5  Mike van der HOORN     
33  Federico FERNANDEZ
  6  Alfie MAWSON

22  Angel RANGEL (c)  (11  Luciano NARSINGH  53)
17  Sam CLUCAS
35  Renato SANCHEZ
14  Tom CARROLL  (15  Wayne ROUTLEDGE  78)
16  Martin OLSSON     

12  Nathan DYER  (62  Oliver McBURNIE  70)
18  Jordan AYEW

Unused subs: 
13  Kristoffer NORDFELDT
51  Roque MESA
27  Kyle BARTLEY
  8  Leroy FER

 16  Kieran TRIPPIER
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
  6  Davinson SANCHEZ       (12  Victor WANYAMA  59)
33  Ben DAVIES

15  Eric DIER
23  Christian ERIKSEN

11  Erik LAMELA       (17  Moussa SISSOKO  77)
20  DELE Alli 
  7  Heung-Min SON

 18  Fernando LLORENTE    (10  Harry KANE  68)

Unused subs: 
13  Michel VORM
24  Serge AURIER
37  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
29  Harry WINKS
 

With a busy six days, Mauricio decided not to take any risks with his team selection and while opposition boss Carlos Carvalhal did, it was Spurs who came out with the win on a filthy night,  that featured rain and wind, with a lot of huff and puff from Swansea, but their lack of quality condemned them to a return to the bottom of the Premier League table after this 0-2 defeat.

Carlos Carvalhal set up with a 3-5-2 formation, featuring Renato Sanches and no centre forward, with Spurs missing Dembele and Rose with knocks, while Llorente returned to the Liberty Stadium in the starting eleven.  The rain and cold saw steam rising off the players, with spray coming off the pitch as the ball ran along the turf. The slick pitch made passing difficult to judge and the ball seemed to be holding up in places because of the sodden turf. The first ten minutes was mainly Spurs looking to probe through a Swansea side sitting deep, while they tried to hit the ball forward quickly to try and use Dyer’s pace to catch our defence out.

Olsson rashly stamped down on Trippier’s foot to concede a free-kick, but it was defended well when Eriksen swung it in, but when Carroll brought down Son with a leg across his thigh on the other flank, Christian put it in to the near post area and Fernando Llorente beat Fernandez to the ball to glance it into the net. It was the sort of service that the striker thrives on it was good to see him doing what he does best. Even though TV replays showed him offside when the ball was played in.

On 20 minutes, Eriksen fizzed a low ball in to Llorente, who neatly laid it off for Dele to shoot wide from outside the box. Spurs were enjoying lots of possession and lots of passes, but it was tight around the edge of the home side’s area, but Swansea turned the ball over when they had it with little option to play and keep the ball in their forward areas. A couple of times, the ball hit Lamela’s heels when he looked to get away, but the Swansea side were so dug in 30 yards from their goal, it was surprising that they didn’t get trench foot with the rain that was falling heavily.

For all the possession, Spurs were not getting shots on goal and with the wet surface, they could have been testing Fabianski’s reflexes. Twice Trippier hit passes that gave his team-mates problems, firstly selling Davinson short and then hitting a difficult back-pass that hurried Lloris into giving the ball away. A free-kick for Davinson pulling Olsson over off the ball gave Sanches a chance to get something on target, but he put the dead ball over. It did seem to rattle Spurs a bit as they gave the ball away cheaply and Swansea got a little bit of belief, putting the ball into the Tottenham box. Ayew shrieked loudly when he got touched and Madeley fell for it, but the home team were rarely that dangerous that they needed tackling.  In the 40th minute, Olsson sliced a shot well wide from the left after Dyer’s low ball came right through the penalty area to him. As it was, a free kick at the other end saw Eriksen find Llorente again, with nobody with him and his poked volley went over the top with four minutes left until half time. Spurs carelessly gave the ball away in the centre circle and it ended up as a corner to Swansea, with Sanchez failing to shrug Sanches off the ball. A couple of punches from Hugo – one more convincing than the other - cleared the immediate danger, but the main pressure from the Swans was coming in them getting closer to the blue shirts of Spurs.

With only one shot on target in the first half, it was hardly the most thrilling 45 minutes of football, but with the early lead, Spurs had been comfortable without threatening to add to the Llorente goal. With it only being 1-0, in the poor conditions despite the rain easing, they really needed to start thinking about putting the game to bed. Fabianski had only one stop to make and that was a kick out when Trippier put a low ball across the six-yard box, so the side needed a bit more end product.

Having played the ball dangerously around at the back, Swansea sprung forward at the start of the second half, but Dyer’s final shot went harmlessly wide. The home team were getting even closer to the Spurs players at the start of the second half and the passes we made were getting picked off. Son managed to come in off the right to shoot way over and Dele fired in a shot from outside the box that took a deflection over the bar. Davinson got himself into a tangle at the back and ended up bringing Olsson down, with the player, the crowd and the manager all wanting him to be sent off after being booked in the first half. The free-kick came to nothing and despite a spell holding the ball, Spurs were not finding a way through to goal. Swansea were looking to use the long pass to Narsingh, using his pace, but van der Hoorn lost possession to Lamela and then brought him down on the left hand corner of the box with a jump tackle from behind. This time the referee left his cards in his pocket. Eriksen drilled the free-kick at goal inside the near post, but Fabianski punched it away and in the second phase, Sanches pushed over Erik on the edge of the box on the left wing. Drilled in again, looking for Dele’s head, the keeper pushed it away for a corner. When the corner was cleared Lamela got a booking for catching Carroll on the Swansea man’s follow-through. From the free-kick, Swansea did get Narsingh away, but his shot from the right was blocked by Lloris to preserve the lead. As Spurs worked the ball around, Eriksen picked out Son on the left with a diagonal ball, but the South Korean couldn’t gather the ball in and it ran off his foot for a goal-kick.

As the game was still close in terms of goals, Pochettino brought on Kane for Llorente, with the manager hoping to finish off the home team. It was Jan who nearly opened up the defence, with a long straight ball that Dele got a head on and it went wide, but van der Hoorn had hands on his back as he went for it. At the other end, Ayew stumbled through three challenges and he might have gone down when Hugo went out at his feet, but Davies made a good tackle on him and then Victor cleared it for a corner, which saw the ball come off Vertonghen’s back and onto the post before being smuggled away for another corner.  Lloris successfully punched the ball out wide on this one and the follow-up cross was cleared easily.

While it was only 1-0, there was always the chance that Swansea could throw the ball in and get a break. The game got a little ragged, although Spurs tried to hang onto the ball, they managed to lose possession and allow Swansea forward, but when their breaks broke down, Spurs moved it forward swiftly. When Ben Davies ran across from left to right, he found Trippier and his long cross found Dele going for it with his head, but he left it for Son behind him to volley back across goal inches wide.

Ayew and Narsingh had shots blocked as the game entered the last seven minutes and then Narsingh nut-megged Davies but Ben got back to concede corner. Son was on the break when he was baulked in the box, but there was nothing doing and then Spurs kept mis-placing passes to hand the ball back to Swansea. When they did get the ball, Dele played the ball left to Harry Kane, who held off Fernadez and played a great pass to Dele just right of centre in the penalty area, having continued his run. His first touch was a little heavy, but he got a shot away, with Fabianski blocking it. However, Dele was alert and threw himself at the loose ball to guide it into the roof of the net to make it 2-0 with a minute of normal time left. It was an instinctive finish, but it was made by a fantastic ball from Kane, who is so much more than just a goal-scorer.

The wind and rain didn’t make it an easy task, with Swansea being more active in the second period, but a goal in the dying minutes of the game put the result beyond doubt. It wasn’t the best performance, but with West Ham waiting on Thursday, hopefully there will be something left in the tank for that game.

Spurs did more than enough to take the three points and with pantomime villain Dele Alli scoring the clincher, it couldn’t have been much sweeter, but 1-0 is a narrow tightrope to walk and while Swansea weren’t good enough to level things up, there were a couple of moments that could have led to an equaliser.

So, Spurs win away and need to take the confidence of that result into Thursday’s game.

The Heathrow Spur