A Dele Alli brace along with a Harry Kane header and Heung-Min Son goal put Tottenham Hotspur just one point off top four as they saw off a 10-men Southampton 4-1, despite also missing a penalty. 

Early goal gave Saints hope

From the first kick of the game Southampton bombarded Spurs with a high intensity pacey attack which paid off. The home team opened the scoring within the first minute of the game as Virgil Van Dijk headed the ball in to the bottom corner for his first goal of the season, after a James Ward-Prowse free kick, conceded by Victor Wanyama. Centre backs Jan Vertonghen and Eric Dier were nowhere near their opposing centre back to defend the goal which started with an attack launched from the starting whistle. 

Southampton continued to put pressure on Tottenham finishing with Nathan Redmond driving a low shot wide. Tottenham's defence walked a tight line as Southampton's pressing game made them look uncomfortable as if they had caught the Spurs players by surprise, in the opening 15 minutes as the Saints continued to look like the more threatening team.   

Alli equaliser gives Spurs control

Tottenham started to find their feet with as they gained a passing rhythm which lead to Dele Alli equalising as his perfectly time jump beat Van Dijk to meet a Moussa Sissoko cross curled from the left bouncing off the cross bar into the goal. 

After Alli's equaliser Spurs gradually started to take control of the game as they pressed Southampton higher up the pitch, however the Saint's well organised defence stopped majority of Tottenham's chances. 

Wanyama looked to put Tottenham in the lead just before the half time whistle as he was found by Sissoko. The Kenyan dribbled through a number of home players in the box before Jose Fonté put in a block just before he could take a shot, just yards away from the goal. 

Kane gives Spurs lead before penalty miss

Harry Kane brought the second for Tottenham as he met a Christian Eriksen corner to stick the ball into the top corner.

Kyle Walker dived into the a poor tackle resolving in him reviving a yellow card leaving him suspended for Tottenham's clash against Walker. 

Spurs then launched a counter after defending the resulting free kick which resulted in Nathan Redmond giving away a penalty after pulling back on Dele Alli. The foul then resulted in a straight red for the left back as the player made no attempt to properly stop Alli as he was through on goal. However, against Tottenham's luck Harry Kane sent the shot up wide as the pitch gave away under his supporting foot. 

Tottenham then looked to find their third as Wanyama drew a save from Foster as he took a shot from range. 

Tottenham then came close again as Southampton's back line could not deal with Spurs' constant attacking. Danny Rose's overlapping run carved open the Saints defence as his cross was deflected before finding Christian Eriksen who smacked his shit from range against the cross bar. 

In the 72nd minute Claude Puel attempted to rebalance his side afte having a man sent off by making three substitutions. This saw Steven Davis be replaced by Pierre- Emille Hojbjerg while Jay Rodriquez was replaced by Shane Long and Sofiane Boufal by Dusan Tadic

Rose then missed another chance for Tottenham to finish the game as he missed placed his shot wide of the post. 

Moussa Sissoko was then replaced by Heung Min Son for Tottenham's first change of the game and later Mousa Dembele by Harry Winks as he looked close to recieving a second yellow card. 

Three and four in quick succession

Son then capitalised on a Tottenham counter as a deflection met his feet. The Korean found him self in space before shooting and finding the bottom corner. 

Within minutes Tottenham found the fourth through Dele Alli as he almost replicated Sons previous goal slotting the ball into the same corner. 

Tottenham then made their final substitution as Harry Kane was given a brief rest as he was replaced by Vincent Janssen who recently returned from injury. 

With a minute left to go both Jan Vertonghen and Shane Long picked up a yellow card, Long for a foul on Vertonghen and the Belgium for the retaliation. However the light yellow means that Vertonghen will miss also miss Spurs clash with the Hornets on New Years. 

The game was the first time Southampton had conceded four goals since their return to the Premier League at Saint Mary's despite not having conceded a goal  in four hours prior to the game.

VAVEL Logo
About the author