Spurs 3-1 Bournemouth

The report in full...

An early strike from Pape Matar Sarr at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was added to by second-half goals from Heung-Min Son and Richarlison to leave us in control, with the visitors netting through Alex Scott with six minutes left.

There was further good news when the team was announced too, as we welcomed Rodrigo Bentancur back to the starting line-up having been out of action since the end of November.

A lively opening saw Son blaze over although he was just offside, before Richarlison and Giovani Lo Celso got in each other’s way with the former skying his shot. At the other end, Dominic Solanke got his header all wrong when unmarked from Dango Ouattara’s cross and Guglielmo Vicario gathered easily, before we took the lead on nine minutes. Neto’s pass out was intercepted by Bentancur, Lo Celso then won a big tackle to get the ball to Sarr, who strode forwards unchallenged and drilled low into the bottom corner, the 32^nd successive league game in which we’ve scored.

We continued to boss proceedings as Emerson Royal’s 25-yard was drive pushed away by Neto, who also saved from Son at the end of a quick break, but our momentum took a hit when Sarr went down injured just after the half-hour mark. He had to be replaced by Oliver Skipp and the Senegalese midfielder had his head in his shirt as he limped off the pitch, clearly distraught.

The second half of the opening period saw the visitors grow into the game, Luis Sinisterra heading over from a corner on 35 minutes while Marcus Tavernier’s left-foot free-kick from 22 yards flicked off Richarlison’s head to send it curling just wide of the far post. Ouattara headed the corner wide.

In stoppage time, Justin Kluivert dragged a shot wide, before Ben Davies got across well to send Solanke’s shot looping onto the crossbar and we held a narrow lead at the interval.

We needed Vicario to keep that intact just minutes after the restart though, saving Solanke’s back-post header from close range, but we really should have doubled our lead on 52 minutes, Lo Celso finding Son who slipped a delightful ball in behind for Richarlison, but he dragged wide with just Neto to beat.

It was end-to-end stuff at times, Solanke sliding a shot a yard past the near post from Tavernier’s low cross at one end before Son burst into the box again down the left, went to cut inside Marcos Senesi to shoot but the defender got a touch to thwart the danger. But the skipper wasn’t to be denied shortly after, in the 72^nd minute, latching onto Lo Celso’s smart through ball to lash past Neto to double our lead. And it was almost 3-0 moments later, Skipp’s ball from the right flank falling to Richarlison but Neto dived to his right to push the shot away.

Funnily enough, he wasn’t to be denied either! With eight minutes left, Emerson Royal set Brennan Johnson free down the right and he delivered a first-time cross for the Brazilian to tuck home from 10 yards out.

The visitors hit back two minutes later, substitute Alex Scott side-footing past Vicario from Tavernier’s cut-back while we almost added a fourth but Bryan Gil headed against the crossbar from inside the six-yard box. The last action saw Scott head Tavernier's cross into the back of the net but it was ruled out for a tight offside, VAR confirming the decision.