DuncanRG

I was thinking more in possession, a few times he couldn’t get us out when there was a pass on. I suppose it’s more a tactical point that we didn’t get the ball further up the pitch.

Am I the only one who thought Hojbjerg was a bit off the pace today, besides the last ditch tackle? It was asking a lot for him to pick up, turn and drive us forward when Davis would normally do some of that, but he didn’t handle their pressure particularly well for me. Maybe I’ll feel differently watching back. Another good team performance though, things are starting to come together. Strange we didn’t get Lemina on, or Davis earlier. We started saving energy from 60 minutes.

Glad I'll already be with my folks in Winchester rather than travelling from London, but I'm not looking forward to the traffic!

Just a betting story. Odds are he would cost far too much given the injury risk.

Austin's a more selfless runner than Long?!

Have you ever heard anyone describe Kane as a traditional or old-fashioned centre forward, as they do Austin, Carroll et al? Pundits love to celebrate those types, but with all the millions of words written about Kane it's never said, cuz it ain't true. Try Llorente if you want a Spurs player, though he's a little less poacher, a little more target man. Anyway, Austin's confident and on song so he's got to play, but it'll require a bit of tactical adaptation and we may see his limitations in some games.

Never managed to get to Craven Cottage so quite pleased with that.

Can we expect him to track back and not give away penalties? That seems like a reasonable standard for top flight footballers. That said I'm generally happy with Boufal's defensive work and mistakes do happen.

Which, in fairness, was illustrated with an example. He does get back most of the time but lacks consistent sharpness, just like he does in attack.

I thought Pied was poor. Had that Martina quality of looking good in moments but quietly being a yard off the pace most of the time. Or 40 yards off for their goal, as Neville highlighted on MOTD. Romeu was easily man of the match for me. He was absolutely everywhere during that good spell in the second half.

Tadic over Boufal, for me. We'll need a bit of pace on the counter and Davis in the three, so I don't think they can play together.

I wasn't totally sure what to make of the 'Van Dijk isn't trying' theory until today. I was in the second row and made a point of watching him when the ball was elsewhere. He still leads the team, motivates people, barks orders and reacts passionately when things don't go right. If he's lost any intensity it's marginal, and he's still got more of it than most.

For the last few games (and that's all) Spurs have struggled to live up to the expectations that Pochettino himself set for them by challenging for two titles. They tore Real Madrid apart four weeks ago.

Those kids and their popcorn!

Anyone else feel like Mourinho is playing openly to a) prove he can at a top 6 rival and b) make Guardiola think twice about the tactics he'll use in the derby next week? Cracking game either way.

Genuine question: would you feel the same if we went to, say, Bradford away and chanted about how many Muslims lived in the city?

There might be something in this, though I'm not sure why he'd think ranting at Nathan Redmond would influence other managers. If anything I'd be more tempted to sit deep.

Important not to lose, but the home games against Leicester and Huddersfield are much bigger. Drop points there and there's more pressure to perform at the big away grounds.

We all need to ask ourselves if our reaction to a racist chant would be the same and, if not, why not.

I think we'll hobble on through, with our proximity to the bottom three largely dependent on how many of the really bad teams can turn things around. Our fixtures probably are the toughest but we've got a deeper squad than most down there and should benefit from a few of the big boys resting players.

Redmond's just confirmed Guardiola's account

It is ridiculous, but poses interesting questions in Guardiola's case. His style is incredibly demanding and requires exactly the right players to execute it, hence his turfing out of star players when he arrived at Barca etc. He's clearly a brilliant tactician and man-manager, so I'm sure he would succeed at smaller clubs too, but it would require a change in approach.

Think he's handling it pretty well, to be honest.

We've said the exact same about teams coming to St Mary's, in fairness. I can imagine their fans aren't too happy at their ground turning into a bus depot for the season.

As an aside, I love Van Dijk getting up front to do a Fellaini when we get a free kick on the half way line. Those centre halves are trouble at set pieces.