So Spurs have done their bit. Can Chelsea, whose game at Bournemouth kicks off at 5.30pm today (UK time, or about three hours from now wherever you are, so long as you are in fact reading this now. If not, well, get a watch) do the same? I’ll be back in a while to find out. In the meantime, Barry Glendenning is all over the 3pm (UK time, etc) kick-offs. Bye for now!
This is quite the stat.
40 - Dele Alli (40) has had a hand in as many PL goals before turning 21 as Lampard (15), Gerrard (13) & Beckham (12) combined. Star. pic.twitter.com/fWzi2Crd2Y
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 8, 2017
Final score: Tottenham 4-0 Watford
90+3 mins: And that’s the final kick of the game, which Spurs win in great style.
90+3 mins: He hits the bar!
90+2 mins: With two of the three minutes of stoppage time played, Cathcart upends Kane in eye-catching style 35 yards from goal. Time for one more long-range thunderbolt?
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90 mins: Watford send a clearance up into the air, and it drops at the edge of the D, just outside their penalty area, where Eriksen does a massive air-kick, completely missing the ball.
89 mins: The last 10 minutes have been pretty half-hearted from all involved.
87 mins: And a final change for Spurs, who take off the hat-trickless Son and bring on Josh Onomah.
85 mins: Watford’s final change sees Kabasele come on and Okaka go off.
84 mins: Son misses a slightly more difficult hat-trick chance! Trippier passes into the area, and Son runs onto it and cracks a half-volley goalwards, but it hits the top of the bar and flies over.
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81 mins: Son misses the easiest of hat-trick chances! The ball rolls to Kane, with Cathcart to his right and Son, all alone, beyond him. The Englishman makes the pass, and Son takes a touch, steadies himself and picks his spot – just wide of the near post.
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80 mins: Alli gets the ball on the left and heads towards the area, getting clipped just before he gets there. He stays on his feet, though, and the referee doesn’t see it.
77 mins: Trippier, whose delivery from wide has been exemplary throughout, curls in a cross and Kane is inches away from heading in No5.
76 mins: Success overhits a cross from the left, but Watford manage not only to keep it in play, but to win a free kick. From which Cleverley overhits a cross from the right.
74 mins: Another change for Spurs: Dembele goes off, and Sissoko comes on
73 mins: Deeney has a great chance! A corner is cleared, ends up on the left with Holebas, and he dinks the ball to the far post, where the striker is in all sorts of space. He chests down, and pokes high.
71 mins: Kane is played through on the right of the area, goes round Gomes and rolls the ball towards goal, slowly enough for a defender to get back and take possession before it crept across the line.
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70 mins: Sky’s ace commentary team can’t stop talking about why Deeney was dramatically dropped for this game. The latest is that “there must be something more than meets the eye”. He was tired, and rested.
70 mins: Deeney is on, and Amrabat is off.
68 mins: Kane wins a header from a corner, but it’s a Watford corner. The Hornets are going to bring on Deeney any minute now.
Watford have a shot!
65 mins: Okaka flicks the ball over the top, Success bursts into the area and, from wide on the right and under pressure, he mishits his shot wide. Still, a shot!
62 mins: “What I enjoy most about watching Dele Alli is that, despite his youthful brashness and self-confidence, he very rarely overplays when he’s on the ball,” writes Matt Loten. “He’s got plenty of flicks and tricks, but if the angles aren’t right, his teammates aren’t making runs off the ball, or there’s a bank of defenders in front of him, he doesn’t try to do everything himself. Instead, he pops the ball off to Dembele or Dier, and looks to move into space, make a run of his own, or drag defenders around. The maturity and decisiveness of his play is almost unbelievable for a 20 year-old.” I can’t disagree. His propensity for theatrical diving and occasional unnecessary violence are the only negatives.
60 mins: And here he comes. Janssen goes off.
59 mins: A substitution for Watford, who take off Doucouré and bring on Zuniga. Spurs, meanwhile, are readying Kane.
GOAL! Tottenham 4-0 Watford (Son, 55 mins)
They can score from inside the area too! Trippier’s cross from the right was pinpoint, and Son, beyond the far post, volleys low and hard into goal. OK, that’s enough now.
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54 mins: I’m not sure I believe in the whole inverted winger thing. Watford have Amrabat on the left and Success on the right, meaning that neither can really do anything except cut inside into crowds of defenders.
52 mins: … From which Spurs nearly score. The ball is cleared to the edge of the area, where Eriksen flicks it over his head, spins away from Doucouré, and passes into midfield. Somehow it passes just past several Watford players to the feet of Vertonghen, who has half an open field to run into but runs out of sprinting juice and is overhauled.
50 mins: Watford haven’t totally forgotten how to attack, and they get a few players into the box to compete for Success’s cross, which is nowhere near any of them but is cleared for a corner anyway.
47 mins: Dembele has a shot from outside the area that deflects wide off Janssen. The referee points to the corner, from which the ball is eventually delivered into the area and Janssen, who was offside anyway, heads over.
46 mins: The second half has started. There doesn’t seem to be much to play for except goal difference.
“This game shows that while playing attractive football is great, you can never overestimate the value of having players that can score from distance out of nothing,” writes Jarrell Anthony. “We were going nowhere before Alli scored; two thunderblasters later and its game, set and match.” Indeed. Shorn of their one decent penalty-area goal-grabber, Spurs just score their goals from outside the penalty area. Simple.
Half time: Tottenham 3-0 Watford
45+2 mins: In which Watford proved that for all their injuries they’re a pretty decent side, especially going forward. And then Spurs proved they’re a significantly better one.
Spurs sensational here but equally, Watford not doing themselves any favours - defenders just backed off & let Son shoot from range for 3rd.
— Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) April 8, 2017
45+1 mins: There will only be one minute of stoppage time.
45 mins: Son gets the ball some 35 yards from goal, in the middle of the pitch, and he carries it forwards and inwards a bit and then slams a low shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards or so.
GOAL! Tottenham 3-0 Watford (Son, 44 mins)
Watford need half-time, and fast. Full-time would be ever better.
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43 mins: A lovely pass from Alli, deep in his own half this time, finds Trippier bursting down the right, but it brings only a corner, which is cleared.
Not so long ago, this was an actual contest. No longer. Spurs found another gear and it's game over before half-time.
— Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) April 8, 2017
40 mins: Let it not be forgotten, when this game ends 5-0, that Watford were excellent for the first 20 minutes. They’ll always have those 20 minutes.
GOAL! Tottenham 2-0 Watford (Dier, 39 mins)
Son cuts in from the left and shoots, but it’s deflected across the area … to Dier, right on its edge, who thunders in a right-footed blunderbuss!
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36 mins: Success plays a one-two with Janmaat, runs into the penalty area, and flings himself to the ground. I think Dier gave his shirt the most gentle of tugs, to be fair, but it would have been the weakest of all flimsy penalties and the referee rightly ignores the whole affair.
34 mins: Watford did their best to slow Tottenham’s break – Doucouré hauling Dembélé to the ground in the centre-circle, for which he’s later booked – but to no avail. The referee waves play on, and a couple of seconds later it’s 1-0.
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GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Watford (Alli, 33 mins)
A beautiful curler from Dele Alli, from 20 yards out, gives Spurs the lead!
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32 mins: A nice rat-tat-tat of passes ends with Janssen overhitting a flick to Eriksen, who is thus overstretching when he shoots, and whose shot is thus tame.
30 mins: Niang is fouled by Dier on the left, and Watford have a free-kick in a promising position. “He’s got clever feet, Niang,” muses Alan Smith. Meanwhile: “I’m in Brisbane, it’s nearly 10 at night and I’m waiting for the local team to kick off their Saturday game,” writes Phil Withall. “Meanwhile in a country 9 hours behind us a match is 25 minutes in. I really hate television companies.”
29 mins: Janssen has worked out a cunning way of not being too far from goal to reach another low cross: by permanently standing in an offside position. Watford send the free-kick long, thus getting the ball out of their half for the first time in seven minutes.
28 mins: Nothing comes of it.
Etienne Capoue warming up on touchline, and I mean warming up - he appears to be wearing a snood. It's practically BBQ weather here
— Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) April 8, 2017
27 mins: Watford still haven’t been out of their half, for five minutes now. Spurs have another corner.
25 mins: Now Spurs are dominant. Watford have been pinned back for the last few minutes, at the end of which Spurs win a corner, and Davies has a bullet shot from 20 yards that hits a defender’s leg and bounces out.
23 mins: Eriksen cuts in from the right and lines up a left-footed shot, and just as he swings his boot Doucouré gently pushes him in the back, putting him off sufficiently for the effort to be ballooned high.
22 mins: Now Watford attack, and the ball is well worked to Success on the right who, with his weaker right foot, thunders a massively overhit cross over the penalty area, and it’s still flying as it goes out of play for a throw-in.
21 mins: Then moments later another ball in from the right, low this time, goes just ahead of Janssen and out for a corner.
20 mins: The ball pinballed a bit of a couple of defenders, hit Janssen in the thigh, and up.
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20 mins: Son nicks the ball back well as Watford try to pass out of defence again, and it’s swiftly worked to the right wing, where it’s crossed across goal to Jannsen, four yards out, and … well, there hasn’t been a replay yet, but somehow the ball looped up in the air, and was headed away.
19 mins: Impossible failure to score by Tottenham!
16 mins: Davies crosses from the left, but too high and it goes out for a throw-in. They’ve only once worked their way into Watford’s area so far.
12 mins: This has been an excellent start by Watford. They attack again, and the ball just doesn’t fall for Janmaat after Success’s pass, and then Niang shoots optimistically from wide, and Lloris catches.
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11 mins: Watford win a free-kick on the left, and Holebas’s delivery was excellent, and apparently destined for Mariappa a couple of yards out, until Vertonghen got a tiny flick on it. It lands instead at the feet of Cathcart, who spears wide.
9 mins: Chance for Spurs! And a save! The ball is played gently to Janssen, on the edge of the area with Cathcart behind him, and the Dutchman spins and slams in a shot, that hits Gomes and flies to safety. The chance came after Watford tried to pass the ball out of defence and panicked as Spurs pressed.
7 mins: Down the other end, Son’s cross from the left deflects onto the near post.
6 mins: Watford win a corner and roll out something from the training ground: Holebas plays it back to Doucouré, who passes across the area to Cleverley, who sends it back inside to Holebas. For a moment it looked like he’d have an open goal, but a) he was just offside, and b) the pass wasn’t good enough, so c) Lloris claimed it.
4 mins: And the first shot on target is also from Watford, Holebas winning a free-kick, about 25 yards out, and sending it dipping and curling towards goal, but slowly enough for Lloris to get across and catch.
3 mins: Amrabat gets the ball on the right, and his cross flicks off a head in the middle and on to Niang at the back stick. If his first touch had been a bit better, he’d have had a great goalscoring chance. Unfortunately, it was bobbins.
2 mins: I’ve no idea why Sky kept saying Watford would play with a back three of Cathcart-Mariappa-Holebas, with Amrabat at left wing-back, when it seemed blindingly obvious that Janmaat would be at right-back in a four. Which he is.
1 min: Peeeep! The whistle goes, and Spurs get the ball rolling.
The teams are out of the tunnel, and have shaken hands and stuff. They are about to play football.
The teams are in the tunnel. Both are captained today by their goalkeepers, which seems unusual.
A tweak to the teams: Victor Wanyama has dropped off the Spurs bench, and Josh Onomah has leapt onto it.
And now Mauricio Pochettino has had to cope with having a microphone thrust in his direction:
Harry was so close to starting, but it’s true that after a month he needed to be in involved in the game but not from the start. Today was a great opportunity for him to be on the bench and maybe if I think it can help the team, play little bit. He’s good for us, because we have a very tough period ahead and his recovery is very important to the team. It’s always very good. For me it’s important he feels he’s ready again, and we feel the same, and today it’s another important game and to have him on the bench is always an important alternative for the team, and we’ll see. You cannot guess what will happen in the game, but he’s available to play.
Trippier is a tactical change. It’s rotation, like Sissoko was in the starting XI and now on the bench. Winning on Wednesday, it’s in the past. It’s true it’s only two days ago. We are focusing now on Watford. It will be a very tough game, we had one day less to prepare, but it’s important to be focused, to play in our way and try to win the game. That is our challenge. But first of all we must be ready to compete in what will be a very tough game.
Watford are missing some players, but we have some injuries too. During the season it always happens. The squad is so important, that they all feel ready to compete every time.
The Watford winger Nordin Amrabat has had been talking to Sky:
I think we want more points. 37 is not bad. We are in ninth position but we want more as a team. Today is a fantastic day, a fantastic pitch, the weather is good, a full stadium. We’re looking forward to achieving something today. The wins give us a bit more confidence. You come here to Tottenham, a top team, when you’ve lost the last two games it’s difficult. I think it’ll be a difficult game, but we’re looking forward to a good game. People at home can look forward to watching two teams who want to play football. If you’re going to beat Tottenham you need to be defensively good. We’re going to get for sure some little chances. Hopefully we can score from one of the chances.
Adrian Mariappa’s last top-flight start in a Watford shirt was in May 2007, just the 3,619 days ago. He made his first league appearance of the season on Tuesday, when he played excellently for the final 21 minutes of the 2-0 win over Stoke.
Spurs are a best-priced 4-1 on for the win, which doesn’t seem unfair. Watford can be found between 11-1 and 15-1: for all that they’ve won their last couple of games, at home against limited sides, an away win would be astonishing. Still, it’s a funny old game, etc and so forth.
So there are a couple of surprises in the teams. For Watford, Isaac Success starts just his second game of the season – Walter Mazzarri has steadfastly refused to give him more than a single half on the pitch since he suffered a hamstring injury in October, and his inclusion in the starting line-up is a real eyebrow-raiser. Meanwhile, every ambulant defender gets a game, amid an injury/suspension crisis. Spurs make three changes to the team that started at Swansea, bringing in Lloris, Trippier and Janssen, with Vorm injured and Walker and Sissoko dropping to the bench.
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Moussa Dembélé chats to Sky
We know at home we’re very strong. I think we can’t underestimate them. We’re playing very well but it’s the Premier League, every game is difficult. It’s not easy to win, but we’re in great form. Obviously everyone knows Harry is very important to us. Even without him we’ve done very well but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s very important to us. I don’t try to think too much about Chelsea, just win our games and see where we are. We want to win our games, and the last few weeks we’re doing it very well, with a good style of play.
Team news: Harry Kane starts on the bench
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies, Dier, Dembele, Son, Alli, Eriksen, Janssen. Subs: Walker, Kane,
Wanyama
Onomah, Nkoudou, Sissoko, Wimmer, Pau Lopez.
Watford: Gomes, Janmaat, Cathcart, Mariappa, Holebas, Amrabat, Doucouré, Cleverley, Niang, Okaka, Success. Subs: Deeney, Zúñiga, Kabasele, Capoue, Pantilimon, Mason, Eleftheriou.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)
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Simon will be here soon. In the meantime check out the match preview for today’s game.
And here is what Mauricio Pochettino had to say about Harry Kane:
Maybe I am crazy but you cannot put a doubt on Harry Kane. There is no doubting that Harry is our best player. It’s like with Barcelona – Messi is injured for one month but Barcelona are still winning. Then, Messi is available again and you say: ‘Hmm, I don’t know?’ Today was good because after training, he was shooting, he was playing and you can see that he is ready. I said: ‘Hey, Harry. I don’t know if you are ready or not.’ He says: ‘No, no. I want to be involved tomorrow.’ So, I said: ‘No. You will not be involved.’ He asked why. I said: ‘Your answer is wrong. You should say: ‘Gaffer, it’s up to you because you are the manager and you decide. If you say this, then you will be involved tomorrow!’”
