Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 3-0 win over IF Elfsborg

Tottenham Hotspur may be in woeful form in the Premier League, but they finished the League Phase of the Europa League in style on Thursday night with a 3-0 win over IF Elfsborg.

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:

Tottenham are into the knockouts

Tottenham had one box to tick tonight and they ticked it in the end. The Lilywhites are through to the knockouts of the Europa League and won’t need the play-offs to get there. Not only does that mean Spurs are one step closer to the trophy itself, but they also save themselves a couple of extra games along the way. Tottenham won’t have to play in Europe again now until March!

Dane Scarlett, Damola Ajayi and Mikey Moore

With 70 minutes on the clock, it looked like it was going to be one of those nights for Tottenham Hotspur. Maybe a 0-0 would be enough to squeak into the automatic knockout places – maybe not. Thankfully, in the end, it didn’t matter.

Dane Scarlett came off the bench (which was surprising enough) to head home the opener for the Lilywhites, just a week after his return from an Oxford United loan. That would tend to suggest that Will Lankshear – who was left on the bench – will get a loan move of his own in the next few days.

Next up was Damola Ajayi, making his senior debut for Tottenham and marking it with a superb goal after just three minutes on the pitch. A burst into space off the wing and a lovely give-and-go with none other than Scarlett himself gave Ajayi the chance to sweep home Spurs’ second and finally inject some atmosphere into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Finally, the icing on the cake came courtesy of Mr Mikey Moore. Not content to watch his fellow academy graduates run riot without him, he brushed aside the Elfsborg defence in the dying minutes, drove towards the edge of the box, and reversed his shot back across the keep to make it 3-0.

One, two, three of our own!

Micky Van de Ven is back

The Dutch freight train is back! And wow, can you see the difference when Van de Ven is involved? Time and time again in the first 45, Micky snuffed out Elfsborg attacks, brushed aside attackers, and turned over possession for Spurs in the blink of an eye. Lesser opposition, yes – but I haven’t seen Tottenham pen a team in like that for a long time, even against the likes of Tamworth! All Spurs have to do now is keep Van de Ven fit!

Heung-min Son was on fire

Once again, the caveat is that Spurs were playing lesser opposition, but we haven’t seen Son consistently take on his man like that in months! That poor Elfsborg right-back got turned inside out on almost every attack and Sonny whipped in some really dangerous crosses as a result. He finally looked full of confidence again and hopefully, that will be the boost he needs.

Of course, it will be a different story up against Brentford at the weekend, but Son needs to at least have the confidence to try and take someone on instead of passing back down the line every time. Richarlison loves attacking a cross, so give him something to attack!

Another injury for Tottenham

One potential downer on the night was the injury to Radu Dragusin. Just as you get one centre-back fit again, one of the others drops out. Considering it was an off-the-ball injury and he couldn’t play on through the pain, it doesn’t look great in terms of his recovery time.

Yes, Romero and Van de Ven are almost back together, but we don’t want them having to play every single match again. That is what got us into this mess in the first place.

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