Best Match For Tottenham – Mousa Dembele Earns His Spurs (Video)

There were many positives to be taken from Tottenham’s draw with Chelsea at the weekend and one of them was the performance of Mousa Dembele who had possibly his best match for Spurs.

Mousa Dembele with fellow countryman, Jan Vertonghen [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66Mousa Dembele has been an important figure in the heart of Tottenham’s midfield since signing from Fulham just over a year ago. He made an immediate impact and is only one of 13 players to make a scoring debut in the Premier League for Spurs. Last September he struck up a successful and forceful partnership with Sandro as Spurs won four successive league games, including their memorable win at Old Trafford. Unfortunately a hip injury picked up while playing for Belgium kept him out of the Spurs team for a number of games and his ability to pick up the ball, shrug off defenders to make forward runs was greatly missed.

On returning he renewed the partnership with Sandro and Spurs were looking strong in central midfield until Sandro’s injury last January which kept him out for the remainder of the season. While Scott Parker stepped in, the central midfield was never quite the same and with Dembele troubled by injury in the latter part of the season Spurs missed out on Champions League qualification.

Dembele Earns His Spurs – HotspurHQ “Spurs” Awards

HotspurHQ “Spurs” [www.historicalkits.co.uk]After his performance against Chelsea HotspurHQ readers overwhelmingly selected Mousa Dembele as their “Man of the Match” to be awarded his HotspurHQ “Spurs”.

Honourable mentions go to:  Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen

This season Dembele and Paulinho have brought a real presence to midfield and on Saturday against Chelsea, Dembele was at his best. In the first half Spurs demonstrated a power and strength as they controlled the game and had Chelsea worried. The Belgian powered through tackles, leaving the Chelsea players on the ground as he went on forward runs towards the visitors’ penalty box.

He did this on numerous occasions but there is one area where he could give Spurs so much more – if he could add goals to his play. He has scored twice for Spurs and both were excellent strikes from left of centre on the edge of the box. As well as scoring against Norwich, he scored the late equaliser in Lyon in the Europa league – a spectacular strike to take Spurs through to the next round.

Dembele has raised his game this season in the face of strong competition for a place in central midfield. His stats for the game against Chelsea are impressive: Tweeted by @Richspur

Passes 53
Completed 91%
Tackles 4/4
Take Ons 8/8
Chances Created 1
Interceptions 2

Sandro and when recovered from injury, Etienne Capoue, will push Paulinho and Dembele for a place in Andre Villas-Boas’ starting team. On Saturday’s showing they might have to wait a while to displace Dembele.

Tottenham supporters appreciated Dembele’s contribution in Saturday’s game with numerous tweets in support of the central midfield player.

A video of Dembele’s contribution for Spurs last season and notice his part in Gareth Bale’s goal at Old Trafford. Watch out for the two goals as well – great strikes.

Video on YouTube by Yannick SD