PLAYER RATINGS: Hull City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur

It’s happened again! Second half goals from Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen – the latter being a glorious strike from 20 yards, across the goalkeeper – give Spurs three massive points after Gaston Ramirez had seen red for lashing out at Jan Vertonghen.

Spurs, who move just two points off the top four, started slowly and went behind (inevitably) to a fine Jake Livermore strike. However, Pochettino’s early changes to bring on Chiriches for Dier and Lennon for Dembele paid the ultimate dividends as Spurs received some necessary width, and the victory.

Hugo Lloris – Helpless for Livermore’s clinical strike but kept Spurs in the game when he saved brilliantly down to his left to deny Robbie Brady from 10 yards. Very poor at collecting free kicks, struggling with the physicality of Hull’s set piece play.

Eric Dier – Struggled with Brady and Andy Robertson on Hull’s left and picked up a booking; necessarily subbed at half time.

Federico Fazio – Dodgy in the first half up against Hull’s high, fierce pressing game, but absolutely dominant in the air all day, and swept up well in the second half when Vertonghen pushed forward.

Jan Vertonghen – Solid at the back and purposeful going forward; shades of the old Jan today, particularly in his delight when we found the winner.

Ben Davies – Provided much-needed width down the left hand side, and defended well, tackling and engaging high up the pitch where possible.

Mousa Dembele – Disappointingly stale performance from the Belgian, adding little offensively and careless on the ball in Spurs’ half.

Ryan Mason – Tenacious throughout, adding the grit and determination that has been lacking this season; took on the quarterback role once Hull set up camp in their own 22, and did it well.

Christian Eriksen – Everything went through him today. Delightful freekick from which Kane tucked home the rebound, and stunning strike to win the game in the dying seconds. Lived in the gap between Hull’s defence and midfield and created continuously.

Erik Lamela – Flashes of brilliance (again) from the Argentine, making better runs off-the-ball and teasing the Hull defence out of position; end product still needs work.

Roberto Soldado – As hard working as you’d expect from him now, but a striker is rated by the goals he scores and the Spaniard missed one or two golden opportunities today.

Harry Kane – Ran and ran and put himself in the right position to net the vital equaliser. For how long will he keep his tremendous scoring run going? He already has 10 for the season for Spurs – plus 5 for England Under 21s.

Substitutes

Vlad Chiriches –  I won’t lie to you, I filled with dread when I saw he was coming on – but it was an inspired change from Pochettino. Dier was struggling and already on a yellow, and the Romanian came on to add a bit of flair to our right hand side, and nullify the Hull threat.

Aaron Lennon – Even if end product wasn’t always there, just Lennon’s presence and desire to run pulled Hull defenders over to our right and spread the game out across the pitch, in contrast to the narrow, congested midfield of the first half.

Paulinho – Composed in possession and added a bit more energy to Spurs’ attack when the bite was being lost from the game in the last 15 minutes.