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Tottenham Hotspur still look like a bit of a crazy mess, but fans can't say that Tim Sherwood has failed to address any concerns that they had about the Andre Villas-Boas era. In his first Premier League game as Spurs boss, Sherwood picked two strikers, Erik Lamela, an insanely attacking midfield and introduced a new youngster. Somehow, it all came together in a 3-2 win over Southampton.
Spurs got off to a less than terrific start, with the team struggling to figure out exactly what it was they were supposed to be doing in their new system in the early minutes. A flimsy midfield and some questionable defending led to Adam Lallana getting onto the ball, turning, getting a step on Michael Dawson and scoring from 20 yards in the 13th minute, putting Spurs in a bad spot.
The sides would head into the break tied, however, with Spurs producing an answer that was -- at the time of the goal at least -- surprising. Roberto Soldado set up the 25th minute equalizer by drifting wide to the left flank and floating a cross into the center of the box. Adebayor got between two defenders and poked home, scoring his second goal in as many matches.
Spurs' go-ahead goal was a bit of a lucky one, with Jos Hooiveld gifting them an own goal. A decent-looking, but seemingly non-threatening cross by Danny Rose should have been put out for a corner by the Southampton defender, but instead, he directed the ball into his own net.
Southampton were gifted an equalizer in similar fashion, though their second goal required a finish, at least. Hugo Lloris inexplicably rushed out to meet Adam Lallana after a through ball that he had no chance of reaching, leaving an empty net. No one tracked the run of Rickie Lambert, who Lallana found for an easy finish.
The winner came just five minutes later, with Adebayor capitalizing on a lack of focus by Danny Fox, though his movement, effort and finish were all impressive. Adebayor pulled away from the Southampton left back easily on a ball into his feet by Nacer Chadli and hit a composed finish to the far post.
At the time, it certainly didn't look like it would be a clinching goal, but there were inexplicably no more goals for either team despite the wide-open nature of the match, Southampton's poor defense and Spurs' paper-thin midfield.
Notes:
- Seriously how fun was that?
- Having said that, this still would have been fun with Sandro or Capoue in midfield. As much as I enjoyed that, the midfield partnerships were insane.
- Danny Rose wasn't even great, but it's obvious what a difference having a real left back makes for this team.
- Hugo Lloris looks like he's still concussed.
- Erik Lamela finally got his shot ... and was probably the worst player on the pitch. Womp womp.
- And all those Bobby Soldier misses. Gah. I hate that I have so many negative notes after an away win against a good team but there were as many not good things about this game as there were good things.
- Nabil Bentaleb came in as a sub and was very good on his debut.
- How much do y'all love Emmanuel Adebayor right now? He's the best.
