‘His blood is Spurs blood’ – Jose on Skippy

Jose Mourinho spoke of having a ‘special feeling’ for Oliver Skipp, having trusted the 19-year-old to see out victory in Sunday’s north London derby.

Academy graduate ‘Skippy’ entered the midfield fray with five minutes remaining, plus another four minutes’ added time, as we not only protected our 2-1 scoreline, but created further chances to widen the margin.

In the end, Toby Alderweireld's late header secured the points after Heung-Min Son had quickly levelled Alexandre Lacazette's opener in the first half.

Jose was full of praise for Skippy after the youngster’s first start under him back in March and told Spurs TV afterwards why he had no hesitation in throwing him into the last stages of what was a crucial win.

He said: “We won, we beat them, we are above them and something I did because the team needed, and something I feel deeply, was to play Skipp.

“I know that his blood is Spurs blood, I know what it means for him to play against Arsenal, to beat Arsenal, and I played him because we needed him - Giovani had a yellow card, Winks had a yellow card.

“Skippy is very aggressive in midfield and could perfectly be in that fight in the last 10 minutes of the game. In the end, I have a special feeling for him because I know what it means for him.”

Victory lifted us above Arsenal and kept both Wolves and Sheffield United in our sights as we prepare for our last three matches of this 2019/20 Premier League campaign - Newcastle away on Wednesday (15 July, 6pm), Leicester in our final home match on Sunday (19 July, 4pm) and a trip to Palace on the final day (26 July, 4pm).