The Tottenham Hotspur player finally got off the mark for them in the league.
Fernando Llorente scored his first Premier League goal for Tottenham Hotspur against, of all teams, his former club Swansea City.
The Spaniard had gone 11 league appearances without scoring but finally got off the mark in the league with a cool finish to open the scoring at the Liberty Stadium.
It is only his second goal for the club, but it was also his first ever league start for Spurs, with Harry Kane on the bench after he had been struggling with illness.
The role of Kane’s understudy seems to have become a bit of a poisoned chalice. The likes of Vincent Janssen, Clinton N’Jie and Roberto Soldado will all echo those sentiments.
Vincent Janssen struggled for goals as Harry Kane’s understudy after a £17m move from AZ Alkmaar
Llorente has had a fine career. He has won two Serie A titles with Juventus, the Europa League with Sevilla and scored 118 goals for Athletic Bilbao during a successful nine year spell.
His 15 league goals last season were crucial in keeping Swansea in the Premier League. The fact that he has now broken his duck should give Mauricio Pochettino more confidence in the striker.
Llorente started in similar fashion at Swansea. He scored just one goal in his first nine games in South Wales and that was as the club’s first-choice striker.
He then went on a run of five goals in the six games that followed so he is evidently a confidence player, like most strikers tend to be. He now has two goals in his last four Spurs appearances and, with AFC Wimbledon at home in the FA Cup next up for Tottenham, there is another opportunity for him to improve his goal tally in confident mood against League One opposition.
Should he play and score against Wimbledon then he will give Pochettino something to think about and we could see Llorente feature more from the start, which should naturally mean more goals.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
