Tottenham Fullbacks Crucial In Victory

The question is always posed: “but can they do it on a cold, windy night at Stoke?”, and Spurs went to the Britannia and answered the question with an emphatic “yes”.

Tottenham scored four goals and looking relatively dominant and comfortable in the process. The key to their success however lays well and truly at the feet of two players in particular: Danny Rose and Kyle Walker. Neither of them were able to get on the score sheet for Spurs, but the work rate both offensively and defensively for both England internationals was crucial to helping Tottenham to victory.

Marko Arnautovic is the best player on Stoke City this year. Mark Hughes opted to start the game with him playing wide left and matching up against Kyle Walker. It didn’t take long for Walker to get the better of him. In the 8^th minute after some clever one and two touch passing between several Spurs players, Arnautovic caught Walker late and gave away a free kick to Spurs just inside the Tottenham half. Point Kyle Walker.

Not long after that, in the 21^st minute, Kyle Walker found himself as the final distributor on a counter attack into the Stoke City box. He was unable to find the decisive pass, but this illustrates the range of Walker’s responsibilities. Walker had another opportunity later in the half in the 36^th minute where he played an important role going forward. Again, he was unable to find either Érik Lamela or Harry Kane in the box, but was instrumental in creating the chance. Not only is he tasked with shutting down the most dangerous player in red and white, but he is also expected to be a crucial member of the attack. He did both of these jobs spectacularly last night.

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Arnautovic was relatively quiet for the first 25 or so minutes, until he began to play from a more central starting position away from Kyle Walker. It was at this time that the Austrian was able to finally get his first quality chance. Arnautovic was able to receive a ball in the middle, several yards outside the edge of the 18, and turn and lace one on target that Hugo Lloris was able to parry away with relative ease. Again, his first chance came once he moved away from Kyle Walker. Later, in the 39^th minute, Arnautovic had another good chance on goal, again playing through the center of the park and away from Kyle Walker.

The second half started slightly more nervy for the north Londoners as Stoke certainly came out the more inspired side for the second act. Mark Hughes’s side made one change, bringing on Joselu for Xherdan Shaqiri and giving the Potters a more direct route to goal and changing the plan of attack going forward. Stoke, however, were only able to dig out two half chances as Ibrahim Affellay sent both of his strikes over the bar.

However, the first chance for Tottenham came in the 48^th minute from none other than one of the full backs: Danny Rose. He was able to get forward and get on the end of a threaded ball from Kane, only to end up losing his footing and going down in the penalty area before he could make any use of the chance. Rose didn’t appeal for a penalty and most of his teammates didn’t either.

This is only one example but illustrates clearly how valuable attacking fullbacks can be. It allows for the wide midfielders (in this case Christian Eriksen and Lamela) to play from a more narrow starting position and for the five midfield players collectively, to dominate and clog up the center of the pitch, thus allowing the full-backs to operate in wide areas with their speed. Having full-backs who have such pace and intelligence, while having a defensive midfielder in Eric Dier who can fit in where he needs to in order to create a back three, allows for certainty in defense without sacrificing any potency in attack. And this combination is one of the main reasons why Spurs have the best goal difference in the Barclay’s Premier League.

Spurs were able to weather the attacking threat for the first twenty minutes of the second half, and once Dele Alli scored the second goal it was all downhill from there for Stoke. Tottenham went on to score two more and close the gap on Leicester City to five points with four games to go.

With no midweek football to worry about Tottenham have seven days to rest, recover, and prepare for West Bromwich Albion. If there is anything these last two matches against Stoke City and Manchester United have shown, it is how downright dangerous a healthy and rested, “best XI” can be. This bodes well for the final four matches. The other piece that stuck out in last night’s match was just how calm and confident Tottenham looked. It wasn’t a team that was playing with the pressure of 55 years without a title on their shoulders, it was more a group of connected youngsters hungry to make history.

Next: Tottenham Sends Out an Emphatic Statement with Win

With Jamie Vardy suspended for at least one game, the pressure is mounting on Leicester City. And with their last two performances, Tottenham have shown that even the slightest slip up could have consequences that reverberate for decades to come. There is high drama at the end of this Premier League season, now it’s just a matter of making sure that it’s the good guys who come out on top.