83 completed passes, seven duels won: Tottenham’s Mousa Dembele shines in Newcastle win

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Tottenham Hotspur kicked off their Premier League season with a win away at Newcastle United.

Tottenham kicked off their Premier League campaign with a solid 2-0 win away at Newcastle on Sunday, with Dele Alli and Ben Davies bagging the second-half goals for Mauricio Pochettino’s men.

The win saw several players impress. As well as the two goalscorers, both Kyle Walker-Peters – on debut – and Christian Eriksen both shone in the victory – but the statistics suggest that another player in Pochettino’s squad also deserves a tremendous amount of credit.

Mousa Dembele

Mousa Dembele has been lauded as one of Spurs’ most reliable performers over the last few years, and he clearly put in another fantastic display at St James’ Park, as the stats show.

Dembele won both of the challenges he went in for, while he also got the better of seven of the duels he contested – only Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie won more tackles and duels during the contest.

In terms of successful dribbles, Dembele’s tally of four was twice as many as the next best player on the pitch. And the fact that was the home side’s Christian Atsu – who, as a winger, is expected to be running with the ball – just highlights how important he is in the middle of the park as he drives the team forward.

Mauricio Pochettino

Meanwhile, only Spurs teammates, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier attempted more passes than the 86 Dembele attempted, and only Alderweireld completed more than his countryman.

While all of the statistics are hugely impressive, the fact that Dembele found a teammate with 83 of his 86 attempted passes is quite staggering.

So while some of his teammates may steal the spotlight – perhaps rightfully so – the Tottenham squad should also be extremely grateful to the holding midfielder for yet another fine display.