Ben Davies has praised Emerson Royal’s defensive display against Manchester City, stating that the Brazilian epitomised the ‘spirit’ and ‘mindset’ that the Tottenham players approached the game with.
Going into the clash against the reigning Premier League Champions on Sunday, Spurs had won just two and lost three of their six league games since the restart.
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One of those losses came against City, with Pep Guardiola’s men coming from two goals down to beat the Lilywhites 4-2 just a couple of weeks before.
With Antonio Conte not being on the touchline to direct his troops, things looked quite grim for Tottenham, but the home side produced one of their most disciplined displays of the season as they restricted City to hardly any chances and looked a constant threat on the counter.
Davies admitted that the players have been disappointed with their defensive performances this season and were determined to put things right on Sunday.
The Welshman told the club’s official website: “We went through a bit of a patch where it was difficult, and we were having to score goals to win games, and that’s not where we want to be.
“We’re very happy as a unit to keep these clean sheets, they give us a good platform, and then Harry did the job for us at the other end.
“We had a bit of a rude awakening after our last eight games or so where we were on a bad run, conceding a lot of goals and we needed to get better. It was a bit of a kick up the backside.”
Davies singled out Emerson for praise and insisted that Spurs were fully deserving of all three points.
He continued: “We’re now back in a good rhythm and that performance shows the togetherness we have, for instance, Emerson made some outstanding headers at the back post, he was excellent. That’s the spirit and the mindset we need to have.
“We still know there are things we can improve on, even City, we could have cut down even more of their chances but, overall, we’re really happy.
“It was a good performance, we managed the game well, when we had to sit in we were smart and when we had to put pressure on the ball and win it back, we did that as well. I thought we were on the front foot and deserved the win.”
Spurs Web Opinion
All of us tend to sometimes retrospectively analyse performances as being better and worse than they actually were, depending on the results.
Looking back, our performances against Arsenal and City (at the Etihad) were by no means terrible and we could have easily got a result if we had taken our chances at crucial moments and not made unforced errors at the back.
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