Stoke City faced a daunting trip to White Hart Lane in which the home side were favourites to win. After a terrible start, goals from Marko Arnautovic and Mame Biram Diouf ensured that the visitors would take a valuable point from the North Londoners.
Outside90’s Tom Batten looks at the foremost talking points from the match that ended in a 2-2 draw.
Marco van Ginkel will struggle as a defensive player
In this match new recruit Marco van Ginkel was deployed as a defensive midfielder alongside veteran, Glenn Whelan. The Dutch midfielder failed to adequately mark Eric Dier and the Tottenham centreback ended up scoring a header at the near post in just the 19th minute. Technically a central midfielder, van Ginkel was playing out of position in this game and it showed. Dier’s movement easily tricked the former A.C. Milan-man who he needs to improve his defending and quickly too if he is to survive a season-long loan at the Britannia.
Stoke City need Bojan and Shaqiri
In the first half, the Potters lacked pace and power when going forward. This allowed Tottenham to dominate the game with the lion’s share of possession. The unfettered runs of fullback, Kyle Walker provided more penetration than that of Stoke City’s attacking players. They will improve in this regard with the introduction of Xherdan Shaqiri next week and by the return of the injured Bojan Krkic. Fortunately, the introduction of Stephen Ireland allowed Stoke to find form after the break otherwise the game could have been out of reach. The new style of play brought in by Mark Hughes allows skilful players like Shaqiri, Arnautovic and Bojan to use their talents to the best of their abilities, but without these technicians Stoke may struggle.
Pochettino must be annoyed
After last week’s unlucky loss against Manchester United, Mauricio Pochettino will have been slightly disheartened – after this game however, he will be livid. For the most part, Tottenham were in control. Having won their last 74 home matches when holding a two-goal lead, Pochettino will rue the dropping of a certain two points. Points dropped again today will not help their confidence and a win is far from assured when they face a rejuvenated Leicester City side next week.
Harry Kane was unlucky not to score
Harry Kane is a goal-scorer. With 21 Premier League goals last season it is quite surprising to see Spurs fans are already berating the Englishman for failing to score in the opening two rounds of this campaign. Kane was quite unfortunate not to score in the game. Often offside and sometimes unlucky the 22 year-old was foiled on multiple occassions by an impressive Jack Butland. Kane only managed to scored one goal in three pre season matches against Real Madrid, A.C. Milan and the MLS All-Stars. With just one goal in his last five matches, Kane must do more. In saying that, Pochettino has just captured the signing of Clinton N’Jie from Lyon and the pacy Frenchman could well replace Kane if he doesn’t start scoring. But many feel it is just a matter of time before Kane finds his goal-scoring boots once more.
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