IT’S WHITE HART DANE
Eriksen at the double as Spurs stay unbeaten at home
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN netted a double to keep Spurs unbeaten in their final season at the old White Hart Lane.
The Dane’s return to scoring form has lifted Tottenham after he failed to find the net in the Premier League until November 26.
He has now netted five times in three games – and was only denied a deserved hat- trick by millimetres when David Marshall touched his free- kick onto the post and Victor Wanyama tapped home.
E r iksen is now certainly justifying the new four-year contract he signed in September. Tottenham’s only two “home” defeats this season have come in the Champions League at Wembley.
Mike Phelan’s Hull side have now conceded 19 goals in their six consecutive away defeats – and a league-high 35 goals in all – to remain stuck in the bottom three.
Mauricio Pochettino had changed his formation to mirror Hull’s three centrebacks with Eric Dier deployed on the right-side of the defence.
Eriksen played in a deeper role in the absence of the injured Mousa Dembele. But the Dane still broke forward to open the scoring after 14 minutes.
Jan Vertonghen played in Danny Rose down the left and the full-back cut inside Ahmed Elmohamady, before his short pass allowed Eriksen to lash the ball into the roof of the net.
Yet Hull, powered in midfield by Spurs old boys Jake Livermore and Tom Huddlestone, refused to be overrun. Livermore forced Lloris into a low save – and then called the keeper into action again when he got a touch to Andrew Robertson’s low cross.
But the best stop of the opening period came from Marshall at the other end, when he got down to Dele Alli’s low strike after a fine pass from Dier.
Vertonghen embarked on a Beckenbauer-style run from the back just before the break but his shot was blocked in the box by Michael Dawson. On the hour, Eriksen’s claim for a free-kick on the edge of the Hull box was rejected by referee Andre Marriner, allowing Hull to charge forward. Livermore saw his first shot blocked and his second stopped by Lloris’s out-stretched leg. But the contest was snuffed out three minutes later when Dier spooned a ball down the right and Kyle Walker dashed forward to cross for Eriksen to tap home. And on 73 minutes, the Dane’s curling freekick was saved by Marshall but Wanyama reacted first to convert the rebound off the post.