Tottenham Hotspur have beaten Manchester City 1-0 and Emerson Royal turned in arguably his best performance in a Spurs shirt.
Spurs fans were probably feeling a little conflicted before kick off against Pep Guardiola’s side.
A win would further Tottenham’s hopes of a top-four finish but defeat would dent Arsenal’s Premier League title push.
There were few Tottenham fans unhappy when Harry Kane found the net though, as he fired past Ederson from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s pass.
Tottenham were strong at the back throughout and still managed to hang onto their 1-0 win despite Cristian Romero’s red card.
Both sides of North London will be buzzing with this result – and one particular Tottenham player should be very pleased.
Emerson Royal shines in Tottenham win
Emerson Royal has been heavily criticised in his time at Tottenham.
Signed as a right back in Nuno Espirito’s 4-3-3, Emerson has ended up playing as a wing back under Antonio Conte.
That has been a clunky fit at the best of times with Emerson struggling going forward; the less said about his no-look pass against Sporting, the better.
Emerson’s form is ultimately why Tottenham decided to secure a big deal for Sporting wing back Pedro Porro on deadline day.
That was one of two big decision from Conte which may have contributed to Emerson shining against City.
Signing a new wing back in Porro laid down the gauntlet to Emerson; step up or probably end up on the bench more often than not.
According to The Athletic, Conte personally decided not to sell Emerson in January, preferring to loan out Djed Spence and release Matt Doherty.
That’s a big show of faith from Conte and Emerson stepped up against City, producing an outstanding display against Jack Grealish.
Emerson racked up six clearances, two interceptions, one tackle, one key pass and one successful dribble.
Grealish was bright but he just couldn’t get the better of Emerson, who produced one sensational tackle in the second half to preserve Tottenham’s clean sheet.
The Brazilian was absolutely full of energy down the right side and showed signs of neat link-up with Dejan Kulusevski too.
Porro may well take over at some point but for now, Emerson has taken Conte’s faith and ran with it, hoping to fend off the Spaniard for a while yet.
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