Article by Michael Frankal
There’s always a fixture every now and then where the build-up is dominated by previous dealings between clubs, in this instance Gylfi Sigurdsson moving to Swansea over the summer with Ben Davies and Michel Vorm coming the other way. Sigurdsson, undoubtedly making the bigger impact with his excellent form so far this season. A number of sports journalists had, no doubt, already written their headlines for Monday morning, with Gylfi ‘proving a point to Levy & Co’.
I always quite liked Gylfi, who is clearly a talented player but he never really delivered on the promise he showed, in Lilywhite at least. In fairness to him though, he didn’t really get a chance, with the managerial merry-go-round and the heavy flow of new players trying to claim their place in the starting XI. We still are over-subscribed with attacking midfielders who can supposedly play the ‘no. 10 role’, and that’s with Lewis Holtby having departed too. There simply isn’t a formula to accommodate everyone and Gylfi, along with Holtby, were deemed surplus to requirements. No pressure on Eriksen to perform then against the Swans then? Ha.
A quick thought on Vorm, whilst we’re here. He’s an established Premier League keeper, why did he come to Spurs to be on the bench? Has Hugo promised us one more season with Vorm the long term replacement, bought at a reasonable price before everyone knows we’re in the market for a new keeper? Surely he didn’t give up a starting place to be a sparring partner? Either way, I imagine his lack of game time so far has been part of a plan to allow Hugo and a settled back four to gel. Or, at least, that may have been the idea...
Davies, the other main talking point prior to the match, had a slow start to his Tottenham career. He seems to have pushed past Danny Rose a bit more recently and was given the nod to start against Swansea. Arguably, his finest contribution in a Spurs shirt so far was the excellent last ditch tackle to deny Bony an easy chance to slot home. Some may attribute blame to him for Swansea’s equaliser early in the second half but, having been a constant threat to our goal, Bony was always likely to score because our centre-back pairing, of Vertongen and Fazio, just couldn’t handle him. Having had time to consider, my conclusion is that whilst Fazio still looks like he’s a split-second away from a howler and/or another red card, Bony would cause problems to most centre backs given the form he is in. Fortunately, we have a goalkeeper who never ceases to amaze in Lloris, with Lady Luck having also followed us down the M4. Fazio is getting a bit better, generally, but you do wonder what has happened behind the scenes with Kaboul, who is our captain after all.
It was good to see Walker back. He’s a talent but it feels like we’ve been hoping he’ll really click as a complete right-back for a while. Hopefully he’ll get the coaching he needs and it’ll happen for him. I am also hopeful he’ll give us some much needed width on the right hand side, when on the attack.
The game had barely started before we scored from a corner. A corner. We scored from a corner. Let that sink in: it happened. Man of the moment, Harry Kane, timed his jump perfectly and headed in. Swansea, then, predictably, gave us problems. Bony in particular looked like scoring every time they went forward. We just about held on to half-time but had been losing the midfield battle throughout the first half. Mason and Bentaleb unable to shield the back four that effectively and left Jan and Fazio exposed. Although, neither seemed capable of dealing with Bony from any position.
The second half quickly yielded an equaliser for Swansea, which was frustrating as lessons were obviously not learnt at half-time. I would have taken 1-1 prior to the game, but it’s always frustrating when you go ahead and can see the equaliser coming from a mile off. It seemed to be the introduction of Dembele which somehow led to a more even midfield battle, Swansea were hardly going to settle for a draw at that stage in the game but looked less likely to score again from that point.
Lamela could have been sent off, twice, on another day. Firstly with a high elbow in the first half and then a rash challenge, which could have been viewed as two footed. He’s not afraid to get stuck in and I get the impression he’s frustrated because he is not putting his stamp on games, which is possibly better than sheer despondency, but you don’t want him literally stamping on players. There could be an unpleasant side to his game, but I’m minded to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Sadly, he didn’t offer any other notable contribution.
Eriksen has to play in the middle. Everything good comes through him at the moment and he ought to be the focal point. It’s arguably never a great thing to put all your eggs in one basket but Eriksen is the only reliable creator we have at present. We should build around him, with protection behind and width on at least one side. Failing that, we need a real Plan B because we’re just not scoring enough. Lloris has said it is very hard to save Eriksen’s shots: he disguises his intentions well. He picked his spot and finished with precision after 89 minutes and gave us a much needed win.
Harry Kane wants it, he really does. He doesn’t stop working and his late pressure in the Swansea box caused the mistake that allowed us to score the winner. He almost had one himself a couple of moments later after more industrious work in the middle of the pitch. You can’t help but like this lad and I think he’ll only get better if given the chance. I hope the expectation doesn’t become too much, though, because he isn’t the finished article and will have duff periods. The fans seem to love him though and I hope he gets the space and time to develop that he needs. He deserved the Man of the Match award, shading it from Eriksen – who could have easily had it himself for his efforts.
We battled, held on and then came away with the 3 points. A loss might be harsh for Swansea but they simply didn’t take their chances. We’re in touching distance of where we want to be and it doesn’t look as mediocre on paper as it sometimes feels. The concerns, for me, remain the lack of goals and a defence that looks far too frail. The amount of cards we’re picking up isn’t great either (half your defence on a yellow by half-time, away from home, is asking for trouble) but, as I said earlier, I would have settled for a draw going into the game so additional points are well received, particularly after the draw against Crystal Palace. A good result from a mixed performance. A comfortable win against Burnley would be a welcome early present!
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