Eidur - The New Pav

Tottenham contrived to do everything in their power to drop points against Stoke. It looked to be a typical Tottenham performance of one minute looking comfortable before throwing it away a second later. We didn't hit the self-destruct button as we normally would, but the powers that be were certainly tracing a finger around it.

I suppose you would say this is the difference under Harry that we have developed a bit more of a hardened mentality. So often have we seen Spurs wilt under the pressure before giving up in a wonderfully anti-climatic stupor.

The squad, currently decimated with injuries, have now won four on the bounce and are putting the pressure on the chasing pack. With Villa and Liverpool dropping more points this weekend we are strengthening our claim for fourth. We need to continue opening the gap before April where we will expect points to be dropped against the top three.

We ran out at the Britannia with the only unexpected change of Kaboul replacing Wilson. Upon seeing the team sheet I let out a panicked whimper, however when I gathered myself I thought Harry was spot on. Kaboul provided good support with his aerial strength and even managed to put in a couple of decent crosses. He even gave a rather wonderful Hudd impression of blasting a couple thirty yarders out of the stadium, bless him as he wheeled away proud that he could kick a ball so hard.

From the off Stoke put to immediate effect the 'hack anyone whose fast and with a little bit of skill' tactic. The rough treatment Lennon got at WHL was fresh in the memory of Joe Jordan and after Bale was on the end of a heinous challenge by Fuller, Harry's second hand man rather eloquently informed the ref that he would be well served to give our players a little protection. Mike Dean must have paid attention as he seemed to get on top of Stokes rough tactics after that incident.

Save for a few hacks, erratic keeping from Gomes and Pav going off injured, the first half held nothing of note. The second, however, didn't take long to get started. From our kick off it took under forty seconds for us to be ahead. Nice interplay between Gudjohnson and Crouch saw the Iceman charge into the box, literally move mountains in barging the beast that is Abdoulaye Faye and produce a quality finish with his left peg. Gudjohnson’s first goal for Spurs and our seventeenth goalscorer of the season.

Eidur provided something that none of our other strikers can do. The ability to drop deep, receive the ball in the hole and create for others has been sorely missed since Keane lost all of his footballing ability. Modric was causing all sorts of problems by having him as an outlet and had his most impressive game in the middle.

Four minutes later our little Croatian mugged Whitehead for the second time to cost him his second yellow put Stoke down to ten men. Within five minutes the game should have been over for Stoke. We controlled possession and all we needed was that second to close the game off. A couple of neat passages of play brought a couple of decent chances however we were unable to convert.

So leading against ten men and having all the ball seems good, yeah? Not for Benny Assou-Ekotto. Seemingly he decided to go all a bit squiffy by first starting on his own man by having a bit of handbags with Charlie. Fuller done well for breaking it up and not exacerbating the issue but why Benny lashed out at his in team mate is worrying. He then decided to attempt to mount Dave Kitson (must have a thing for gingers) and give away a pointless penalty. Our former left winger Etherington slotted the pen and it looked to be typical Tottenham throwing it away. We were shocked and stumbling. Stoke, bombarding us with high balls and putting all the pressure on us. Fuller even managing to shin one over from six yards.

Once Spurs composed themselves and got back in control of possession we eventually started to impose ourselves again and the extra man showed. Benny played his way back into my good books with a burst of pace down the left produced a good cutback and Eidur let the ball run for Krancjar to beautifully twat it in just inside the box. Relief burst from Tottenham and by jove, Niko must be the sexiest player in a Spurs shirt since Ginola. His great technique produced a wonderful hit first time leaving Sorensen with no chance.

The rest of the match was far from easy viewing with Stoke managing to carve/hoof a few decent openings and a suicidal back pass header from Bassong were unpleasant to say the least but we managed to hold on. We managed to scramble and head everything Stoke threw at us with the likes of Crouch and Kaboul doing a sterling job in helping out at the back. Got to give credit to Stoke for their commitment and the reaction and celebrations from our boys at the end showed just how big a win this really is.

Previous Spurs teams would have lost this game but we seem to be growing in confidence. Grinding out results when key players are out and not particularly playing well is the sign of a good team and it seems to be a skill that we are acquiring.

Happy days.