Match Ratings Ratings vs Arsenal

whitesocks said:

Lo Celso was our best player in the 1st half, then faded badly.
Toby has played well defensively since his return and this unlikely goal certainly makes him a contender.
But for me, Moura worked so hard all game, and patched up our long running left side problem. Motm

Mention to mourinho, who has taken a fair bit of abuse this week. It was a committed and attacking display from the team today. Entertaining and tactically spot on.
I couldn't care less about the rest of the season, but this performance and result is the one that should give us confidence for next season and hopefully we can build a genuine title challenge from it. Or a league cup win.
It started today.

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1st half i was wondering why Moura was so far back, thought he would be wasted, 2nd half he was pivotal in breaking their attacks and starting ours in that more defensive position, credit to him and Mourinho, clearly instructed and clearly followed, by far motm

winks and aurier very poor

Thought lucas played very well but you cant look past the player who equalised and then assisted the winner

Nicki78 said:

Hard to pick MOM today honestly. A few great performances:-

Son - goal and an assist and gave them a lot of problems today. Looking like he’s getting back to his old self.
Lucas - fair play to him, didn’t stop running. One of his best games in a while.
Toby - goal plus strong at the back. Really good game from him.
Sissoko - great game today. I’m not always a fan but he played out of his skin.

Everyone else:-
Lloris - played well. Couldn’t have prevented the goal.
Aurier - first half awful. Better second half.
Sanchez - looked strong at the back. No complaints.
Davies - tricky one. Does lots well but then lots of passes to the opposition. He’s had better days but I can’t question his effort.
Lo Celso - not his best game. Things didn’t quite come off for him.
Kane - annoyed me at the end when he shot rather than passing. Clearly gets annoyed when he feels people should pass more. I still feel him and Son need to figure each other out in the Jose world.
Winks - Can never question his effort but not a great game today.

Subs didn’t really get enough time but Stevie looked lively when he came on.

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Agree with all except you were harsh on lo celso

Not even close for me. Lucas outstanding today.

Toby, Sanchez, Gio, Kane also v good. Everyone put in a shift.

... although we do need a right back still.

Lucas was excellent, I went for him. Could easily have been Toby though.

As a team we were ok. Absorbed a lot of pressure, and sucker punched them. A little fortunate but we will take it.

Serge Aurier first half was one of the worst performances I've ever seen in a Spurs shirt. Second half he was ok.

bubble07 said:

Agree with all except you were harsh on lo celso

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You’re right - I think he was just exhausted tbf

I thought everyone was good today. I still think we’re a couple of good fullbacks away from being a good side again. Davies is just bang average, I’m sorry. He tries hard but he’s just not a top level player. Aurier gives a good outlet but provides very little quality and is defensively poor. A pair of good fullbacks could transform us as a team in my opinion

Lucas without a doubt

Lloris 7
Aurier 4
Sánchez 6
Toby 6
Davies 5
Guiños 5
Lo Celso 6
Sissoko 6
Lucas 7
Kane 7
Son 6

It really was a game of two halves. The first half had a real end of season feel to it, very open and end to end, plus a few errors and silly moments, as both teams strolled about playing a bit of football but with far too much time and space afforded to them. If it had carried on like that it would have been down to who could outgun the other and be more clinical with the chances that came their way.

We made a conscious effort to tighten up in the second half, dropped back in to a medium-low block and tried to play on the counter. Defence was very solid apart from a couple of moments and though it took us 20-25 mins to get comfortable playing this way we eventually managed to find the opportunities for the counter attack into space and to create chances and looked the more threatening team as the game got into the final stages. The goal might have been from a set piece but was just reward for the disciplined and professional second half performance.

The centre backs and keeper were the solid rock that the win was built on. And Son, Moura, Kane were much better in that last portion of the game in managing to work hard plus create counter opportunities.

Birdie - Toby, Lucas, Lloris, Son
Par - Sissoko, Sanchez, Davies, GLC, Winks, Kane
Bogey - Aurier

Toby was commanding at CB in addition to the goal, we do look so much better when he's on the pitch and he makes the one he plays with of Sanchez and Dier look better too.

Sonny scored and assisted but pissed away the ball so infuriatingly many times, whereas Lucas had his best game for months (dare I say since Ajax?) despite not getting a goal.

On the other end of the scale, Kane strayed too far into selfishness trying to keep his derby record intact, Winks was a little too ill-disciplined and should've gone in the book long before he actually did, and Aurier had one of those days where he couldn't trap the ball if his life depended on it. It's impossible to feel safe when he's on the pitch and you can see from the first minute that it's one of those days, it cost us a goal (yes it's a wonder strike but if Aurier does his job Lacazette never gets the ball) and could've cost us more.

But the performance overall was far more encouraging. I admit I despaired when the team sheet came out, but the switch to a 4-4-2 worked very well, it clearly was something Arteta wasn't expecting and we had a lot of joy (and they made a lot of mistakes) in the first half. The second half was pretty awful before the drinks break as we dropped deep and struggled to get out (to put it mildly, possession was 20-80 in the first 20 minutes of the half), but we asserted ourselves after the break, created the bigger chances and based on chance creation alone the win was deserved.

Now I beg of the players, please don't ever drop to the levels of the three matches preceding this one ever again, and I might start to believe in the Mourinho project.

Flobadob said:

I thought everyone was good today. I still think we’re a couple of good fullbacks away from being a good side again. Davies is just bang average, I’m sorry. He tries hard but he’s just not a top level player. Aurier gives a good outlet but provides very little quality and is defensively poor. A pair of good fullbacks could transform us as a team in my opinion

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IMO our entire team is bang average except for Son, Kane and next season, Lo Celso.

Defence looked more solid today. Most pleased since restart is with Hugo, far more secure. Not rolling ball out to defenders so much in risky situations.Lucas is much better playing wide which is his natural position. Son and Kane both guilty,of not passing when they should have, couple of good chances lost there.

Really encouraging signs, and a million times better than Bournemouth and Everton.

allpaths said:

Aurier by far was the worst player on the pitch the glaring weakspot in the side.

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Agreed, if we had fullbacks with decent end product we’d create and score far more goals. Both desperately need upgrading.

Plus: team effort

Minus: me being a pussy not watching

Really like the 4-4-2 formation,it means we can play another striker up front with Harry.Little and large has always even good, Smith and Allen, Gilzean and Greaves etc or two big men as long as one is more mobile than Harry.
Son is not the partner for Harry though,empathy thing.

a pure mourinho performance and stats. dare i say, beautiful.

aurier was shocking as a defender. and he's our best fullback. so much work to do...

Lucas was by far the best player. At times it looked as if only him and Sissoko were putting in minutes. I don’t want to take away from the win, but this was absolutely grind it out and likely had a positive ending due to the fact that their defense is horrendous. If we were in a title race, this is the type of win champions get. Unfortunately, we’re not.

A couple of stand out things to me

1. There has been a common theme of good opportunities for the opposition arising when Davies has a 2-on-1 or is relying on the winger to drop back. His inside shoulder turns out, and winds up having to press either a wing back or winger towards the line. This is what lead to the Pogba PK, it lead to the Berge goal, and Bellerin made a run or two at it. Not saying this is indicative of Davies. This is indicative of needing a true CDM or more control moving backward from our wingers.

2. Our team has a mentality problem. After the Toby goal, you saw a completely different side of confidence. You can argue that it was Arsenal folding, but we had plenty of more runs forward. We just seemed to want to “kill it” more. It’s very interesting how down this team gets when things don’t fall their way. On one hand shows fragility, on another shows we are a beast when momentum is on our side.

3. You have to start asking yourself is it Harry not getting enough supply or is it Harry not creating enough chances/gassed? I’ve been personally unimpressed. Yes, there were two open opportunities for him to bag it: one where Sonny got selfish and same with Lucas. Regardless, this is not the same player from 2-3 years ago pressing at the top and digging in aggressively. Don’t know what to make of it, but he hasn’t been in form for a while.

4. I couldn’t tell if the lack of subs was to prove a point and to test them mentally or if Mourinho was really being an idiot. He clearly wants to test this team, but I don’t know if he was being stubborn or stupid. He loves mind games so I won’t rule it out. Especially when there isn’t much to play for at this point.