| Match report
With Barcelona's tie in the
Champions League on his mind, Mauricio Pochettino made some changes,
playing with Lucas up front and Kane and Eriksen on the bench, but
the side ran out straightforward winners by 2-0 against Leicester
City.
The game was a slow starter
as both sides wanted to get a feel of the ball and Son looked like
he was going to out-pace Morgan, but didn't quite realise how far it
is to get round him. A long ball went over Jan Vertonghen's
head, with Ndidi getting onto the ball, but he tried a hopeful first
time dipper from 25 yards out and hit row L. Jan had a great
interception as Chilwell got onto a ball over Aurier and played a
low ball into the box, which was heading for Icheanacho, but Jan
slid in to put it out for a corner. The home side were looking
to hit on the break and Hugo was quick out of his box to clear a
threat and when Tottenham went forward, Lucas took down a long pass
in their box, but couldn't find Son in the middle. He did get
through the middle when Dele put his through, but he was pulled back
by a linesman's flag for offside. It looked touch and go, but
Leicester broke from the free-kick and Pereira pulled a ball back
from the line, but Vertonghen was there again to block the cross.
Spurs were putting together
some good passing, with Dele and Sonny playing a nice one two on the
left hand corner of the box, with a wriggly run by Dele only stopped
as he shaped to shoot from very close range. From the corner,
it went deep to Jan, who could not keep his header down as he
stretched backwards to reach it. Once more, Dele got in behind
on the right this time, but could not find Son unmarked in the
middle. Leicester were being pegged back inside their own
defensive third, with Aurier winning a corner, but it was cleared.
Spurs were also looking to
break and after Dele was penalised for a dive, the Leicester attack
broke down, Tottenham played it out of defence well and Moussa
Sissoko was away on the right wing. There was nobody available
for him to pass to, but when Son and Lucas charged up unnoticed on
the left, his pass was cut out when he should have done better.
Aurier was brought down as he ran towards the Leicester box and the
free kick was 30 yards out, but Son thought he would have a go,
although his effort rose and rose as it flew well over the bar.
The game had little flow to it, as Pawson was giving a lot of
free-kicks and there were quite a few offsides. The Son-Dele
partnershio was paying off, with another one-two putting Dele away
on the left. He was bumped as he got inside the box, but
stayed on his feet and as he was about to pull his foot back to
shot, Morgan got in a great tackle to deny him.
As it was, the game ticked
into one minute of added time and Aurier played the ball inside him
from the right to Heung-Min Son. Taking the ball further inside, so
that he was just outside the D, he unleashed a curling left foot
shot that went around a defender and past the flailing dive of
Schmeichel to hand Spurs the lead right on the stroke of half-time.
It was one of those goals that Sonny can score when he is full of
confidence and the way Spurs were playing had obviously given him
the idea to try the unexpected, which caught Leicester out.
When they kicked off, there was a couple of passes and then the
whistle blew for the break. A great time to score.
After the break, spurs
almost got another albeit in slow-motion. A cross from Moura
was cleared and Son won it in the air, nodding it towards goal, with
Dele unmarked in front of goal, but Schmeichel was out quick to it
and Dele pulled out of the challenge. He was onside despite
calls form the Foxes' defenders. Son tried a shot from more or
less the position he scored from but the ball curled away from goal
... a lot this time. When Dele cut out a goal-kick 30 yards
out, the ball went to Lucas and he slipped it to Son, who tried a
shot that was on target this time, but was blocked for a corner.
Chilwell blasted well wide as he ran in on the left of the box and
then Gray tried to beat Lloris from 18 yards, but the shot lacked
power and Hugo got his body behind it.
The King Power atmosphere
lacked energy as the home fans couldn't muster much noise, even
though they had their happy clappers out in force. They went
even quieter when Leicester gave the ball away in the Spurs half and
a simple pass through the middle put Lucas in the clear. He
passed left to Son, who waited his moment, while the other player in
the attack who had gone right found more space behind Chilwel. When
the cross came in, Dele dived forward to head the ball into the roof
of the net off the hand of a despairing Schmeichel to record his
50th Spurs goal at the same end and not a dissimilar fashion to his
first for the club. The goal showed more confidence in Son not
just knocking the ball in and Dele for his finding of space and then
finishing the move to double the lead.
With 23 minutes left, Poch
brought on Eriksen for Moura and the thought must have been to pick
off Leicester as they pushed on to try and get back in the game.
White shirts were all over Leicester now and were winning the ball a
lot, so, when Davies was released on the left after some good
closing down, it picked out Aurier at the far post. He tried a
header from about 12 yards out beyond the far post and although he
headed it down, he got it down a bit too much and the ball bounced
up over the bar. With a couple of corners, the home team had
it at the Tottenham end for a little while, but it ended up with
Morgan unable to control the ball when it came back in, knocking it
off for a goal-kick. An unexpected appearance by Harry Kane
saw him have fifteen minutes in place of Son, but he didn't have
much of a chance to make an impact.
Leicester had another shot
in the 83rd minute, when Ghazzal turned in the box and hit a right
foot curler from the left, but Lloris was there to catch the ball.
Most of the home fans had gone home by then, as they started leaving
before the 80 minute mark and the wonderful support obviously
doesn't extend to them being beaten at home. Five minutes
later, Ghazzal hit a low shot along the ground from 25 yards, but it
was straight at Hugo. There had been little for the Spurs
keeper top do, so the win was easy against a Leicester side who were
pretty poor. Without too much effort, the three points were in
the bag and coming through the match without too many issues before
flying out to Spain.
Most of the side had solid
performances, with Winks, Alli and Son. standing out, but a clean
sheet is a bit of a novelty this season, so again, confidence
building for the back four. All in all a good night's work and
nice to stick it to Leicester on their own turf.
Sparky Marky |
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