KANE IS SPURS SAVIOUR
Striker’s double sinks Villa after substitute Eriksen injects spark
AS Tottenham pushed and probed looking for any way through Aston Villa, a lonely figure stood at the opposite end of their new home.
Christi an Eriksen had been jogging, stretching and watching on for a while when, eventually, with half an hour to play, Mauricio Pochettino had seen enough.
The midfielder could still leave this summer but his arrival was greeted with huge cheers from the Tottenham faithful. If the first hour yesterday was a sign of how life without him would look, it was not a pretty sight.
But then, Tanguy Ndombele found the perfect time to remind his manager why the club valued him at £65million.
The Frenchman’s Premier League debut had been a frustrating one until the ball dropped to him on the edge of the box with 17 minutes remaining. In an instant, all was forgotten. Ndombele curled a shot towards the far corner and beyond the despairing Tom Heaton.
If their most expensive player had wrestled Spurs back into the game, it was their most clinical striker who did the rest.
Harry Kane, too, had been quiet until Jack Grealish, the captain who had led Villa back to the top flight, was unforgivably robbed of the ball by Erik Lamela just outside his own box.
The Argentine’s shot was blocked and fell to Kane eight yards out. You know the rest. By full-time it was three, Kane adding his second from the edge of the area.
In the closing stages Villa had been caught in a whirlwind. For 60 minutes they looked at home at this level but yesterday’s climax was a brutal reminder of the realities of life in the top flight.
Pochettino had laid down a marker when he admitted before the game that he had to win a trophy to make this season a success. In their first full campaign at their new home, the excuse of Wembley was gone and, with it, the goalposts had moved.
But yesterday Spurs were largely the same outfit that had come up just short last season. There was a start in midfield for record signing Ndombele but no place for either deadline-day captures Ryan Sessegnon or Giovani Lo Celso.
Both were given arousing welcome by the home crowd ahead of kick-off but Pochettino’s side were instead full of players scarred by previous near misses. And they began like a team hell- bent on righting those wrongs.
Within 20 seconds, Lucas Moura unleashed the game’s first shot and less than five minutes later the Brazilian was afforded another sniff at goal. But his free header from inside the box failed to trouble Heaton and for much of the first half Spurs dominated the ball but looked rather short of ideas.
Instead, it was Villa, having fed off scraps early on, who drew first blood.
After Tyrone Mings launched a hopeful ball long forward, Wesley tied up Davinson Sanchez and Danny Rose could not decide whether to come or go. On to the bouncing ball ran John McGinn, who showed great composure to drive into the box, wait for Rose to commit himself and fire the ball across Hugo Lloris and into the net.
The goal gave the travelling contingent even more reason to sing. Not that they had needed much invitation. ‘ We’re going to win the league,’ they roared.
Ambitious, perhaps, but the goal certainly gave Villa the belief that they belonged at this level.
Midway through the first half, Trezeguet — one of four debutants in the starting XI — found space in the box, cut inside Sanchez, only to be denied by a last-ditch block by Toby Alderweireld. Shortly after, the forward wasted another chance after a surging run from Grealish. The Villa captain has long been linked with a move to north London and in the first half it was he, rather than Ndombele, who was lighting up the contest. That was until the final minute of the half, when the Frenchman found Kane with a lovely dinked cross. But the England captain headed just over and a smattering of boos met the half-time whistle. The break gave Spurs a chance to regroup and Villa manager Dean Smith chance to catch his breath.
In the dugout he was living every kick and every tackle. And why not? This club has waited three years for another taste at the big time. Their last season in the Premier League began with a huge spending spree and ended with them bottom with only 17 points.
As in the first, Spurs began the second half on the front foot and
wasted a good chance to open their account. Moussa Sissoko found himself unmarked at the back post but, when a ball into the box fell his way, the Frenchman skewed his shot out for a throw-in.
And as in the first half, McGinn soon had another golden chance to score. The midfielder won the ball deep in Spurs territory and drove into the box, where he collided with Sanchez. It was a clumsy challenge but neither the referee nor VAR were convinced. Back came Spurs. Kane was denied by a brilliant diving block from Mings shortly before Eriksen — after watching Spurs fail to break down a robust Villa side — joined the party.
Lamela saw a long-range effort cleared with Heaton in no man’s land, before Eriksen’s free- kick was brilliantly saved. But none of that mattered once Spurs’ old and new guard had their say.
But by the final whistle, Villa were empty handed and Spurs were breathing a huge sigh of relief. This was not a performance to inject fear into Tottenham’s Premier League rivals. But it is a win and, after what was turning out to be a frustrating opening game, how crucial that could prove.
TOTTENHAM (4-3-3): Lloris 6; Walker-Peters 6.5, Alderweireld 6.5, Sanchez 5, Rose 6; Winks 6 (Eriksen 64min, 6.5), Sissoko 6, Ndombele 7 (Skipp 90); Lamela 6.5, Moura 6.5, Kane 8. Booked: Lamela. Subs (not used): Gazzaniga, Wanyama, Nkoudou, Dier, Aurier, Skipp. ASTON VILLA (4-3-3): Heaton 7; Elmohamady 6, Engels 6.5, Mings 7, Taylor 6; Hourihane 6 (Ruiz 81), Grealish 6, McGinn 7.5; Trezeguet 6.5 (Jota 59, 5.5), El Ghazi 5, Wesley 5.5 (Kodjia 74, 6). Subs (not used): Steer, Lansbury, Konsa, Targett. Referee: C Kavanagh (Lancashire) 7.