Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer heaped praise on Tottenham attacker Erik Lamela and declared him the difference-maker in their 1-0 win over West Ham on Saturday.
Talking on Match of the Day (BBC1, Sat, 10.30pm) he said that Lamela had “Confidence, skill, belief on the ball.”
The win keeps Tottenham in fourth place in the table but puts them level on points with Chelsea after they drew 2-2 with Man United.
“A bit of magic from Lamela and it’s their best return after nine games which is impressive”, Shearer said.
“I thought Lamela on his first start of the season was the difference certainly in the first half. He produced some wonderful bits of skill and his first touch was exemplary.
“He was bringing other players into the game. He was at the heart of everything that was good about Tottenham when they were on the ball. Confidence, skill, belief on the ball and trickery, he had all of that. Full of coincidence and full of belief and did his bit defensively.”
OPINION
High praise indeed from Shearer but Lamela was worth it yesterday. We’ve been expecting him to get a start the last few games because of his good form, but he’ll definitely be pushing Pochettino for more after this performance. It would be too much to say that he single-handedly won Spurs the three points but we don’t think they’d have got them without him. Man of the match for us and a brilliant start to the season for Tottenham, especially as they haven’t even hit the peak of their collective form yet. When Harry Kane start scoring like everyone knows he can, and if Pochettino buys in January, they could mount a realistic title challenge.