A comfortable Saturday evening for Spurs saw them defeat Preston North End 3-0 and progress into the 5th round of the FA Cup. Read the match report here, player ratings here, the pick of the stats from the match here, and Cristian Stellini’s reaction here, or have your say on the match at the Vital Spurs Fan Forum here. Here, I will discuss what I took from proceedings at Deepdale yesterday.
First of all, I was thoroughly impressed with the performance throughout the whole match – now I know there were collective moans and groans about the first half, but in such cup ties away to lower-league opposition, you have to take the sting out of the game by silencing the crowd and not giving them anything to cheer or shout about.
Having sat in the Preston end courtesy of a friend of mine who furnished me with a ticket, it was a civil enough atmosphere, but very quiet – one had arrived anticipating the near-sell-out crowd to be full to the brim of boisterous Lancastrians, but, aside from the overweight chap that got turfed out from the home end for racial chanting, the noise coming from the home faithful was minimal.
Now I don’t mean to sound too sycophantic towards our lot, and most people that know me know that I vehemently object to a backline comprising Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez, but I must say, I felt a lot of the crowd’s silence was down to the superb work of our back three and the work Yves Bissouma did tidying up in front of them,
The trio, along with Clement Lenglet, had been much maligned of late, but they were generally first to every challenge, and the lads, unlike the NLD travesty of several weeks ago, won most of their aerial duels, which is a must away to a Championship side (51.3% success rate to Preston’s 48.7% rate to be precise according to Sky Sports).
Although this is hardly headline stuff, this assured defensive display kept Preston pegged back and reduced their opportunities for counter-attacking, frustrating the crowd, and causing our lot to set the tempo of the game, and although first-half chances were hard to come by, it was only a matter of time before we broke the home side’s resistance.
Enter Heung-min Son – he’s been a shadow of himself this year, but in Harry Kane’s absence, he always seems to step up, which I always found remarkably odd considering how well the two play together (see the 2018/19 season and parts of 16/17 and 17/18, when Son would go o these remarkable purple patches of form whenever Kane would get the annual ankle injury that would see him out of the side for weeks on end).
Step up Son did, and his goals were so well-taken you’d hardly think he’d have been struggling for form these past few months until last night. He was constantly taking players on like the Son of old, and although he only completed 2 out of 5 dribbles last night and won 3 of his 8 ground duels (via SofaScore), both attempted figures are higher than the figures posted in any other match he’s played in this season, which hints at a surge in confidence in the South Korean, who has all too often been a passive figure in Spurs’ attack this campaign.
Son was also unlucky not to score with two efforts identical to his exquisite opener last night in the first half. I know we’ve all said this in the other three matches he’s scored this season, but here’s hoping he can actually kick on and go on a scoring run that he is yet to fulfil this season.
On a slight downer, our wing-backs failed to do much of any note going forward yesterday – both Matt Doherty and Ryan Sessegnon were impeccably solid like the whole defensive unit on the night, but going forward, contributed next to nothing. Not a single clear-cut chance created, or a successful cross between them, is not good enough, and Pedro Porro’s imminent arrival is much needed.
The experiment of Ivan Perisic as the attack’s focal point also was interesting, but flat out did not work, and the veteran Croatian found himself running up too many blind alleys yesterday. However, in the second-half, his fitness levels were remarkable to behold for a man of his age – he was constantly harassing the Preston backline in position and forced Freddie Woodman into making several wayward clearances in the Preston goal with his relentless pressing.
Arnaut Danjuma, goal aside, also looked very lively from the bench, and was desperately unlucky not to be played in twice more with passes into him being cut out by Preston’s desperate defenders. It’s early days, but we’ve seen more from him in 15 minutes than from Lucas Moura and Bryan Gil combined all season, which may sound harsh, but we’ ve needed a step up on the duo for a while now.
When all is said and done, it was a perfect night for Antonio Conte and Spurs, with attention now turning to next Sunday’s crucial encounter at home to Manchester City in the Premier League.