard for the fluidity with which Leeds play, then at least Mourinho praised the ability to fluctuate up and down the table in his programme notes: “This is a league where two or three good results can move you up the table as quickly as two or three frustrating results can take you in the opposite direction.”
Spurs moved up to third, albeit courtesy of the early kick-off, and their four-game winless run feels buried with the end of 2020.
Follow i sport on Facebook for the latest Tottenham news, interviews and features
More on Tottenham
- Daniel Storey: Loyalty the only logical reason for Kane to stay at declining Spurs
- What a new Champions League format would mean for Tottenham
- Revealed: Spurs overtake Man City as the Premier League’s ‘most valuable club’
- How Mourinho can turn Spurs into title contenders
- Winks exclusive: ‘Xavi and Iniesta comparisons are nice – but I need to improve’
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/34Ycd0z
Post a Comment