It was a disappointing start to the season yesterday for Tottenham Hotspur against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. Tottenham played well in the first half and created many chances but couldn’t finish them off and got punished – a tale as old as time. Dominic Solanke was linking up with James Maddison and co nicely but the finishing was left to be desired from too many of our players and we could’ve been 4-0 up and out of sight by half time. Instead it was only 1-0 and the goal came from Pedro Porro who perfectly cushioned a header past Mads Hermansen from a James Maddison cross.
Jamie Vardy inevitably scored an equaliser and made us pay for our missed chances and then the game turned for 10 minutes as Leicester looked the most likely until Rodrigo Bentancur’s unfortunate injury which caused him to be stretchered off. Get well soon Rodrigo. Vardy was left unmarked due to Pape Sarr and Pedro Porro marking nobody and Cristian Romero getting stuck between players to mark and ultimately leaving Vardy free to head home from a few yards out. If Romero had stepped up slightly, Vardy would have been offside and the goal wouldn’t have stood. Vardy, who was likely energised by a Red Bull energy drink and a few shots of skittles vodka, had a chance later on which Vicario saved well. Aside from that Leicester didn’t offer too much but were clinical in their moment as opposed to those in Lilywhite.
It is hard to judge Dominic Solanke on one performance and hopefully in the weeks ahead he can start firing in some goals. James Maddison had a bright first half but faded out of the game after the Leicester equaliser. Bentancur had a good chance to score before he was forced off through injury. Son faded out of the game and Johnson just didn’t really show up to begin with. Dejan Kulusevski should have started the game over him due to his bright pre-season form seeing him net goals and create genius assists for teammates.
Tottenham had to make do with the point as it ended 1-1 at the King Power, and it is something we will need to put right next weekend against Everton. Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray looked strong off the bench, apart from one moment from Bergvall which led to goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario going mental at him – something that makes you question if he’d yell at Cristian Romero like that. Richarlison had a late headed chance which he couldn’t quite get on target, which can be put down to rustiness as he hasn’t featured at all in pre-season. Hopefully the squad will be fit and firing soon. We drew the opening game last year and went on a positive run – hopefully we can repeat the trick this season.