Brown.
This is where Tottenham Hotspur take the role of the Harlem Globetrotters while Dinamo Tbilisi the Washington Generals.
A comfortable evening for AVB and the team in the Georgian capital makes things a bit easier with the number of games in the opening weeks of this season. Five nil away allows the boss to work his starting XI around the league fixture that follows the home leg.
It was a bit of a cruise for those in white, with the new boys getting another run out to get used to each other, while Kaboul managed a full 90 minutes in his first start for a year. While the home side looked pretty poor what little chances they created were adeptly met by Lloris with some excellent saves. He really is a class act.
Class was certainly the word with each of Spurs goals. Class set-up and class finishing.
Starting with Andros Townsend starting on the right and giving Lennon something to think about with an excellent performance. First up he took the ball from just off his own box from a clearing header after a Dinamo corner and ran towards the other box. Screaming keep running, keep running
I completely expected the usual routine when a winger can just bomb on, that they don’t they stop and let the defence catch up. But he kept going to just outside the D and fired in the opener.
For the second a nice chip forward by Naughton to Townsend. Good winger work from the number 17 jinking his defender on his arse he stood up an excellent cross right onto the advancing Paulinho’s head. Perfect all round. We haven’t really had that midfielder that ghosts into the box and can score for some time. Think along the lines of Fat Frank Lampard, does bugger all but scores. The big Brazilian looks to have that ability and you feel he could get a number of goals this season and he does more than bugger all elsewhere. And he knows he can get forward while Capoue was marshalling the midfield in a roaming free role of defensive work.
So far Soldado hadn’t had a sniff. Not long into the second half he got one. Again Townsend down the right, doing what wingers should do, get to the byline and cut it back towards the penalty spot. A striker with class will be in the right place and Soldado was. Three games, three goals, two in two competitive.
Not long after Chadli replaced Sigurdsson. The Icelander had come in quite a bit and hadn’t had much success, Chadli stayed wide a bit more. Doing so he knock the ball back from the left of the box into the path of the advancing fullback, Rose, who doubled his goal tally for Spurs. While it wasn’t quite in the class of his debut strike against the scum, it was a hell of a nice finish into the far top corner.
Then again on the left, Chadli put in the perfect cross across the face of the goal for Saoldado to tap in his second at the back post. Four in three, three in two. As said earlier all goals finished brilliantly and all set up perfectly with some great crossing or great running in Townsend’s case for the opener.
It could have been more as again Chadli put a perfect cross right onto Harry Kane’s head, unfortunately the youngster found the base of the post with his header. Shame for the lad, would have given him some confidence.
So the opposition weren’t great, it was a comfortable but all five goals were stand up and applaud jobs and the Europa League group stages should now be a formality.