Tottenham Live: Home vs West Brom

45th Minute…

West Brom are trying to end the half strong.

40th Minute…

Lamela doesn’t control the ball a pass from Kane as well as he would like, and it ends up back in Myhill’s arms.

Overall, Tottenham are getting the ball upfield well, but can’t get enough people in the right areas to make it count.

38th Minute…

Lloris narrowly finds a way out of a tough spot as West Brom are finding ways of getting their meager attack crowding into Tottenham’s box.

36th Minute…

Lamela hesitates a bit too long when he finds himself with the ball in the penalty area, and can’t find Alli with the final ball. West Brom force the ball away from goal.

Bit more on that goal…

It might be that that goes down as an own-goal for Craig Dawson. In fact, it almost certainly will. Still, Vertonghen forced the issue. He’ll be happy even if he was denied his first goal of the season.

33rd Minute…

GOAL TOTTENHAM.

Another free-kick conceded by West Brom ends up being less than direct, finding a stumbling Vertonghen right on the edge of the six-yard box. The balls rolls past Myhill to put Tottenham in the lead.

28th Minute…

Some back and forth between the two sides. Tottenham aggressively wants to get the ball forward, but West Brom are growing into this game. They are blunting Tottenham’s attempts through the middle and finding ways forward themselves.

20th Minute…

Kane again finds himself with the ball in a good area, but he’s successfully corralled out wide by West Brom’s defense. Seconds later, though, he manages a shot on Myhill’s goal that the keeper keeps out by the length of a hand.

14th Minute…

Lloris smothers a pass into Tottenham’s area. West Brom worked a few decent passes together, but even that pass didn’t look all that close to a threat.

12th Minute…

Eriksen gets even closer this time, skimming the top of the cross bar on the far corner of the goal. Goal-kick for West Brom.

12th Minute…

Rose gets on the end of a ball right on the edge of the Baggies’ area before being hipchecked to the ground. Free kick number two…and it might be too close to goal.

9th Minute…

Vertonghen seems in a good position to take a shot off a corner kick, but the ball ends up harmlessly tumbling into Myhill’s arms.

West Brom have yet to make any forays even close to Tottenham’s goal.

7th Minute…

Kane hits to post! Eriksen and Alli trade passes before the latter sets up Kane in West Brom’s box. Myhill blocks the shot, but the ball ends up rattling off the post and coasting across goal.

4th Minute…

While Eriksen gets a great curl on the ball, it narrowly misses Myhill’s post. The West Brom keeper does get a finger on it though, but the resulting corner comes to nothing.

On a side note, it would appear as if West Brom’s formation is something resembling a flexible 5-4-1, with Rondón at the peak.

4th minute…

Tottenham win a free kick in prime Christian Eriksen territory.

1st minute…

West Brom kick us off after winning the coin toss. Tottenham quickly regain possession and go to work. As as expected, West Brom defend narrowly and in numbers.

Lineup News Incoming…

Mauricio Pochettino names an unchanged starting XI to the one that beat Manchester United 3-0 and Stoke City 4-0 in the past two weeks.

West Brom also name a predictable starting lineup, if not in the individual names themselves then certainly in spirit.

That’s a lineup of almost exclusively defensive players but for James McClean, Stéphane Sessègnon and Salomón Rondón. It doesn’t look like a stretch to think that this will be at least a five-at-the-back situation. Tottenham’s attack has proven before this season that they know how to kick down a wall, but that’s some meaty wall right there.

Pre-match: 

West Brom come visiting White Hart Lane on Monday as Tottenham seek to play catch up against Leicester City in the race for the Premier League title.

Claudio Ranieri’s boys looked undeterred in Jamie Vardy’s absence against Swansea on Sunday, putting up four unanswered goals to expand their lead at the top of the table to eight points. Only a win over the Baggies will restore Tottenham to the five point difference they had coming into this weekend.

With their safety all but guaranteed, West Brom presumably won’t have a lot to play for this evening beyond pride. With three losses in their last three attempts, that pride shouldn’t be shrugged off by Spurs fans. While they are arguably the best team in England at the moment, overconfidence rarely ever goes unpunished.