Tottenham Hotspur put the September international break behind them in some style as we welcomed Crystal Palace to White Hart Lane last Saturday.
With a mixed campaign so far, especially from a performance point of view, manager Mauricio Pochettino saw his side get back to their vintage best as Son Heung-Min hit a brace, Palace scored an own goal, and even Erik Lamela got on the scoresheet to give us a 4-0 advantage before the game had even paused for half time.
Second half we didn’t see any additional goals, but it was a professional showing and we kept the clean sheet to really lift spirits ahead of Wednesday evening’s clash with Olympiakos in our opening Champions League Group B clash.
With plenty of players coming in for praise after that showing, Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson waxed lyrical about the performance of 23-year-old England midfielder, Harry Winks.
“Tottenham made Crystal Palace look average. In the first 45 minutes, Spurs were back to the side we all know, but it’s already too late to catch Liverpool. Harry Winks is such a massive player for them, the way he gets the ball moving quickly. They looked a proper team and as soon as the first whistle blew, they meant business. They rolled the ball back to the centre-half, lumped it forward and Winks put it over the bar within 10 seconds. The fans didn’t have to wait. They took the game to Palace, and they didn’t know what day it was.”
Five games in, I’m not sure anyone should claim any kind of race is over though – few saw Norwich’s result against Manchester City coming after all.
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