FanPost

Tottenham/West Ham - Final Thoughts

What a game, what a goal.

Eric Dier, a twenty year old English center back making his debut for Tottenham, and who was forced out to right back due to an unfortunate red card being given to Kyle Naughton, deftly beat the West Ham defensive line and rounded the keeper to slot home the winner. The great play didn't begin there there though as Spurs calmly strung together eight or nine passes deep into extra time in order for Kane to send Dier through on goal and allowing Spurs to sneak their way out the backdoor of Upton Park with all three points in tow.

To go down a man so early and take advantage of the opportunity presented by Mark Noble's penalty miss to earn a victory couldn't be a better way to begin the campaign. The margins at the top are so fine. It's easy to see why fans live or die so much by every result during the course of the EPL season. A draw would have been nice, but a win was remarkable.

Some thoughts on the match:

  • Hugo Lloris is a complete spaz, but in a totally awesome way. His ability to cover for the defense is remarkable and his match saving stop on Stewart Downing in the 87th minute showed such great anticipation and a willingness to put himself in danger in order to prevent goals. It's a little disturbing how poorly Downing's run was initially covered as four or five Spurs player decide to just ball watch, but luckily Hugo Lloris happened.

  • It's going to be hard to temper expectations for Eric Dier going forward. The guy is only twenty and seems comfortable all over the pitch. He also came extremely cheap and in a position where it definitely looked like we could use an extra player. The idea of being able to play him at right or left back at times with Vertonghen or Kaboul in the middle is enticing considering our lack of depth at the outside defensive positions. The funny part was for his goal, Dier was taking up a right forward position playing just just off of Harry Kane before making the eventual diagonal run that would guide him to glory.
  • Huge kudos to Harry Kane by the way. Pochettino places him in late while Roberto Solado is also lurking in the subs and he comes in and does an admirable job of bringing Tottenham's midfield into play. My initial impressions of Kane were not favorable as he seemed to lack speed and didn't strike me as a top class poacher, but his link up play could be what sets him up for success.
  • Average age of the last three players to possess the ball leading up to that goal: 20. Bentaleb(19)->Kane(21)->Dier(20).
  • The fact that Bentaleb was favored by Sherwood, played a fair share for Algeria in the World Cup, and is now beating out some more experienced players to start for a different manager in Pochettino at the age of 19 is pretty special.
  • Naughton's red card was harsh. He did deny a goal scoring opportunity, but the handball was not intentional. It's a situation where you'd think a yellow card and penalty is enough of a punishment, but unfortunately that's not what happened. The whistle doesn't always blow the way you like and teams have to play through it. It was great to see Spurs do just that.
  • This squad is legitimately deep. Being able to bring in players like Towsend, Kane, and Holtby late into a match is a huge change of pace for the opposition considering the tempo all three can at times bring to the game. Townsend took his fair of long shots, but they were from much closer than a lot of his attempts last season where he seemed willing to frustratingly rip it from areas where you can't consistently expect to challenge a keeper.
  • Holtby is full of energy, but often seems to expend himself seventy minutes or so into a match. Off the bench he can run his little heart out though and be a huge impact. His pressing late was pleasant to see.
  • Eriksen didn't have a great game and I was surprised to often see Lamela taking corners in his stead. Eriksen's consistent delivery is perhaps his best asset. His reaction to the rogue fan who ran onto the field and was able to attempt a decent shot considering the circumstances is priceless.
  • As someone who loves to play soccer and is also short of stature it's hard not to root for the guy, but either Aaron Lennon just can't teach himself the art of shooting or he doesn't care to try. This has always been in my eyes the biggest barrier between him and becoming an upper echelon winger. He gets into good positions, dribbles well, is pacey, and does a huge amount of work defensively out wide, but when asked to come up with a finish of a little technical ability he often comes up a little short.
  • Away stoppage time goals are one of my favorite occurrences in the EPL. Derby's particularly because they are so local and there is always a decent away contingent at the game. A quarter of the stadium is just going bonkers while the rest of the stadium sits in stunned silence. If you even watch the replay of the celebration a fan joins the Eric Dier post-goal dogpile which is a fun sight to behold.
  • I know Spurs fan sometimes condescend to the rivalry with West Ham, but I love it. Bale's goal two seasons ago to secure a 3-2 win was awesome and the 4-3 last minute thriller at Upton Park back in 2006 was also one of my favorites. It's a game that featured a great goal from a young version of today's West Ham scapegoat, Mark Noble, and fantastic free kicks from future teammates Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez. I apologize in advance for the music, but it's worth sitting through just to see Canadian right back Paul Stalteri hip thrusting in front of the away fans at the end:
  • It's impossible to really judge a manager after one match on the job, but part of being able to coach effectively is earning the goodwill of your players. This result will definitely have the team in good spirits and will earn Pochettino the squad's confidence.
  • Looking forward to this season and there were some promising, albeit it early, signs around the rest of the league with Everton only capturing a draw against newly promoted Leiceister City and former Spurs midfielder Gylfi Sigurosson firing Swansea past Manchester United at Old Trafford. I was glad to see Gylfi hit the ground running back at his old club. I understood why Spurs sold him, but he was very solid squad player throughout his tenure at Tottenham.
  • COYS!

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