After the midweek disappointment in Lisbon, it was imperative that Spurs returned to winning ways at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against a Leicester City side marooned to the bottom of the table and lacking in confidence. And return to winning ways we emphatically did, responding to the initial setback of Youri Tielemans’ penalty and then the blow of James Maddison’s equaliser with 6 goals.
Among these 6 goals was a hat-trick for Heung-Min Son, who has ended a goal drought that has spanned 9 games in all competitions up until yesterday’s match. Proof (if it was even necessary) that form is temporary, but class is permanent.
Whether it was Leicester’s overzealous commitment in searching for an equaliser that left spaces for us to exploit, tired defenders, or the greater fury in Son’s play in response to being left out (or a combination of all three) that prompted this hat-trick we’ll never know, but it’s great to see his barren spell end. Equally refreshing is having a genuine competition for places in the forward areas that we’ve been lacking for so long that allowed him to be benched in the first place!
More impressive for me than Son’s treble was scoring 2 set piece goals to take our tally of headed goals for the season up to 7 in the league and 9 in all competitions, having managed 8 in the league and 9 in all competitions for the entirety of the previous campaign. It’s clear that a weakness of our attacking play is being addressed, and both the players and set-piece coach Gianni Vio must take plenty of credit.
As several fans have already pointed out, the scoreline does paper over sufficient cracks, as has been the case with most of our victories this season, with Leicester looking repeatedly threatening in the first half. Even at 3-2, it felt as though there was something there for them, but again, as has so often been the case this year, our class on the break simply took the game away from them. We were simply at our finest as the spaces opened up due to the visitors’ search for an equaliser.
There was so much more to take from the match, including our defensive mishaps, the lack of a convincing wing-back pairing (a discussion we’ve had before), and the frequent rotation dilemma regarding our front three/four. I will leave that to you all to discuss, but I will finish on invoking one more food for thought: the switch to a 3-5-2 at 3-2 following Bissouma’s introduction for the final 20 minutes.
I felt this change was key to neutralising Maddison’s growing threat and pushing Son up closer to Kane, which, given the final score and the manner in which it was achieved, was more than inspired. Bissouma himself had a great 20 minutes, winning both of his 2 duels and making 2 interceptions, one of which preceded Hojbjerg’s pass to Son for his third goal.
In general, we looked really assured finishing the game with this shape and the extra midfielder on top of Son’s introduction squished the jam right out of Leicester’s doughnut. With the North London Derby coming up, against a side who love to suffocate teams with the ball and pass teams to death, it may very well be worth considering retaining a central midfield trio if Conte feels Bissouma is ready to start.
Either way, what a nice problem to have…for now, a great win sees us through to the international break, with a trip to the Emirates on the horizon and an unbeaten record on the line. COYS!