It was frequently a thrilling game. We flew out the traps and Sunderland found themselves unable to catch their breath. We had confidence to spare and a real sense of purpose.
Within just two minutes it was 0-1, the game was all set for landslide. Then the old familiar sketch. Our defending was so woefully poor that one time footballer Adam Johnson, was made to look like Ricky Villa as be bobbed and weaved past buttercup statues.
Typical, bloody typical. And those three words were probably uttered in a myriad languages, across the globe after the game.
My take is this. We have certainly have a problem – in so much that we played for the most part, so well and had so much possession, yet failed to see through the job through. Had we lost, then we could say that we have a real problem. We didn’t, we don’t.
So what went wrong?
Heh, a number of things. But a sane summary is to simply acknowledge we are 4 games in to a new Spurs manager’s tenure so he has about a dozen games left and it’s early days.
The defense was yet again makeshift. Vertonghen out with gout, Bonzo recovering from falling of his skateboard whilst juggling cheesy Wotsits.
Eric Dier may have made a good many of us coo, but it’s a struggle to argue that he’s a natural right back. Younes Kaboul embodies our defensive frailty. Which not to cast him as a whipping boy, rather highlight the fact he does lots of things right, but you wouldn’t call him reliable.
Vlad looks like what he is. A bloke who hasn’t consistently played Premier League football for a while.
Rose is still looking like a man reborn, and it’s pretty evident his ‘mission’ was to put the ball into the near post. Which he geefully did. Endlessly. It would have been nice if he’d mixed his passing up a little, but I’m still positively reeling from his overall improvement, it seems churlish to dwell on any negatives.
Capoue and Dembele both had an excellent game. The pair of them gave it absolutely everything, the left nothing out there and it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say that about anyone. Dembele in particular, was ace.
It’s a pity that Eriksen didn’t match either for effort. He didn’t have a poor game, far from it. But I really didn’t get the impression he was going all out. Particularly so when he was needed defensively.
Chadli, who seemed to draw an incredible amount of mindless digust from a loud minority, had another most excellent game. If you want to see improvement in players, watch Tottenham.
I thought Lamela was close to sensational. To see a player with such wit and desire in the shirt was a delight. He was a complete menace to their defense. A total menace. 4 Premier League games in and he looks more than well on his way to having a memorable season.
Adebayor. The bad news is that he looks a lot like a bloke who didn’t have a pre-season. What a shocker. Add to this him wasting his energy and our wage bill fannying around for Togo, and you have player who really isn’t delivering – for anyone. The good news is, that Togo don’t look as if they are going to progress in the Tin Pot Con.
By the time Harry Kane and Stanbouli came on, everyone was thoroughly knackered. Kane’s OG was neither here nor there. The issue was that intensity that was initially so pleasing on the eye, had taken it’s toll.
Had we been playing a more creative outfit, it’s not unimaginable that we might’ve crawled back to London on the wrong end of a 2-3 loss, or worse. But that didn’t happen.
After starting so brightly, after having so much possession, yet it was frustrating, but it wasn’t depressing. I always base this on how inclined I am to want to kill someone after we fail to win a game. This game actually left me feeling hopeful.
