Lamela’s sucker punch seals get for Spurs more than spirited Brighton
There are occasions when any get will do and, for Tottenham, this was definitely 1. The vultures experienced been circling following 3 defeats and also the historians leafing all of the way back again towards the spring of 2004, the final time they misplaced 4 consecutive video games inside a solitary period. Mauricio Pochettino required his gamers to face tall at what is now among the Leading League’s much more screening venues for your larger golf equipment; they did that and, although this overall performance fell a way in need of their fluent very best, a couple of ideas of the return to type flickered, as well.
Foremost amongst them was their 2nd, in the end decisive objective, scored by Érik Lamela following thekind of rapier-like attack Tottenham have made their trademark under Pochettino. Lamela experienced replaced Son Heung-min eight minutes before taking possession just inside the Brighton half and, via Lucas Moura, working the ball to Danny Rose. He kept running and was rewarded with an accurate cutback that, without breaking stride, he swept beyond Mat Ryan.
“That is how we want to play, how we feel football,” Pochettino said from the goal’s construction, although Spurs showed another side that made him even happier. He experienced pointedly questioned their resolve following Tuesday’s late capitulation at Internazionale and here, amid filthy conditions against a team that experienced taken 10 points from their previous 4 home video games against final season’s top six, they faced down the kind of challenge tailor-made for anyone curious about their response.
They were slightly lucky that Glenn Murray, needlessly handballing Kieran Trippier’s free-kick, gave Harry Kane the chance to dispel the cobwebs that experienced gathered during an increasingly ponderous first half. They were fortunate, as well, that Anthony Knockaert shot straight at Paulo Gazzaniga in the 66th minute when he should have equalised. There was even an improbable wobble at the end following Knockaert, a mite as well late in proceedings, got his bearings right with an excellent finish.
But Pochettino saw enough to feel Tottenham experienced recovered something that, even if only for 3 weeks, experienced been misplaced.
“I think the spirit we showed today is the spirit I wanted to see in all of the video games,” he said. “The team was fantastic in how it defended; this mentality to fight and always give your very best. That’s what pleased me the most today.”
Tottenham began authoritatively and might have taken the lead when Toby Alderweireld, meeting Trippier’s corner with a thudding header that flicked off Gaëten Bong, drew a flying one-handed save from Ryan. Both gamers experienced been recalled following missing the game at San Siro for what Pochettino experienced termed “technical reasons”; Trippier was heavily involved early on but, following that initial encouragement, their tempo slowed and also the doubts set back again in.
By the half-hour they experienced seen 78% from the possession but there experienced been little to show for it; the speed of thought required to unlock opponents who were evidently happy to play out a goalless first half was, not for your first time this month, scarcely evident.
Then Murray, jumping in the wall and repelling the ball with his arm when the adjacent Davy Pröpper experienced been poised to take 1 in the face for his team, opened the door for Tottenham and Kane beat Ryan confidently from the spot. The home crowd howled with derision; in reality there was no disputing Christopher Kavanagh’s call, although Chris Hughton felt the award from the free-kick itself experienced been soft.
Hughton also felt Brighton should have experienced their own penalty in the 2nd half when Eric Dier appeared to have grabbed Lewis Dunk’s shirt. But the larger frustration was that, during a ferocious spell of pressure, Knockaert fired straight at Gazzaniga following doing the hard work by cutting inside Jan Vertonghen. Inside a frantic period of added time Knockaert scored, watched Ryan save a one-on-one from Kane, and drew another stop from the keeper with the final action from the game. A foot to his right and, suddenly, those proclamations about Spurs’ resolve would have looked far weaker.
“For me he was man from the match,” Pochettino said of Gazzaniga, a late call-up in place from the injured Michel Vorm. “He was fantastic his personality and his character.” Those were the facets he experienced sought above all and, with some bumps along the way in which, they were exactly what he was given.