Tottenham Hotspur moved back within seven points of the Premier League summit as three late goals beat Manchester United.

A Spurs late show

With just over 20 minutes to go in this one, people were ready to crown Leicester City as champions as it looked like Spurs would be held to only a draw for the second week running. However, their players had different ideas with an incredible finish to this game.

Mauricio Pochettino's team found their breakthrough in the 70th minute through young starlet Dele Alli a day before he turned 20. In a scrap for possession, the ball broke for Harry Kane who played it out wide left for Christian Eriksen. The Dane returned it early back across the box where Alli had got in behind Daley Blind, and he then slipped it past David de Gea first time.

Then just four minutes later Spurs had breathing space as Toby Alderweireld headed in a Erik Lamela free kick from the left, as he out jumped his defender to land the ball just inside the right post.

Things got even better for Tottenham pretty much straight from the restart as Lamela added a goal to his assist. A long diagonal was flicked on by Eriksen to Danny Rose on the left, who quickly drilled the ball across the box where Lamela got in front of his man and turned it into the bottom left corner in a flash.

Alderweireld doubled the lead on 74 minutes. (Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC)
Alderweireld doubled the lead on 74 minutes. (Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC)

Lacklustre first half

All of this late drama came after a fairly mellow first period in the game with nobody really getting a grip on a game that was delayed by half an hour because of the visitors having traffic issues in London. The biggest openings for Spurs like late in the game arrived in quick succession.

Just before the 30 minute mark, Eriksen bent one just wide of the right post from 25 yards out, then United youngster Timothy Fosu-Mensah did really well to block off Kane's path to goal after de Gea had been caught ahead of the ball. Finally, the best chance of them all came as Lamela headed wide of the near post from close range after Eriksen had clipped it through for him.

Little resistance

All in all it was a strange day for Louis van Gaal's team as it took them far too long to get to White Hart Lane never mind getting going on the pitch itself. United kept the ball nice and tidily in the first half, but struggled to actually create anything with their only chance of note coming early in the second half.

Some good work from Anthony Martial down the left resulted in him cutting inside and striking right footed, but the shot was right at Hugo Lloris who had very little to do all game.

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About the author
Jamie Joslyn
20 year old sports journalism at Sunderland University, huge Sunderland fan