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A game of few chances and little goalmouth action was won by Spurs thanks to a goal and an assist from Son Heung-min

 Updated 
Sat 8 Dec 2018 17.03 ESTFirst published on Sat 8 Dec 2018 13.45 EST
Dele Alli dives ho head in Tottenham’s second goal at Leicester.
Dele Alli dives ho head in Tottenham’s second goal at Leicester. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Action Images via Reuters
Dele Alli dives ho head in Tottenham’s second goal at Leicester. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Action Images via Reuters

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Here’s Mauricio Pochettino:

So happy. Three very important points for us to be in a very important position in the table. A very solid performance. I am so pleased. I think we show great character in this group. We play at Wembley and we play away from home and the team tries to do the same, to win games, that is the most important.

It’s a lot of games to play, we still didn’t finish the first half of the season. The most important is to be there in the last five, six, seven games of the season, trying to fight. We are capable to be there in the last five games.

Here’s Nick Ames’ match report from the King Power Stadium:

Mauricio Pochettino gambled, and saw it pay off handsomely. Tottenham’s manager must have acknowledged the element of risk in weakening his lineup against a Leicester side who were unbeaten in seven games but everything fell into place in a way that, with a potentially season-defining night in Barcelona looming on Tuesday, affords them the best possible chance of salvaging their Champions League campaign.

More here:

Dele Alli, the man of the match, admits he thought he might have been offside when he scored his goal:

Yeah, to be honest. When the ball went out [to Son] I was trying to hold my run but then he cut back on. I was trying to stay onside, trying to time it. I think it was, in a very tough game, a strong performance for us and in the end we deserved three points.

I’m not a fan of shirt-begging sign-clutching fans. It brings out the snarling grump in me. I’d have preferred it if Son and Alli deliberately handed their shirts to the person next to them.

They went through the trouble of making a sign...

So Heung-min Son and Dele Alli decided to make these Spurs fans' year 👏 pic.twitter.com/wFyLKSqQHt

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) December 8, 2018

It was a game that never quite caught fire. There didn’t seem to be a lack of desire on Leicester’s part, but certainly a lack of quality, particularly in attack, and a plan to stretch and discomfort Tottenham’s defence, even though Aurier in particular looked a little wobbly at times. Tottenham broke the deadlock with a goal that came from nowhere, but took a measure of control from there.

36 - Tottenham’s tally of 36 points from 16 games is their best ever start to a Premier League season; indeed, only twice before have they had a better total after 16 matches in a top-flight campaign (46 in 1960-61 and 37 in 1956-57 – based on three points for a win). Impressive. pic.twitter.com/oxSPAzZ3If

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 8, 2018

Final score: Leicester City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur

90+3 mins: And that’s it! The final whistle sounds, and Spurs sprint back to third in the table!

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90+2 mins: Thanks to those Ghezzal efforts Leicester now lead 3-2 on shots on target, Spurs having a 100% shot-on-target-to-goal conversion rate this evening.

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89 mins: Another save from Lloris! Ghezzal shoots low and hide but too central from 20 yards or so, and the Frenchman picks it up.

87 mins: Lloris makes a save! Ghezzal cuts back inside and from the left side of the area attempts a curler towards the far post, which is saved and held.

85 mins: Leicester are still running, trying, pushing. But this has been a pretty comfortable evening for Tottenham’s defence, and the Foxes really need a striker who can genuinely worry decent defences when Jamie Vardy is absent.

83 mins: Gray cuts in from the left, and though Walker-Peters does well to shadow his run and block his shot, the ball pings about afterwards, Okazaki gets it and turns, and it deflects wide for a corner.

81 mins: Gray, desperate to stop Spurs winning the ball, stretches a little too far and clips Walker-Peters, ensuring not only that Spurs do get the ball, but that he gets a booking.

77 mins: Aurier goes down, and after a bit of physio treatment he walks off, with Kyle Walker-Peters replacing him.

76 mins: It’s almost uncanny how similar tonight’s goal, Dele Alli’s 50th for Spurs, is to his first, which was scored at the same end of the same ground in the same way (though that cross bounced).

5️⃣0️⃣ Spurs goals for Dele Alli 👏

And the 50th was almost identical to the first 👀pic.twitter.com/Q7Mv4o6l7p

— Tottenham News (@Spurs_fl) December 8, 2018

69 mins: Leicester just aren’t getting the rub of the green at vital moments. Gray gets into the area, but his shot not only hits Alderweireld, in bounces back into him and then out of play. Goal kick.

64 mins: In the centre circle Alli leaves the ball for Lucas Moura, who leaves the ball for Alli. Leicester snaffle it and go forward, but the move ends when Maddison goes down on the edge of the area and the referee waves play on.

61 mins: “You can see Tottenham going on and winning now,” says John Hartson on commentary. Sparkling analysis there, John.

60 mins: Replays suggest Alli was marginally offside when Son’s cross came in. It was, to be fair, very close.

GOAL! Leicester 0-2 Tottenham (Alli, 58 mins)

An assist now for Son! When the ball was played to him by Lucas Moura Alli was clear at the far post, if only he could come up with a decent, quick low cross. He doesn’t, though. He hangs onto it for an age, but Alli remains totally unmarked at the far post, and when Son eventually decides to cross to him he heads in from three yards!

Dele Alli makes it 2-0 with Kasper Schmeichel helpless. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
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56 mins: A double change for the home side, who bring on Ghezzal and Albrighton, and take off Iborra and Iheanacho.

55 mins: The free-kick is clipped into the area, headed on and Lloris catches it about two feet over the goalline, well wide of goal. The linesman waves play on.

54 mins: Ricardo launches into a remarkable if brief mazy run through the Tottenham half, twisting this way, spinning the other, and eventually being caught.

53 mins: Now it’s Gray’s turn to try to replicate Son’s goal, cutting in from the right and, from almost precisely the same spot from which the Korean scored, curling a shot that was a bit too weak, and easily saved.

51 mins: Lloris hits a poor clearance, which clips Maddison’s boot and runs to Chilwell, who bursts forward, runs into the box and then skews his shot well wide of the near post.

50 mins: There’s Morgan again, sliding across to block another Son shot. He’s having one of those games, turning the clock back a couple of years.

49 mins: Son cuts in from the right again and decides to repeat his first-half curler. This time, though, he thumps it into orbit!

48 mins: Leicester break smartly, Iheanacho passes left to Chilwell, but the overlapping left-back pulls the ball straight back to a white shirt.

46 mins: Spurs knock the ball around for a while, until Davies clumps a remarkably useless pass into touch.

Out comes the home side. No changes at the break, and both sides ready to get things back under way.

Son’s was the only shot on target in the first half. It wasn’t a great half, notably low in goalmouth action, but there was some quality action in there just trying to get out: Son’s beautiful first touch before being stopped by a linesman’s flag; Lucas Moura’s beautiful first touch before his cross was cut out; Maddison’s progressive promptings around the area; Morgan repeatedly being in the right place at the right time. A goal could be just what it needs to catch fire. Well, here’s hoping.

Half time: Leicester 0-1 Tottenham

45+2 mins: A few seconds later, the whistle goes. Alli’s chance in the 45th minute was the best of the half, and Son’s brilliant goal came about half a minute later, the game cramming all its best first-half action into the final 90 seconds.

GOAL! Leicester 0-1 Tottenham (Son, 45+1 mins)

Twelve seconds from the end of stoppage time, Spurs steal the lead in style! Son cuts in from the right and from 20 yards curls an absolute beauty into the far corner!

Son Heung-min curls in a brilliant shot to give Spurs the lead. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters
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45 mins: But Spurs nearly take the lead! Alli bursts through, and Morgan slides in at the last moment to steal the ball away.

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