There’s one player who particularly stood out for me as Tottenham twice came from behind to claim a 3-3 draw from their fierce North London rivals Arsenal at White Hart Lane. It wasn’t Rafael van der Vaart whose two goals and general all-round play turned out to be Arsenal’s undoing – no it was a certain left-back, Benoit Assou-Ekotto. The 27-year-old has been at the club almost five years now (he joined in the summer of 2006) and has faced his fair share of criticism since he arrived at the club.
He was originally tagged as one of the ‘brightest prospects’ in French football and the £3.5m that Spurs shelled out for his services was considered a bargain. Unfortunately, the Frenchman picked up a knee-injury in December 2006, lost his place in the first team to Lee Young-Pyo and ended up only playing two matches in the 2007-08 season. By this stage Assou-Ekotto was really struggling – he spoke little football, couldn’t break into Tottenham’s first squad and was seriously considering a move back to French football.
It wasn’t until Harry Redknapp arrived at Tottenham, replacing Juande Ramos, that Assou-Ekotto finally got a chance to excel in this Spurs side. Now fully-fit and receiving plenty of game-time, the Frenchman soon started putting in a number of quality performances and before long established himself as Tottenham’s first-choice left-back. Who can forget his performance against Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2009 League Cup final against Manchester United?
He had his peaks and troughs last season – even losing the left-back position to Gareth Bale before claiming it back when the Welshman was moved up the left-wing, but it’s the 2010-11 season that has seen Assou-Ekotto at his best.
It’s fair to say that not so long ago Assou-Ekotto was the subject of a lot of vitriol and bile from pundits who considered the Cameroonian international to be nothing short of a liability for Spurs. He was particularly criticised for his comments prior to the World Cup, where he claimed: “I play for the money. Football’s not my passion”. Now, however, it’s fair to say that he’s one of the best left-backs in the Premier League and one of the first names down on Tottenham’s team-sheet. If it’s true that he feels little passion towards football, I’d like to see the Frenchman try his hand as something he does care about.
He rarely ever gives the ball away, has incredible bursts of pace (indeed, he was able to match Theo Walcott at the Lane on Wednesday night) competes well and is generally reliable. Injuries may have derailed his early-Tottenham career, but he’s slowly establishing himself as ‘Mr Consistent’.
He’s improved considerably as the season has progressed. At times his defensive positioning has been poor and as a result Tottenham have been caught out on a couple of occasions. He also has a frustrating tendency to switch off when his team need him most – not unlike Arsenal’s left back Gael Clichy. But, I’m glad to say that he’s improved in almost all areas of his game this season. Whilst he could probably do we some more work on the defensive side of his game, as an all-round left-back in the Premier League, I’d argue that only Ashley Cole is better.
Though Luka Modric is probably a dead cert for Tottenham’s player of the season, I’d say that Benoit Assou-Ekotto is Spurs’ most improved player. If he keeps developing like this next year, I’m sure he’ll be a great aid for Tottenham as they seek to establish themselves in the top four of the Premier League.
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Agreed. he’s hugely underrated – probably cos we have so many BIG names…
best LB in the League NO DOUBT!!!
COYS!
Looking at the Arsenal game, at first sight Ekotto appeared to have a brilliant game. However, if you analyse the goals conceded, Ekotto, whilst not the only guilty party, was badly at fault for each. For the first, it was he who was behind his teammates to allow Walcott to be onside. For the second he was standing like a lemon marking no one, shielding Gomes from seeing the shot coming in. For the third he completely lost his bearings when marking Walcott, and then made no attempt to retrieve the situation as the ball was crossed by Walcott and he had wandedered into the middle. Also, the suspicion that Van Persie was onside in the second half breakaway was only because Ekotto was again behind his teammates.
So, although he looks good, he is still defensively unreliable.
Yes John…. I think Benny has made some glaring mistakes in the past but the truth is he has improved so much in recent months that he does deserve some credit for his effort.
YES! and don`t forget Sandro! He has had a great season after a tentative start!
Ridiculous to say that it was ‘his fault’, nobody ever blames Dawson for diving in and being nut-megged or a midfielder giving the ball away, as did happen in the Arsenal match, Gallas with his silly touch and Dawson diving in 2 hours early! Look at ALL THE BIG goals we have scored this season and Ekotto is behind it.. he can pass cross field, in field around the field, over the field and can cross.. hes brilliant!
I’ve always liked him and think he’s massively underrated by many. As already shouted, Sandro was also in my thoughts as I opened this article. Fantastic player, this boy is gonna be massive – remindes me of Socrates, only much, much faster. How Hudds gets back in the team, I don’t know…