SWANS SHOT DOWN BY A LATE TREBLE
THREE goals in eight minutes – two of them in stoppage time – earned Spurs a dramatic victory at the Liberty Stadium.
Swansea had led from the 11th minute thanks to a goal from Spurs flop Wayne Routledge.
But Dele Alli popped up with an equaliser from close range in the 88th minute after he latched on to a Christian Eriksen pass.
In the first minute of stoppage time striker Son Heung-min put Spurs 2-1 ahead, clipping home from close range after a pass from substitute Vincent Janssen. And in the fifth minute of time added on Eriksen made it safe with another close-range finish, this time from Alli’s pass.
So Spurs kept up their pursuit of Chelsea at the top, as the Swans dropped back into the bottom three.
The night started badly for Spurs after skipper Hugo Lloris felt ill in the team hotel.
The keeper was told to stay at the team hotel and his illness was the last thing Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino would have wanted.
Harry Kane and Harry Winks were also both out and Victor Wanyama had failed to recover from the knock which saw him limp out of the 2-0 win at Burnley.
Grabbed
Moussa Sissoko got a chance in Wanyama’s place but made a mess of an early opening as Spurs piled on the pressure.
Swans manager Paul Clement had injury concerns of his own with star striker Fernando Llorente still out, but his team-mates made sure he was not missed when they grabbed a shock early lead.
Routledge, who made just a handful of appearances for Tottenham following a £1.25m move from Crystal Palace in 2005, had been left out of the weekend’s stalemate with Middlesbrough due to personal reasons but he made up for lost time in stunning style.
He was in the right place at the right time after Jordan Ayew latched on to Lukasz Fabianski’s long punt which had the Spurs defence at sixes and sevens.
Ayew ran rings around former Swans left-back Ben Davies before pulling the ball back to Routledge.
He got the better of Toby Alderweireld and made space for himself to smash it past stand-in keeper Michel Vorm, another former Swans team-mate.
Spurs finally raised their game after the break but their appeals for a penalty for handball, after Son’s shot was blocked by Federico Fernandes, were waved away by referee Jon Moss.
Swansea had looked like hanging on for three valuable points to boost their relegation battle until that late triple salvo. SWANSEA (4-3-3): Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Carroll, Fer, Cork; Routledge, Ayew, Sigurdsson. Subs: Nordfeldt, Amat, Ki, Montero, Narsingh, Kingsley, McBurnie. TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Vorm; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele; Sissoko, Alli, Eriksen; Son. Subs: Lopez, Janssen, Nkoudou, Trippier, Onomah, Wimmer, CarterVickers. Referee: Jon Moss.