REAL HOWLER Lloris... but keeper bounces back from blunder

Sofiane Boufal and he then ran across Ryan Bertrand, the second booking soft from referee Graham Scott but silly from Aurier nonetheless.

“Completely unfair,” was the way Pochettino (right) described it and he had a case.

Spurs had to hang on at times es in the second half as Saints ts pushed for an equaliser but they did thanks to Lloris, who was quite brilliant after the break denying, in particular, James Ward-

Prowse and Maya Yoshida.

No wonder Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen turned to congratulate Lloris at the final whistle – lesser men would have been cowed by the first-half lapse but not him.

“I’m not surprised with his mentality,” said Pochettino. “We are talking about, if not the best, one of the top three or five keepers in the world.”

This was a cracking game and Southampton deserve credit for their part in it. Particularly as boss Ralph Hassenhuttl was forced into a late change with Cedric Soares informing his m manager he couldn’t play just be before the warm- up, Jannik V Vestergaard coming in and W Ward- Prowse switching to r right-back. “It’s not perfect to s start a game when you make c changes in the half- hour before,” bef said Hassenhuttl.

Lloris made a good save to deny Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Kane could have done better with a volley and Ndombele missed a glorious opening.

But when Son found Ndombele for a second time he rammed the ball beyond Angus Gunn. Aurier walked, Lloris had his moment of madness but Kane restored the lead and Lloris then made amends.

Pochettino added: “I’m not surprised at all about the character of the team.

“A few months ago we played the final of the Champions League, not because it was lucky but because we fully deserved to be there.

“We cannot change too much in a few months.”