Preston North End (Away) 28.01.2023

An early free-kick was hit into the wall by Perisic, but it ran left for Kulusevski, who got a shot away, although it was blocked. That was it until 15 minutes into the match when Son came deep to shoot from outside the box and it almost fooled Keeper Freddy Woodman, who had to readjust to dive back the way he came to gather the ball close to his body. Spurs had most of the possession, as Preston dropped back behind the ball, which made it difficult to make any headway through the ranks of white shirts.

With such a focus on defending, a set-piece might have been Preston’s best chance to make an impact at the Spurs end and on 20 minutes, a high ball was lofted into the box and it dropped for a Preston player to hit a volley that hit a Spurs man and Tottenham cleared the danger. Woodman had to be alert when Son came inside from an inside right position to fire a shot towards the top corner, but the keeper palmed it over the bar. When Spurs couldn’t clear the ball from the back, Ledson let go an effort from outside the right corner of the box that flew too high, but it was a warning to Tottenham.

A double foul on Kulusevski and Doherty got Spurs s free-kick on the right and Son hit the one man wall but won a corner. Played into the near post it was knocked out for another corner on the right, which was taken short an played to Kulusevski outside the box, but his shot rose over the top. A couple of minutes before half-time, Son and Dejan exchanged passes on the edge of the Preston box and the Swede looked to shoot, but Lindsay blocked it.

The second half started with Spurs on the front foot, but the inability to get the ball in to feet allowed Preston to break up the moves. The Spurs support were making themselves heard despite being out-numbered and the only noise from the home crowd was hoots of derision as Lenglet’s shot from 25 yards sailed into the crowd behind the goal. Spurs were lacking someone to take the ball forward in a wide position, as the centre of the pitch was so congested.

Tottenham worked the ball out from the back and Doherty and Kulusevski played it up the right. Tanganga knocked a little square pass to Sonny and from 25 yards out, he curled the ball inside the keeper’s right-hand post to give Spurs the lead with a fine finish.  Preston would have to come out now, which could provide the space for Tottenham to exploit. It was another example of the tempo being stepped up after the break and it paid dividends.

Preston were pushing forward after Kulusevski took a heavy touch and lost possession on halfway, but Cannon tried to win a penalty when Tanganga didn’t touch him, with referee Peter Bankes spotting it and booking him for diving. The home team were steeping up their effort and Whiteman tried to bend a left foot shot from just outside the box, but couldn’t get any bend on it.

Twenty minutes into the second half, Lenglet’s cross was glanced at goal by Perisic and Woodman had to push it over, as it was going under the bar. Spurs were taking corners short this half, but it wasn’t working, as a long cross in was too long for Doherty to reach beyond the far post.  Another patient build-up saw the ball played to the right and a pass into Perisic by Tanganga was flicked through for Son to take control of it. Moving to his right he stood up the defender who carried on in the same direction, while Sonny went the other way to fire a left foot shot back across the keeper to make it 2-0. It was another excellent finish and gave Spurs a bigger buffer than the single goal as well as snuffing out the Preston “fight-back”.

Conte made three changes with one of them being Arnaut Danjuma making his debut off the bench.  The Dutchman almost made an immediate impact when he played a one-two with Son on the edge of the box, but the ball back to him was just intercepted when it looked as if the new arrival might have been in the clear.  Spurs were picking off the ball when Preston were loose in possession and Bissouma moved forward with the ball to find Bryan Gil. His pass to Kulusevski allowed the defender to be beaten in the box and Dejan looked up to deliver a square pass for Danjuma to sweep the ball wide of the keeper and find the bottom right-hand corner of Woodman’s net to make it 3-0 and wrap up the passage into the Fifth Round.  

It was the last meaningful action of the game and two pieces of magic from Heung-Min Son turned the game Tottenham’s way and a nice way for Arnaut Danjuma to start his Spurs career with a goal in what turned out to be a straightforward victory, when they were rarely tested.  He certainly seemed to enjoy his goal !

To be honest, Preston offered little during the match, with only one shot on target and they seemed happy to sit back to try and frustrate, but once their defence had been breached, apart from a ten-minute spell in the middle of the second half, they seemed content to hold on to the 2-0 defeat. Some of their play was frankly mind-boggling, with players unable to control the ball and just running it off the side of the pitch when they should have been looking to keep the ball in play at least.  It is a little worrying that Troy Parrott is on loan with the opposition, as I am not sure what he will gain form his time there, if this is an example of their form and their style.

Skippy looked neat and tidy when he came on and Tanganga had a good game, as did Sanchez, despite one nervy moment getting caught under a long ball in the first half.  Bissouma looked solid and Forster dealt with what little was thrown at him.  All in all, a good night’s work and two goal for Son, with the new boy showing that he might be a useful addition to the squad.  Now we can look forward to Monday’s draw.

Stanford Rivers

• Heung-Min Son’s two goals took him into seventh place in Tottenham’s all-time goal-scorer’s list, moving ahead of George Hunt by one goal with his 139th Spurs goal.  He is now only four goals behind Jermain Defoe in sixth place.