Positives For Tottenham After Draw with Espanyol

Paulinho [Photo: Alan Hill]Tottenham and Andre Villas-Boas can take encouragement from the positives  in the draw with Espanyol  at White Hart Lane in their final preseason game ahead of next weekend’s opening match of the Premier League season against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

New Signings

With his three new signings available, AVB will be pleased that they made an immediate impression as Spurs started brightly and dominated the early stages of the game. Paulinho and Nacer Chadli linked up well in midfield with Mousa Dembele as Tottenham attacked out of defence through central midfield with greater numbers and options. Roberto Soldado was constantly looking for a ball behind the defence and when he dropped deep to link the play, he immediately got forward again as soon as he had given the ball to a colleague. His goal, even though it was a penalty, will be an encouragement for him.

Kaboul and Sandro

The appearance of Younes Kaboul and Sandro in the second half was a bonus as they were greatly missed last season. While easing their way back to fitness, they both appeared in good shape and if not yet ready for the Premier League will have the opportunity of more games in Cup and Europa League games. If Jan Vertonghen is out next weekend, and Kaboul has no ill-effects to his time playing yesterday, I could see him starting at Palace.

Michael Dawson

The presence of Michael Dawson brought stability and commitment to the defence compared to last weekend in Monaco. His experience was of benefit to young Zeke Fryers who played with composure against Espanyol. Dawson who missed last week’s game with injury was his usual committed self even though it was only a friendly. Dawson knows no other way to play – leading by example.

Other Players

Sigurdsson impressed with his involvement and linking with the newcomers. He had been pretty anonymous last week on the left so it was good to see him more involved from the centre of midfield.

Andros Townsend was lively when he came on for the final minutes and had a great run and shot which curled past the post.

Aaron Lennon looked more like himself, even with the beard. He was lively on the right and troubled the defence on a number of occasions and linked well with Kyle Walker who uses his pace very effectively both to recover in defence and when going forward in attack.

Concerns

Two areas of concern are in Spurs’ defensive work.

• In open play the defence was well organised with Dawson taking charge and keeping any threat from Espanyol to a minimum. At set-pieces, however, the team again looked very vulnerable. They have replaced man-marking with a zonal defensive system but the equalising goal came from a free-kick and there had been warning signals earlier in the game. David Lopez got to the ball, unchallenged, ahead of any Tottenham player to head the goal. The Premier League managers will have taken note of that and will do their utmost to take advantage.

•  Left back – After a good season with Sunderland, Danny Rose had a mixed afternoon with some very positive moments but also some dubious times. He is strong going forward and has improved in defence but gave the ball away with poor clearances and was penalised for rash challenges. While AVB has obviously decided to favour Rose over Benoit Assou-Ekotto for the left back position, he is still not the finished article and will need time and further work to make the position his own.

Andre Villas-Boas was obviously greatly cheered by the display and speaking on the club web-site he said,

"“There were very positive aspects for all the team. Following on from Monaco, it was a great performance, great attitude, good combinations in the first half, some really interesting football.”"

Well that’s preseason over, not it’s the real thing in a week’s time.