We were decent overall in the second half, but we were good in the first. We would have scored four again with decent finishing. But the style of play involves exposing our backline, and Fazio just doesn’t look quick enough. Another quibble is that I wish we’d figure out a way to get the ball to Chadli more. He has good technique, makes good decisions and manufactures goals. Nice cross with his wrong foot for the first one.
I shall have a look on MOTD. Hopefully the "pundits" will shut their holes and not make a Lamela comparison to Bale because of that goal.
the bbc: "Erik Lamela scored his first Premier League goal as Tottenham beat Burnley to move up to sixth in the table. The £30m club-record signing netted the first-half winner when he cut in from the right and curled in a left-footed strike from outside the area. Spurs had taken an early lead when Harry Kane headed home Nacer Chadli's left-wing cross. Ashley Barnes equalised with a stunning 25-yard strike of his own, before Lamela's impressive intervention. Burnley occasionally troubled Spurs at the back, but they couldn't cope with the dynamism, movement and pace of the hosts going forward. Rather like he did at Southampton with Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is putting together a stylish forward line in which all the components complement each other. Against the stubborn Clarets, who had lost just one of their previous six games, Christian Eriksen pulled the strings from just in front of muscular frontman Kane, while Lamela cut in from the right and on to his left foot with devastating effect to score the winner. Kane continues to impress as the spearhead of the Spurs attack and his quick-thinking helped to create the chance which led to the opening goal of the match. The 21-year-old took a quick fee-kick to set the impressive Chadli free down the left, galloped into the area and was on hand to convert the Belgian's eventual cross from close range. There was a suspicion of offside in the build-up, but Eriksen was presumably deemed not to have been interfering in play by the officials. Burnley quickly responded when Barnes collected George Boyd's cross, took a couple of touches and then smashed a wonderful shot into the top corner. Barnes and his strike partner Danny Ings linked up well throughout, with the goalscorer regularly dropping off and finding space to supply cute passes for the Clarets' leading marksman. However, both Burnley strikers could only stand and admire Lamela's goal in the 35th minute as the Argentine cut inside from the flank and - similar to how Gareth Bale would do during his time at White Hart Lane - clinically curled the ball beyond Tom Heaton. With Kyle Walker also getting forward down the right, Tottenham saw lots of the ball and continually threatened - Kane and Lamela were inches away from turning in Eriksen's second-half cross. And, despite plenty of endeavour, the spirited visitors struggled to create as much as the game wore on." So we’ve gone from squanderers of 100 million and perpetrators of a ridiculous revolving door coaches policy to a juggernaut moving through the gears. This week. I’d just say that like the Newcastle game it was what you want to see. We’re playing fluid, attractive football, creating chances and scoring goals. Pochettino’s system is working because Eriksen is pulling the strings, and keeps pulling the right ones. But I don’t think too many of us want to get too swept up in what’s only been a couple of good performances.
Spurs still aren't quite there yet but 9 wins and a draw in our last 13 matches shows definite signs of improvement... please log in to view this image ...If I was offered sixth place in the Table at Christmas at the start of the season, I'd have gladly taken it, considering we had a new manager coming in.
A win in the next game would be good for momentum, then Man Utd are also a bit fragile and we have been a bit of a bogey side for them the previous two seasons.
Result made it look a lot closer than what it should have been. I felt we dominated Burnley and we were arguably as good as we were Wednesday night against the Geordies but just lacked that killer touch. Thought the front four were really good, Chadli caused their full backs a number of problems and his cross for Kane was to perfection, Lamela grabbed himself a superb goal and his all round play was probably his best in Spurs shirt in a League game, Eriksen dictated play and Kane worked his arse off as usual. Bentaleb was again solid, becoming a Mr Consistent. Bar their goal, which was superbly taken it must be said, I thought Jan and Fede looked good again, becoming a half decent partnership. Impressed by the performance, definitely deserved more goals. Bring on the festive period.
There were two takes on this game, and I agree with you and others that the story is we’re playing very well, and that the front four are formidable. No doubt we’re not as strong defensively as we’d like to be but even so, two goals in our last four against PL sides is far from woeful. The score against Burnley was close because they scored a wonder goal and we missed twice when it was easier to score. If we can keep playing like this, and it’s a big if, it will be a fun team to watch that will at least push for a top four spot. With all our key players young, and the most central very young, things look pretty cheery.
Our first had a hint of offside about it so I'm not happy with this. It tells me we are not cruising yet and still struggling to find the net,that should have been a two goal win at least. The 4-0 against Newcastle now looks like another one off so I want a CONVINCING win against Leicester to set us up for the next two. COYS.
Yep. It is disgraceful that the 4-0 against one of the more established Premier League sides looks like it might be a one-off. Grab your pitch-forks, people!
That established PL side is the one we did it to a couple of years back lenny and has fallen from grace a little ie losing at home yesterday.
Our first goal clearly wasn't offside TMT, no matter what Dyche may say. Eriksen made no attempt to move towards the ball, play the ball or interfere with any other player and he wasn't in the keeper's eyeline for a shot, either.
No there wasn't. Eriksen didn't interfere with play, Chadli ran onto the ball and played a pin-point cross onto Kane's bonce. No team has a divine right to beat another by a certain amount of goals. Besides we dominated Burnley and but for some awful luck in front of goal for us and a goal of the season contender on Burnley's part, we would have indeed came away with a two goal win.
The fact that we didn't concerns me SOS. We should be beating the lower teams by more than one goal. Ok so it wasn't offside.
They changed the offside rule around 8 years ago(?). It would have been offside prior to the change. Now you just need a degree in quantum physics to be able to understand what's going on.
I'm more concerned that we keep doing as well as we've done the last two games. It looked like a whole different and considerably better team vs. Newcastle and Burnley than it has during the entire rest of the season to me, even if the second half against Burnley wasn't quite up to par, and even though we've had our moments earlier in the year (QPR, Southampton, Everton). The key for me was Erikson doing much if not most of the work moving the ball from back to front. He kept getting it to the player moving forward in space when there was one, and pausing, regrouping, and moving forward in a different direction if there wasn't. We were both attacking quickly and effectively when we could, and not giving the ball away when we couldn't, for the most part. We looked a lot better and more dangerous as a result, I thought. Kane and Chadli also moved the ball well, and both were admirably direct in getting it towards the goal. Incidentally, the Fail lived up to its name by rating Eriksen at five for the Burnley game.
Alright, TMT - whatever you say. If we beat Newcastle 5-0 once I guess we should always beat them 5-0. Makes sense. I have to wonder also - do you actually watch the games? Cos your reaction to them seems always to be based around the scorelines alone. If we'd played crap and been dominated but scraped a 2-1 then isn't that different to what actually happened (i.e. totally dominated, created quite a few chances and easily could have scored more and conceded zero)?
