Southampton produced a surprise win over Tottenham on Wednesday night as they came from 2-1 down with 20 minutes left to win 3-2. Kyle Walker-Peters impressed, and he sent a message on Instagram to his old club’s fans.
Spurs came into the match in good shape – but the absence of Eric Dier proved crucial. Antonio Conte’s men could not deal with balls into their box, Cristian Romero struggling to deal with the aerial ability of Armando Broja.
Indeed, Broja scored the first of three headers – cancelling out a Jan Bednarek own goal. Son put Spurs 2-1 ahead on 70 minutes, somewhat controversially with Broja on the deck after an aerial duel with Emerson.
But Spurs still managed to shoot themselves in the foot. Firstly, Mo Elyounoussi got the wrong side of Emerson to head home – before Che Adams was given plenty of space to find the net past Hugo Lloris.
Walker-Peters, 24, saw out the entire 90 minutes of the match and was superb from right-back. He took to Instagram after returning to the club he left in the summer of 2020, and applauded the fans for the atmosphere.
Did Tottenham let Walker-Peters go to Southampton too soon?
There was always a player with talent there – he got the MOTM award on his debut against Newcastle. Pace, stamina and equally as effective in defence and going forward. Spurs have let one slide.
The issue is, that Walker-Peters has needed the 65 games he has got at Southampton over the last 18 months to bring the best out of him. He would never have got that at Spurs. So, perhaps, a move was needed for him.
But for Spurs, they would have been better securing a loan for Walker-Peters – or at least including a cheap buyback clause in the sale.
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