Son adds finishing touches to Spurs’ slick win
WHEN Tottenham play like this, with such composure and with such authority, you wonder just how far this team will go under Mauricio Pochettino.
The very best respond to the unusual spikes in the season, such as the 2-2 draw in the original thirdround tie and the kick in the face three days later, when Leicester beat them 1-0 in the league.
Tottenham did that, emphatically as it happens, because Pochettino made six changes to his team and yet they looked as if they had been playing together since they were nippers.
This was classy and controlled, picking off Leicester when Son Heung-min scored a ripper in the first half and adding to their lead when Nacer Chadli finished the sweetest move in the 66th minute.
The FA Cup turned out to be a competition too far for Leicester, with Claudio Ranieri in charge of a team who have suddenly won only one of their last seven games.
It says everything about Jamie Vardy’s importance to this team that his introduction in the 73rd minute was met with such reverence that it was easy to think something special was about to take place.
His mission was to save Leicester’s FA Cup dream, to score twice in the final minutes of this replay and take the tie to extra time. It would have turned out to be some story if he had.
‘I’m not disappointed with the performance because in four games against Tottenham we won one, drew two and lost one,’ admitted Ranieri.
‘When I last managed in England Tottenham were always trying to achieve European football and now in the last few years they are building a team to win the league. Our journey is only just starting.’
Tottenham completed a thoroughly professional job, rewarding their 3,000 travelling supporters with a fourth-round tie against Kevin Keen’s plucky Colchester a week on Saturday.
At times here it was like watching an old married couple, two teams sick of the sight of each other after meeting for the third time in the space of 10 days. This time they had to sort things out for good.
There was certainly an air of finality about the way Son took his goal in the 39th minute, drilling a spectacular effort inside Kasper Schmeichel’s near post.
It prompted Pochettino to fling himself through the air, high-fiving the night sky after a strike that confirmed Tottenham’s superiority in virtually every area of the pitch.
Robert Huth’s winner at White Hart Lane last week shook this Spurs team, rubbing them up the wrong way before they reconvened at the King Power for this replay.
Ranieri made nine changes, saving the main men for the title charge after emerging from the weekend level with Arsenal. Here they couldn’t get going, struggling with a fiddly new formation.
‘Tottenham deserved to win and maybe because I changed the system it was hard for the players,’ added Ranieri. ‘The mechanism didn’t work. We play well with 4-4-2, but with 4-3-3 we need to improve.’
Tottenham had a decisive look
about them, with Christian Eriksen, Tom Carroll, Erik Lamela and Nabil Bentaleb playing the game a yard or so sharper than Leicester.
It seemed a shame that Lamela was eventually substituted because he played his part in the opening goal, opening up Leicester in the centre of the pitch.
Carroll, another to impress in a Spurs shirt, played the pass that prompted Son to begin a run across the box that eventually gave him the chance to have a crack at goal. His finish raised the stakes, forcing Leicester to take some chances.
There was an encouraging home debut for Demarai Gray, finding his way into this Leicester team with some nice touches out on the left wing.
His shot in the second half, forcing Tottenham keeper Michel Vorm to spring to his left and paw the ball away, was inspired by the introduction of Shinji Okazaki.
Something had to change because Leicester’s only shot on target in the first half was a freekick from Gokhan Inler that was easily saved by Vorm.
Leicester’s mini-revival prompted Pochettino to make a change, sending for Harry Kane to give Leicester’s shaky defence something else to think about.
Kane was involved in the move that led to Chadli’s clincher, with Eriksen and Son lending support for the Belgium winger in the build-up to the goal. It was a sweeping, silky move.
It was good for Tottenham’s forwards to score, giving Pochettino something to think about as they consider making a move on another striker before the transfer window closes.
‘It’s about the fight (for a place) because we have one of the best strikers in the world in Harry,’ said Pochettino.
‘If we make the wrong decision maybe you break the balance in the squad and the changing room. I am proud of this dressing room.’
After eight games on the road without defeat, he has every right to be.