Tottenham twice honored with Premier League awards

It was announced Friday that Tottenham’s Heung-min Son and Mauricio Pochettino received both of the Premier League’s monthly honors for April.

Even casual observers could probably guess this was coming. Tottenham won all six of their matches in April, scoring 16 goals while only conceding once.

Five of those goals came from Son himself. Deployed at first in response to the injury Harry Kane picked up in the FA Cup match against Millwall, Son didn’t initially find much traction. He’s not a pure striker by any means, instead thriving in the space afforded to him by starting from the wings.

Pochettino realized this quickly and shifted Son back to the wing, from which point the South Korean’s form really exploded.

Goals against Burnley and Swansea preceded a man of the match performance against Watford, where he scored two goals and set up another. Another goal in the demolition of Bournemouth a week later sealed a fine two weeks for Son.

It was a stretch of play reminiscent of the last time Son won the Premier League Player of the Month award for September. Fresh off of disappointment with the South Korean national team at the Brazil Olympics, Son returned to Spurs inspired. He scored four goals over two matches against Stoke and Middlesbrough.

That a player like Son, who spent most of the season on the periphery as Harry Kane and Dele Alli won all the plaudits, could earn two of these awards over the course of scoring 12 goals for the club is remarkable. Critics like to point toward Spurs’ lack of strength in depth, but Son stands out as a clear rebuttal to that argument.

A great deal of the credit for the kind of form Spurs found themselves in (again) this season of course must go to Pochettino himself. He is able to draw upon a talented pool of players, yes, but his managerial methods and tactical mind set Spurs apart from their rivals.

Unfortunately, the beginning of May brought the disappointment of loss to West Ham. The result more or less knocked them out of the a title race they rapidly gained ground on through April.

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Still, there’s no denying Son and Pochettino’s accomplishment. Two awards well deserved.