Tottenham v Southampton 19 March 2017
Tottenham Hotspur 2 Southampton 1
Goal Scorers C Eriksen (14), D Alli (33 pen), J Ward-Prowse (52)
This was Spurs’ fourth consecutive home game in all competitions at White Hart Lane, coming a week after the 6-0 mauling of Millwall in the sixth round of the FA Cup.
Kicking off at 2:15pm on Sunday the 19th March, plenty of away supporters made the journey to London and the confirmed White Hart Lane attendance for this match was as large as usual with some 31,697 fans on hand to watch the match unfold.
The match did turn out to be something of a tight one however but ended with Tottenham now making it ten consecutive wins at home. Importantly for Tottenham it was to be a match that saw them on track to reaching their goal of finishing in the top four of the Premier League once again. It was achieved thanks to two masterful goals from both Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.
It was in the fifteenth minute of the game when Man of the Match Eriksen scored the first. This was then followed by a very obvious foul by Steven Davis on Alli in the box after shortly after thirty minutes of play that saw Alli pick himself up, dust himself down and then convert the penalty into another goal.
However, it was certainly not all one way traffic for Spurs, for James Ward-Prowse who was obviously still on a high at being called up for England for the first time managed to pull back a goal at very close range in the second half of the match.
As for the line up of players for Southampton, their manager chose to keep the same team as had been in play on their three previous matches. And for the home side, Heung-Min Son was the player selected to replace the injured Harry Kane. Without Kane, Spurs are clearly less potent in attack and they will be hoping for a swift return from their star forward.
The home team were quick out of the block as the action came thick and fast with Heung-Min Son putting the Southampton defence to the test after just four minutes of play, forcing a deflected save from Fraser Forster as the the home side went for it.
Spurs fans did not have to wait very long though after that, for in the 14th minute Mousa Dembele elegantly passed the ball to Eriksen who skillfully glided past three Southampton players on his way to scoring the opening goal of the match.
Whilst Southampton did have several chances, they ended up wasting many of them. After the goal by Alli in the 33rd minute it was not looking good for them. The Saints, however, did manage to claw a goal back thanks to the efforts of Ward-Prowse in the 52nd minute, which ended up being the final goal scored in this match. It made for nervous and entertaining last 40 minutes.
A win is a win, no matter how large the margin, and winning is something Tottenham are getting used to this season. Whilst perhaps not the biggest margin of victory many supporters had been hoping for after their previous result this was certainly another great match to watch.