An Eric Dier goal helped Tottenham Hotspur to a brilliant Premier League victory on Saturday.
The Lilywhites kicked off their campaign with a 4-1 win at home to Southampton in North London.
As a result, Spurs moved top of the Premier League standings and remained there after Sunday’s round of results.
This was the England international’s first goal in this competition since May of 2019.
And Garth Crooks has admitted that the former Sporting Lisbon midfielder – a £4 million signing under Mauricio Pochettino – is beginning to look very ‘comfortable’ for Tottenham once again, tipping him to be ‘pretty spectacular’ going forward.
He told BBC Sport: “I will concede they do look promising. Dier scored his first goal in three years and seems more comfortable in a Tottenham shirt than I’ve seen for some time.
“He has never been in the same class as Virgil van Dijk, Ruben Dias or Antonio Rudiger. However, if Spurs are going to be serious about challenging for top spot, then Dier is going to have to produce some pretty spectacular performances this season.”
Dier is one of the players to benefit immensely from Antonio Conte’s arrival.
The Italian manager holds such an impeccable standard and in fairness to Dier, he is reaching it.
Under Jose Mourinho, there were doubts about Dier’s capacity to play in central defence, having been a deep midfielder for the majority of Pochettino’s reign in North London.
But under Conte, he’s certainly looking like an exceptional – and reliable – figure and hopefully for Tottenham the pundit is right in his assertion.
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