Tottenham sneak past Barnsley to progress in EFL Cup

A sparsely populated Wembley played host to Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Barnsely on Tuesday that ensured the home side’s progress to the competition’s fourth round.

Mauricio Pochettino made six changes in his Tottenham side for the match following Saturday’s disappointing 0-0 draw against Swansea.

Kieran Trippier, Jan Vertonghe, Moussa Sissoko, Heung-min Son and Dele Alli all retained their places from Saturday’s match. Alongside them Pochettino awarded first starts of the season to Harry Winks and Michel Vorm, as well as full debuts to newcomers Fernando Llorente and 19-year-old centre-back Juan Foyth.

Perhaps most notably, Kyle Walker-Peters got a start fresh off the news of his inclusion in this year’s Golden Boy shortlist. Interestingly, the 20-year-old England under-20 international featured at left-back rather than his typical position on the opposite side of the defense.

That change isn’t entirely unprecedented. Walker-Peters granted Ben Davies a game off on the left during Spurs’ pre-season tour of the United States, and played surprisingly well there.

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With Walker-Peters at left-back, Spurs lined up in a nominal 4-2-3-1 formation that sounded as if it broke down rather quickly in the face of Barnsley’s predictable enthusiasm for playing a brand of negative football not dissimilar to Swansea’s on the weekend.

We say “sounded” here because, curiously, the match was not broadcast anywhere, and determined fans were forced to resort to an old-timey radio call of the match which didn’t leave much room for tactical analysis.

Needless to say, though, that the Tottenham wave continually crashed onto Barnsley without success for much of the first half, though did come dangerously close thanks to a Llorente chance midway through.

Barnsley did manage some notable chances on either side of half-time, though they failed to make the most of them.

Tottenham came back after the interval determined to break down their visitors, and did so in the 65th minute thanks to an adventurous run from Trippier followed by a fine short cross to find Dele. Spurs’ wunderkind poked the ball home, and the result was never thereafter in doubt.

Next: Tottenham Twitter Tuesday

A win in front of less than 24,000 supporters in a cavernous Wembley Stadium might not seem like much of a mandate, but breaking through without the misery of extra time should boost Spurs’ confidence somewhat ahead of a trip across London to West Ham this weekend.