Sheffield United 1-3 Tottenham: Three Things We Learned

In what turned out to be a fairly comfortable game for Jose Mourinho’s men, Tottenham Hotspur were able to beat Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Sunday and really assert their authority as top four contenders once again. Today, we’re going to jot down a few things we took away from the game in Yorkshire.

The Son, Kane & Hojbjerg effect

While there certainly needs to be a whole lot of praise given for Tanguy Ndombele and his outstanding chipped goal to seal the points, three men stood out as the real difference makers for Tottenham at the weekend – Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. We all know about the quality that the two forwards have, but when it comes to Hojbjerg, he is able to control a game in the middle of the park unlike most other players we’ve seen. Moving forward, that’ll be key to Spurs’ success.

The Blades’ struggles revived

One narrow win over Newcastle United isn’t going to be enough to convince the masses that Sheffield United are capable of remaining in the Premier League this season. If nothing else, with only five points to their name, they need to be focusing on trying to get up to 12 points so that they can ensure they beat Derby County’s record low PL points total of 11. They were a force to be reckoned with last season, but it’s looking increasingly likely that a rebuild will have to occur down in the Championship.

An unlikely title push?

Tottenham are priced as the fourth favourites to win the Premier League title with outside odds of 22/1 with 888sport and based on how the season has gone thus far, that sounds about right. We aren’t here to dictate what’s going to happen one way or the other but Jose Mourinho is a winner and we can’t pretend like that isn’t the case. They are going to fight until the very end and even if that means they don’t win the title, we do think they’ve got a solid chance of entering the top four – which is tough enough to do these days.

Match Report

Sheffield United: Ramsdale (5.5), Ampadu (6.5), Egan (6.5), Basham (7), Stevens (6.5), Fleck (7), Norwood (6.5), Lundstram (6.5), Bogle (6.5), McGoldrick (7.5), Burke (6.5), Sharp (6), Brewster (6), Bryan (6.5)

Tottenham: Lloris (7), Rodon (7), Dier (6.5), Davies (7), Aurier (7), Ndombele (8.5), Hojbjerg (7), Reguilon (7), Bergwijn (7.5), Kane (9), Son (8), Sanchez (6), Vinicius (6), Moura (6)

Referee: Andre Marriner

Goals: McGoldrick :: Aurier, Kane, Ndombele

Yellow Cards: Egan, Ampadu, Lundstram, Norwood

Red Cards: N/A