1  Hugo LLORIS  (c)    (12  Joe HART  46 [ 22  Paulo GAZZANIGA 74])

21  Juan FOYTH  (38  Cameron CARTER-VICKERS  46)
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
33  Ben DAVIES  (49  Dennis CIRKIN  46)

30  Gedson FERNANDES
19  Ryan SESSEGNON 
  8  Harry WINKS  (54  Alfie DEVINE  84)
  5  Pierre-Emile HOJBJERG  (48  Harvey WHITE  64)

20  Dele ALLI  (44  Jamie BOWDEN  74)
27  Lucas MOURA  (53  Dale SCARLETT  71)

  7  Heung-Min SON    (47  Jack CLARKE  46)

Unused subs: 
-
 

24  Kane VINCENT-YOUNG  (12  Janoi DONACIEN  46)
22  Aristote NSIALA  (32  Corrie NDABA  46)
  6  Luke WOOLFENDEN  (  4  Luke CHAMBERS  46)
  3  Stephen WARD (c)  (30  Myles KENLOCK  46)
 

18  Alan JUDGE  (19  Brett McGAVIN  46 [11  Jon NOLAN  64])
  8  Cole SKUSE  (23  Andre DOZZELL  46)
15  Teddy BISHOP  (21  Flynn DOWNES  46)
  7  Gwion EDWARDS  (14  Jack LANKESTER  46)

25  Aaron DRINAN  (  9  Kayden JACKSON  46)
36  Armando DOBRA  (20  Freddie SEARS  46)

Unused subs: 
33  Tommy SMITH
15  Ben FOLAMI
16  Idirs El MIZOUNI
 

In the sunshine at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the pre-season started with a home friendly against Ipswich Town, with three first half goals settling the game in favour of Spurs.

Holding onto the ball well at the start of the game, Tottenham settled into the three at the back formation, while pressing high and with Moura and Ryan Sessegnon tucking in when the ball was lost. For their part, Ipswich looked to try and set up by getting people behind the ball to deny Spurs getting through. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t last long.

Ipswich give the ball away in midfield and Dele picked it up on the right. He picked out Sessegnon moving forward on his left and came inside, to slide a right foot shot past Cornell from the edge of the box. Ryan took the goal well and it was a very good ball from Dele to free him to go in on goal.

Tottenham’s high press paid off in the tenth minute, with the goalkeeper clearing the ball low to the 25 yard line, where Hojbjerg intercepted by sliding to reach the ball and knocking it forward to where Dele looked offside, but he had a defender goal-side of him off to the left of the box. He touched the ball back for Sonny, who only had to steer it home past the keeper and a defender in front of him. The success of the high press showed its worth and it had been something that Spurs hadn’t employed much last season under either manager.

A fine through ball from Juan Foyth along the floor picked out Heung-Min Son’s run inot the right hand channel from where he dinked the ball over Cornell from a tight angle to make it 3-0 just before the half-hour.

It was nearly four when Sessegnon played a pass across the area to find Moura running beyond the last defender, but he was flagged offside. Lucas then blazed a shot over the bar after Sessegnon broke away and couldn’t play an early pass to Dele, but eventually got the ball to him in the box, from where he teed up Moura.  Just before half-time, a low ball in to the near post from Gedson on the right wing was toed over the bar from close range by Son, who nearly claimed his hat-trick and then the same combination almost worked, but Gedson’s cross was nodded over by Woolfenden. Son took the corner and Hojbjerg won the header at the far post, forcing Cornell to save and hold the ball low in front of the goal-line.

It was an energetic first half from Spurs, with the players less than a month on from their last league fixture, so still sharp. There was a tempo that they maintained throughout the first 45 minutes, which restricted Ipswich to only a couple of crosses into the box and without a shot on goal. The side also looked hungry, showing little mercy for their League One opponents.

It was a mis-match between the two teams and it only remained to see how long Jose would wait before making radical changes to the side. Lambert did shake things up with a different XI starting the second half, while Cirkin for Davies, Clarke for Son, Carter-Vickers for Foyth and Hart for Lloris were the subs that Mourniho decided to put on.

The visitors looked more dangerous straight away with Jackson playing a low ball across the face of goal within a couple of minutes of the restart. A Spurs sub made an impact, when Clarke showed good skill to jink past a defender tight to the line and drive in a low cross that was kicked away.  Dennis Cirkin got on the end of a Spurs move, popping up on the left wing and having his cross blocked too.

Loose play from Town saw them play the ball off the pitch for a Spurs throw and from it, Clarke nudged the ball infield for Moura, who drove into the box and fired a shot into the side-netting. The Ipswich passing was pretty poor, with them being under-hit and picked off by the Spurs players.  Having worked the ball from right to left, Sessegnon finished the move with a low shot that went straight at Holy. At the other end, Fernandes stretched to cut out a ball to Dozzell in the Tottenham box, with it falling to Sears, who fired too high with 68 minutes gone. Two minutes later, Mourinho gave a first team run out to two 16 year olds, Alfie Devine and Dale Scarlett, who joined sub Harvey White, who had come on for Hojbjerg on 64 minutes.

When Carter-Vickers played a long ball down the Spurs right, Clarke played an early ball low across the goal and Scarlett just failed to make contact with it as he slid in on the edge of the six yard box. Bowden won the ball well in the Ipswich half and hit Scarlett, who played a fine pass around the corner for Jack Clarke, who took it forward into the area, but ended with a weak low shot straight at the goalkeeper. Clarke and Fernandes linked well on the right, with the return ball to the Portuguese just behind him, but when Ipswich tried to clear, Devine won it back and White had a shot that didn’t really test Holy in goal. The midfielder followed that up with a free kick with five minutes left but could not keep it down.

The game was a useful run-out for a large number of the Spurs players and everyone in the squad on the day got out on the pitch.  The experience, albeit in a meaningless friendly, will be good for the youngsters and Sessegnon, Cirkin, Bowden, Devine and Clarke (in flashes) showed that they could progress this season, while Son's finishing looks as deadly as ever and Dele's first half performance showed he is sharp and capable of influencing games.  Head and shoulders above them all (even Joe Hart) was new midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, with most of the Spurs play going through him.  Covering a lot of green today, he was winning the ball and playing crisp passes, making himself available when not in possession too.  The younger players could learn a lot from the way he plays the game.

Mourinho tried a three centre-halves with wing-backs formation and it will be fascinating to see if this is his preferred set-up for the season to come or whether it was just a trial of it for this game.  Jose has changed the structure of the team on a game-by-game basis, so there could be something different for the Reading friendly on Friday 28th.

A win, a clean sheet and some good performances.  A good day's work-out, but it is all about peaking for the start of the new season and with three more games to come, I am sure there will be a variety of personnel involved as players return from their holidays or quarantine.

Barry Levington