One Tottenham Hotspur man took the plaudits on Saturday as we took a 1-0 victory over West Ham United in the fixture at the London Stadium.
Erik Lamela scored the winning goals shortly before the halftime break to return all three points on the day and his performance in the game certainly stood out to Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer.
Speaking on the programme on Saturday night (BBC 1 – 10.30pm) the former Newcastle United man picked him out for making the telling difference on the day, citing his ‘confidence, skill and belief on the ball’.
He was right to, of course.
“A bit of magic from Lamela and it’s their best return after nine games which is impressive. I thought Lamela on his first start of the season was the difference certainly in the first half. He produced some wonderful bits of skill and his first touch was exemplary.
“He was bringing other players into the game. He was at the heart of everything that was good about Tottenham when they were on the ball. Confidence, skill, belief on the ball and trickery, he had all of that. Full of coincidence and full of belief and did his bit defensively.”
It was the 26-year-old’s first Premier League start of the year as manager Mauricio Pochettino has mainly used him as a substitute to good effect as his strike on Saturday was his third league goal of the season so far – with his proper run outs coming in the Champions League campaign.
With him rightly getting the praise, isn’t that usually what he gives us though? He’s just the kind of player that unless he does something ‘wow’ worthy that keeps him at the forefront of your mind, his work slips into the background and you don’t notice the little things he does.
Could he be better at points, absolutely. Is he regularly as bad as some sections of the fanbase make out, absolutely not. It’s all about balance, but undoubtedly we do get the best from him in the more central role than the wide right in my opinion. He’s just more effective there as doesn’t have to chase as often, nor run around headless chicken like trying to get on the ball to make something happen.
That’s what often seems to count against the Argentine.