BBC pundit Garth Crooks has heaped praise on Tottenham’s Erik Lamela after his match-winning performance against West Ham on Saturday.
Lamela scored the only goal of the game to keep Tottenham’s fast start to the season going but it was his overall display that had Crooks purring.
He put Lamela in his Team of the Week and wrote in his column on the BBC, “This is a player with extraordinary ability. We’ve seen flashes of it before and who can forget his rabona against Asteras Tripolis in the Europa League?
“Erik Lamela seems back to the player he was before he had his long lay-off with injury.
“He dominated proceedings against West Ham and his efforts deserved to be rewarded with the winning goal. Dele Alli had better be careful – Lamela is very capable of taking his place.”
OPINION
Poor old Dele Alli. First it was mentioned by pundits that he might find it hard to win his place back in the England team. Now Crooks is saying that Lamela can keep him out of the Tottenham team. Lamela has been brilliant this season and we’re amazed it’s taken this long for Mauricio Pochettino to find a start for him in the Premier League. His goal on Saturday secured the all-important three points and it was his third Premier League of the season, despite being limited to cameo appearances before Saturday. He’s surely done enough to warrant keeping his place for the foreseeable future, but either way it gives his manager another brilliant attacking option. Tottenham are keeping up the pressure at the top of the table with their best start in years and they haven’t really got out of first gear yet. Winning by the odd goal here and there bodes really well for the season. And when Harry Kane starts firing the goals in, which he will at some point, the Tottenham season could really take off. We think Lamela will be a big part of things to come.