| Match report
A trip to a freezing cold
Southampton came late in the Christmas football programme for Spurs,
with their rivals all having played already, but they showed that
they were able to overcome a set back to beat their hosts 4-1 in
emphatic style ... in the end.
Eric Dier dropped into the
back four to replace virus victim Toby Alderweireld and Mousa
Dembele lined up alongside Victor Wanyama, while Moussa Sissoko came
in to play wide right (to start off with). The changes had
worked out previously and with Sissoko looking to show a bit of what
we signed him for, maybe his new found confidence could possibly
unlock the Southampton defence.
As it was, Christmas came
early in this late Xmas game for Southampton. A free kick on the
left was floated in and van Dijk rose above Dier, Kane and Rose to
guide a header low into Lloris' right hand bottom corner inside 70
seconds. It was shocking defending and while that is supposed to be
our strength, there are too many games where we are letting goals in
too easily.
Kane hit back with a shot over the bar following a Tottenham
free-kick, but the home side were closing Spurs down quickly,
especially when we had the ball at the back, making it difficult to
play out. They broke after nicking the ball in the centre circle,
but Rodriguez pulled a weak shot wide. The interesting thing was to
see if the could keep it up.
Spurs were making problems for themselves, with Wanyama passing
straight to a Southampton player who fed Redmond on their right, but
his shot fizzed low past Lloris' far post, then Rose had to make a
fine challenge to stop Boufal's low cross being turned in. Then, out
of the blue, Spurs equalised through Dele Alli, who rose above van
Dijk to put his head onto Sissoko's deflected left wing cross.
Putting it right into the top corner left Forster standing watching
it as it hit the net. So, 20 minutes in and it was all square
again. It was Tottenham's first decent effort on goal and
Southampton must have been kicking themselves that they hadn't made
their early pressure pay off with more than just the one goal. So,
would that goal change the game ?
Saints kept working hard, but play got scrappy and Spurs eventually
started to build up play going forward. The movement off the ball
was good, but unfortunately the final pass was lacking until the
43rd minute, when Sissoko picked out Wanyama running into the box
and he touched the ball past one man, then went away from van Dijk
and as he was about to shoot, Fonte slid in to block his shot just
six yards out. Spurs had quietened the home crowd, who had even
stopped booing Wanyama and Dembele for different reasons. One
a player who left them for a bigger club and the other for showing
dissent to Mike Dean's award of a foul against him and got shown a
yellow card for his reaction.
It was a strange half of football. Southampton did well to start the
match, but once they conceded, they went into their shell and
Tottenham began to dominate possession and move their average
positions higher up the pitch. The pressure Spurs applied comes as
second nature, while Southampton had to take their foot off the
pedal. The break came at a good time for the home side.
The second half started the same as the first, with Southampton
putting Spurs players under pressure, but Spurs almost got in when
Walker touched the ball past Bertrand and Fonte came across to
concede a corner ... and from it Tottenham actually scored !!
The ball was played across by Eriksen and the out-swinging ball was
powered home at the near post by Harry Kane, heading into the top
corner of the net.
A couple of home free-kicks came to nothing, but Eriksen's pass
allowed Sissoko to break away and when he played a perfectly
weighted pass right into Dele's path, Redmond came back and dragged
him back, putting the Spurs midfielder off in shooting wide. Mike
Dean took his time and pointed to the spot and took even more time
before pulling out a red card to dismiss the former Norwich winger.
Kane stepped up to take the spot-kick, but as he put his standing
foot down, the soft pitch gave way, knocking the ball off the spot
and making Harry sky the shot way over the bar.
Play became very disjointed as the ten men battled and the ref
looked to even things up, with Rose getting a booking for a push
which had been let go when other players had done the same earlier
in proceedings. The home crowd did not help by claiming everything
was a foul, not knowing a clean tackle from a dirty one. Spurs
needed to keep possession and make Southampton work hard to wear
them down. Victor Wanyama obviously fancied it today, cutting
inside to hit a left foot shot that Forster had to push over the
top. From the corner, Eriksen pulled it back to Walker, who hit it
on the volley and it was on its way in until it was blocked. Sissoko
and Rose worked the ball well on the left, with the ball pulled back
to Christian Eriksen, who hit a fierce shot that rebounded back off
the crossbar. It was a good opening that could have put the game
beyond Southampton, who made three substitutions to try and inject
some fresh legs into the team. It didn't work, as Eriksen put Rose
in on the left and he looked to be homing in on goal, but shot wide
as van Dijk closed in on him.
Eriksen looked to try an early shot to catch Forster out, but it hit
van Dijk and went for a corner. While they were enjoying
possession and territorial advantage, twice Spurs were nearly caught
out at the back. Firstly Lloris kicked it straight to Tadic, who was
tackled before he reacted to the chance and then a loose pass from
Dembele ended with a header by Hugo went to Hjobjerg, who instead of
lobbing back into the open goal from 25 yards out, put in a weak low
shot that barely reached the penalty area. The loose passing was
allowing Southampton to spend more time in the Spurs half, whereas,
Tottenham should have been pushing them back using the man advantage
they had.
When they broke up a Saints move, Eriksen played the ball left from
inside in his own half and even with a flick off a home player's
head, sent Sonny away and he made no mistake with a low shot across
Forster and into the bottom corner from just inside the box to make
it 3-1. It was the sort of breakaway goal that had been a feature of
our play last season. A couple of minutes later, Rose won the
ball halfway inside his own half and went off on a run that took him
to the edge of the Southampton box, where he played a ball into
Alli's path to his left and the midfielder measured a perfect shot
that curled low past the keeper to score the fourth Spurs goal. It
was another speedy break that had a tired home team unable to cope
with the strength and pace of the Tottenham side deep into the dying
minutes of the match.
It all got a bit heated after that with Long having a late nibble at
Jan and Jan responding, so both were booked, then Tadic started
trying to wind up Dele and Long took a dive. The fact that
Southampton had taken a very early lead that has evaporated into the
cold night air obviously was something that they could not cope
with.
The win might have been easier with Redmond having seen red, but
Tottenham were back to their away form best. Not that there were
elements of their game that were less than perfect. It showed
Spurs might just be hitting their stride and while they will be
without Vertonghen and Walker for the Watford match, they will be
available when Chelsea come to the Lane. Two London(ish)
derbies, which will need Tottenham to be on their mettle again and
with the need to keep winning, they will be good tests of whether we
can keep in touch with the top four. They mostly have easy
games, but City meet Liverpool, so someone will lose points.
But it will be up to us to keep picking up the points and see where
it takes us.
Pete Stachio |
