Tottenham Hotspur delight fans in their opening game of the Premier League season, by beating Manchester City 1-0.
In the build up to Tottenham’s first game of the season, speculation on whether talisman Harry Kane would feature in the match, grew and grew. Kane, who has been heavily linked with a move to opponents Manchester City was, as expected, left out of the squad, reportedly due to only just returning to first team training.
Son Heung-Min showed no fear and stepped up to lead the attack in Harry Kane’s absence, with the help of Lucas Moura, Dele Alli and Steven Bergwijn.
Two of Tottenham’s most impressive players of the day were Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga. The youngsters had a huge job on their hands and they did not fail in showing the talent that they had. With Man City’s record signing making his Premier League debut for the club, Jack Grealish was always going to try and put the pressure on the midfield and defence. Oliver Skipp showed exactly why new Spurs boss, Nuno Espírito Santo, chose him to play in the starting line up. Throughout the match Skipp impressively managed to contain the threat of both Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling, which also allowed Tottenham’s Pierre-Emile Højbjerg to get forward more in parts of the game.
Japhet Tanganga had fans cheering and chanting his name, singing what is usually reserved for Harry Kane, ‘He’s one of our own’. The young defender had an outstanding game, making some extremely crucial challenges and tackles, that he earned himself the Man of The Match award. Tanganga’s future is looking very bright at Tottenham and he is vastly becoming a fan favourite.
Manchester City spent most of the game with the possession, pressing the defence and creating countless of chances. However, the Spurs captain Hugő Lloris did not have many big saves to make and it was Tottenham’s star, Son Heung-Min, who opened the scoring with his 55th minute winning goal, striking low and hard into the back of the net.
Tottenham Hotspur, who Pep Guardiola once referred to them as ‘The Harry Kane team’, has since beaten City a fourth successive time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. After Son’s goal and the concerns still looming over Kane’s future at Spurs, chants were heard ringing around the stadium “Are you watching Harry Kane?”.
The efforts and pure determination from each of the Spurs players paid off, showing exactly what team work was all about. A fantastic first game and win for Tottenham’s new head coach, Nuno Espírito Santo and Spurs will look to continue with another win in their next match away to Nuno’s former side, Wolves.
– Samantha Ramm
