Clean sheets the priority for Davinson Sanchez

As close as he was to scoring his first Spurs goal, Davinson Sanchez was more focused on winning the battle of power with Salomon Rondon during Saturday’s victory over Newcastle.

As we pushed and probed for an opening against the Magpies at Wembley and with corners repeatedly coming into the box, you sensed it might just be the Colombian international’s day in front of goal.

Erik Lamela twice picked him out on set-pieces, his second header zipping just off-target in the moments following half-time, while the defender was a matter of feet away from getting onto the rebound in the six-yard box following Moussa Sissoko’s excellent volley in the first period.

As it happened, the more recognised goalscoring figure of Heung-Min Son found the breakthrough to secure our 1-0 win seven minutes from time but, having contained the Magpies’ hard-working Venezuelan striker Rondon all afternoon, it was a case of ‘job done’ for our athletic young defender as the dust settled on the contest at the national stadium.

“I was close (to scoring), but that’s not the most important thing,” said the 22-year-old after his 65th appearance for us and his fourth start in our last five matches. “I enjoy it more when I help to keep a clean sheet like in this game, not like last week when we conceded against Watford. We are happier when we score but we also keep a clean sheet.

“I did my job. Before the game, we talked about the physicality and that we had to be ready in every single moment of the match to help the team, and I think we did that.

“(Rondon) is a strong guy and he always tries to muscle his way past you. We knew that Newcastle can also get those runs in behind the defence and we had to be ready to prevent that.

“I think the most important thing was to win so we can keep going and enjoy a very good season. Of course, we had to try hard and we did that.”