Although the scoreline wasn’t as emphatic as the stats would have suggested, Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Norwich City was a very comfortable one and while Gylfi Sigurdsson’s brace sealed the points, Christian Eriksen’s debut in a Lilywhite shirt was an impressive one and at £12m, the former Ajax man is already looking like the bargain buy of the season.
After the game, head coach Andre Villas-Boas hailed our passing and pressing game which saw a tired Norwich clinging on at 2-0 in the second period.
“We had to be patient and move the ball well and we did it so fast, so quickly that it really made the difference,” AVB said on the club’s official website.
“In the end, in 45 minutes, we managed to make Norwich exhausted physically and they couldn’t really cope with our quality out there.”
So what was the key to that style of performance? “First of all, the quality of the players to understand which pass is most important, they linked up very well to create so many chances.”
Andre also praised the defence as key to a solid overall display.
“Also, our defence stood up to press really high, so we managed to recover every single ball straight away, so we never allowed them to be in a position to threaten us,” he added.
“We controlled the set-plays as well, so overall, it was perfect. There were many positives for us.”
The win puts us second in the early Premiership table and after Thursday’s home Europa League game with Tromso, we face a trip to Cardiff on Sunday.
physical instinct?!!!!
I don’t think many clear chances were created for Soldado.
Eriksen cannot be expected to win games on his own.
Spurs need a playmaker in midfield because Dembele and Paulinho create very little. Try out Holtby and Eriksen in the same team together, to see how well they link up.
Bring back Carroll in January or another creative midfield player.
Bring back Carroll??? Spurs need a playmaker??? This after we dominated about 80% of the game, created heaps of chances all with a team that hasn’t had more than a couple of games together. What I took from this game is how poor Carroll compares to Eriksen who’s the same age. Carroll had a chance to go to another EPL team or a championship one. He chose the Championship which speaks volumes about his confidence and ability. He’s very overrated.
We played just about as flawless a game as is physically possible. Paulinho was playing a yard deeper than previous weeks and still got into threatening positions. And contrary to what some think he actually laid on the pass that Siggy scored from. A long way from not creating much I reckon?
Chadli injured and Lamela finding his feet. Chadli linking with Eriksen will be very interesting. Siggy benefitted from the movement of Eriksen. After watching Chadli play the one thing missing from his game was someone to link with going forward on the inside. Townsend could do well to listen to AVB when he says
“First of all, the quality of the players to understand which pass is most important, they linked up very well to create so many chances.”
All early days, yet Spurs turn on a display that was amazing. And someone says we need two play makers? We’ve got Eriksen, Paulinho, Chadli, Lamela and Dembele.
Every week we face teams that park the bus and breaking them down isn’t easy. We have conceded just one goal in the EPL, won 3 lost one, and went through the Europa rounds with an 8-2 aggregate. Again with a team that hasn’t had more than a few weeks together. This was Eriksens debut! Imagine what Spurs can do when this team has had a couple of months together. Dembele, Paulinho, Eriksen, Soldado, Siggy, Rose and Townsend all linked up at one stage or another.
Tell ya what if this display disappoints then disappoint me every week!