| Match report
Defensively tight Huddersfield
may have proved another Swansea as Spurs went away from the sublime
of Cyprus to a sunny Yorkshire September afternoon that greeted
Tottenham fans as they packed the away section. And it didn't
take too long for Spurs to get inside the Huddersfield box, with
Kane twisting and turning and having a shot blocked for a corner
inside the first minute Another followed in the second minute and
although Davinson got on the end of it, he couldn't get a decent
hooked volley on it. Jorgensen (or Zanka as he was more
appropriately named on his shirt) clattered Kane from behind and got
away with only a free kick.
Huddersfield had their first effort in the fifth minute, when Smith
moved forward and fired in an effort that Lloris had to beat out.
Ince fouled Dele from behind and again, Swarbrick let the play go
on, although he did pull play back for a blatant foul on Winks by
Hogg, but nothing more than that. He must have been thinking the
pitch markings were still allowing rugby rules to be in force !
Davinson did well to rob Depoitre of a shot on the edge of the box
and then Alderweireld got a good foot in before Dier blocked the
follow-up shot.
For all Huddersfield's attacking intent, a clearance by Lossl was
headed back by Trippier from 15 yards inside his own half. Lowe
missed his kick and that allowed Harry Kane a free run on goal.
There was a lot of time to think about what he was going to do, but
he coolly slotted the ball with his right foot to the keeper's left,
beating him at his near post to make it 1-0 inside nine minutes.
Kane proved again that he is a striker at the top of his game with a
clinical finish.
Almost as clinical in front of goal at the moment is Ben Davies and
a wonderful one touch move from deep inside our own half saw Eriksen
through. As he tried to take the ball right, Lowe got a good tackle
in to dispossess him, but the ball ran into the path of Davies
coming in from the left and he delicately lifted the ball past Lossl
for Tottenham's second goal with a quarter of an hour gone. It was a
well taken goal by a left back.
Spurs had Huddersfield in their sights now and Kane should have made
it 3-0 after he hit a dipping shot onto the roof of the net from 20
yards, as Lossl kicked the ball with his standing foot as he lined
it up to clear and it ran to Kane six yards out and to the left of
the goal. Harry tried to dribble it back round to have a better
shooting angle, but his shot went straight at the keeper, who was
now right on top of him. Davies and Eriksen were furious, as a pass
to either of them would have left them with a simple task of
scoring.
Kane made up for it, on 23 minutes, with turn away from a couple of
defenders when Trippier threw in to him, running across the 18 yard
line leaving Zanka in his wake, he curled a left foot shot out of
Lossl's reach to score a fine goal and make the Terriers' task even
harder.
The home side settled down a bit and won a couple of corners, but
Spurs defended them well. However, Dele had a couple of chances to
add to the total on the half hour. A marvellous move from Lloris
picking a corner out of the air worked the ball all the way up the
pitch, where Dele turned Zanka inside out and poked a shot at goal,
which bounced out off the foot of the keeper's right hand post and
when Davies played a cross back in to the far post, it was just a
bit too high for Dele to head back on goal.
Depoitre held the ball up well to play in La Parra on the right, but
his cross did not find a team-mate and when Kachunga went down ever
so easily just outside the left hand corner of the penalty area,
Mooy couldn't beat the first man. It lead to a break that Eriksen
and Dele nearly linked up, but Dele's shot went sideways, but behind
Kane and Harry was then adjudged to be behind the last defender, as
he ghosted into volley home Davies' cross on the stretch inside the
six yard box on 35 minutes.
Three minutes before half-time a tackle on halfway took the ball
forward for Depoitre to run forward and his rising shot beat Lloris,
but flew over off the crossbar. Spurs were almost playing at half
pace and still causing Huddersfield problems, with Kane finding lots
of space in the forward channels. The home team looked to capitalise
on Toby and Winks both leaving the ball for each other, but Sanchez
got the ball back as they looked to move forward in the centre
circle just before half time came.
At the start of the second half, you would have thought there would
have been a bit of a reaction from Huddersfield, but it was Spurs
who opened up in the opponents box. Eriksen knew Davies would be
outside him and after a couple of passes, the Welshman knocked a
pass behind the defender to put Christian in and he tried to find
Kane, but the ball got stuck under his feet and then surrounded by
defenders, they gave away a corner. From it, Dier won a flicked
header at the near post and Kane was unmarked in front of goal, but
the ball went through him with the goal yawning in front of him.
Dele got a booking as he went into the box and went down as he went
past Schindler and was closed by Lossl, who pulled his hand away at
the last minute to allow the ball to run out of play. Eriksen had so
much time on the right that for once, he chose the wrong option, not
crossing in front of Kane, but pulling the ball back, but not
finding a dark blue shirt. Then Jan picked off a square pass
goal-side of the centre circle, moved forward and fancied getting on
the score sheet, so had a pop at goal, but it was rising over the
top all the way.
The knowledgeable Yorkshire folk took against Vertonghen for having
Kachunga's studs planted in his foot, booing him whenever he went
near the ball. Eriksen easily stepped inside Smith and Zanka before
trying a shot from 12 yards out, but Lossl was right behind it.
Huddersfield launched an attack on the left and Malone was played in
behind the full back, but Kachunga missed it at the near post, but
Alderweireld didn't miss it behind him. Davies played a long ball
forward and Schindler's header went back towards his own goal but
wide to the right of it, where Lossl dropped it at Eriksen's feet
and when he tried to cross it, he only played it into the keeper's
arms, with Dele open in the middle of the goal.
Spurs were pressing for a fourth and from a corner, Dier tried to
curl one inside the post, but it was blocked for a corner.
Tottenham's passing got a little slack around the home penalty box,
with several chances going awry as they looked to move the ball a
little too precisely. Huddersfield brought on Dean Whitehead to try
and turn the game in their favour, but Kyle Walker-Peters replaced
Kieran Trippier, who had a blow to the head earlier in the game, to
make sure that the defence was sound.
For all the noise coming from the home sections of the ground, it
was from an ever dwindling number of fans, as blue seats became more
and more visible as the game went on. And that almost became fewer
fans, with Dele putting Sissoko away on the right. He cut inside his
man and tried to beat Lossl, but his shot was weak and Kane was
better placed to score. It was Harry's last action, as he went off
with Son coming on straight after that.
Dele won a tackle 20 yards inside the Spurs half and found Son
inside him, moving the ball quickly to his left to Davies. He moved
forward and then chipped into the middle for Moussa Sissoko, who
took the ball down and seemingly took an age to get his shot away.
It came off Schindler to make it a pitiful afternoon for the
Huddersfield defence, but it will be Sissoko's goal and he had
looked bright since he came on. A nice moment to go with his
career 150th Premier League appearance.
The game was done and dusted early on, but Tottenham's willingness
to keep going brought them a fourth goal and a sixth consecutive
away win in the PL. Some of the first touch football Spurs played
was breathtaking, but Huddersfield's loose formation allowed us
plenty of time and space to exploit their openness, giving Kane and
a couple of less likely scorers the opportunity to make them pay.
While Kane took the spotlight, others all played well even though
their contribution might not have been so headline catching. All the
talk of Dele not performing, he put in an awful lot of work closing
down and getting into positions, even when he didn't receive the
ball. He was always looking for players in forward positions and
with Eriksen doing the same, it made it hard for the home side to be
able to resist the way Tottenham attacked. Breaking in numbers and
turning defence into attack so quickly caught out the slow recovery
of the Huddersfield players, who lumbered to get back with the play.
Harry Kane's rich vein of goals has aided Tottenham's good run, but
with Davies getting forward to get in on the goals and Sissoko
breaking his Spurs duck with a late fourth to round off a fine win
that was similar to how we finished last season. All the talk is
about translating the away form to Wembley, but the way other teams
play at our temporary home ground has to be taken into
consideration. It will be a while before we get back home, but if we
keep playing like this, then maybe the performances on the road can
be reproduced to win at home.
Sam Martindale
|
