Watford 1 – 4 Tottenham Hotspur
Having taken Southampton apart at St Mary’s, Spurs continued in the same vein at Vicarage Road against arguably one of the poorest performances in Premier League history from Watford. Their nickname may be the Hornets but they played like a hive of bees which had been smoked.
That’s their problem; we did our bit with a handsome victory, marred only by the late goal gifted to Watford. Harry Kane and Dele Alli both grabbed a brace apiece as what little defence was offered, crumbled in the first half.
As a contest, the match was over by half-time. In reality, it was over before the teams even entered the field of play. By the time Michael Oliver blew his whistle for the interval, Spurs were three-up. A minute after the restart, it was four. Watford hadn’t learned their lessons from the first half and we were quite happy to teach them again.
Son gave the first warning of what was to follow but Gomes saved his early shot well. That wasn’t a sentence I thought I’d ever find myself writing…
The pressure ratcheted up from there on with Eriksen and Rose going close before Alli thundered a strike against the woodwork. Watford were creaking and eventually broke when Trippier’s outstanding pass was given the finish it deserved from Kane.
It prompted the hosts to collapse. Five minutes later, Kane got between two defenders to apply the finish to a Trippier cross. The pair were on fire; Kyle who?
The first half scoring wasn’t over yet. Having been integral in the build-up for Kane’s second, it was Dele Alli’s turn to step into the limelight. Son missed an absolute sitter but we only had to wait a couple of minutes longer for the third. Kaboul’s clearance didn’t have any ‘kaboom’ to it and fell straight to Cathcart. His clearance was blocked by Alli who latched onto the rebound and buried the opportunity.
It wasn’t comedy defending; those were tears of despair in the home crowd’s eyes and they made their views of Watford’s performance clear with a crescendo of boos. Not that we cared; Spurs were rocking and deserved their applause as they left the pitch.
Sixty seconds into the second half and it was four. Kane dragged defenders toward him which left Dele Alli with a tremendous amount of space. The England midfielder stroked the ball home to round off the day’s scoring although we were unaware of it at the time.
It meant that Pochettino could take Kane and Alli out of harm’s way. Vincent Janssen couldn’t hit the back of the net alas nor did anyone else. Indeed, the Watford goal was more of a ‘oh well, we’re 4 – 0 up so let them have one’ effort than incisive football.
It was disappointing that we couldn’t keep a clean sheet – or add more to the four we scored – but all in all, it capped off a good Christmas. Now we look to get 2017 off to a flying start by beating Chelsea.
COYS.