Those who missed this game due to can’t be bothered ness (which was a high proportion of Sunderland fans given their measly take up of their allocation) forsook a game far more entertaining than we could’ve expected to witness and one noteworthy on several counts including our biggest home win for a while, a first Premiership goal for Harry Kane, a cameo debut for Milos Veljkovic, a downpour that had those in the lower half of the Shelf disappearing under the stand for cover, a bloody clash of heads between Kane and Brown, a piece of comical defending for the Sunderland goal that surpassed anything even we’ve achieved this season, Adebayor scoring with his groin, Adebayor playing tiki-taka in midfield for most of the second forty five and Adebayor triggering one of the most cringeworthy goal celebrations ever seen in a Lilywhite shirt.
A lot of the second half took the form of a match where Adebayor appeared to be the winner of a Spurs Player For A Day competition. He played where he wanted, with no attempt to stop him by either side; he scored from a yard and was allowed a completely self-indulgent goal celebration when Kane had done the hard work.
Sherwood’s selection wouldn’t have been predicted by many, Chadli in the centre of midfield holding whilst Paulinho piled forward, Kane alongside Adebayor and Kaboul on the left of the centre backs. Add this to the lightweight selections of Lennon and Eriksen and it appeared that Sherwood might be risking being outmuscled and outnumbered in midfield but despite efforts of clogger Cattermole that was never the case. Sunderland took the lead after Chiriches and Lloris combined to give Cattermole the chance to shoot in to an unguarded net but despite the boost that gave the away side we never looked like we were going to struggle to create chances.
The wonderful Eriksen was the source of most things good, he crossed for goals one and two for Adebayor and Kane respectively and fired home number three himself. Sunderland’s heads dropped at that point and opportunities to add to the total came with virtually every attack from then on. The competition winner added the fourth after good work from a by now heavily bandaged Kane and Sigurdsson added a fifth in injury time after Mannone flapped at Eriksen’s corner. Veljkovic came on to enjoy himself bouncing around in midfield for 5 minutes at the end. I only mention as he’s highly thought of and it’s great to see a youngster make progress.
This fine result will do little to improve Sherwood’s fate if you believe what you read, his future (or lack of it) as Spurs manager seems already hermetically sealed. The skills of Eriksen, Chadli and Chiriches and the youthful enthusiasm of Kane and Veljkovic show that there is promise for whoever is in charge next season to build on. Well done chaps, keep it up.
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