A Gud decision

IT IS fair to assume that Eidur Gudjohnsen is not the player he once was.

Claudio Ranieri was still the darling of Stamford Bridge when the Iceland striker finished the 2001-02 season with 14 Premier League goals for Chelsea. And John Arne Riise and Peter Crouch were still playing for Liverpool when Gudjohnsen scored the only goal of the night for Barcelona in a Champions League last 16 tie.

Three years on from that Anfield game, Gudjohnsen is now playing alongside Crouch and using his vast experience to propel Tottenham towards next season’s Champions League.

While the London club’s top-four rivals have all stuttered at the Britannia Stadium this season, Tottenham secured all three points at the venue after an inspirational performance by 31-year-old substitute Gudjohnsen. On in place of the injured Roman Pavlyuchenko, his first goal since joining on loan from Monaco in January left Spurs within eight matches of becoming the first club from outside the so-called ‘big four’ since Everton in 2005 to cement a fourth-placed finish.

Gudjohnsen, an unused substitute when Barcelona beat Manchester United in last season’s Champions League final, is determined to put his unhappy spell in France behind him and help Tottenham overcome the loss of leading scorer Jermain Defoe to a torn hamstring.

“People say the weather in Monaco, the weather in Barcelona, I don’t really care,” said Gudjohnsen. “Football is about being happy what you’re doing and I feel alive again since I came back to England. In France I just didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t really enjoy my football there. I didn’t connect to my surroundings. When you do that and you’re not happy in your work, it’s difficult to get the best out of yourself.

“That’s why I decided to move back to England. I’ve had to be patient and it was really enjoyable to be back on the pitch.”

Gudjohnsen’s brilliant first goal on English soil since 2007 set Tottenham on their way to a fourth straight league win.

Matthew Etherington levelled from the penalty spot for battling Stoke after they had been reduced to 10 men following the dismissal of Dean Whitehead for two bookings.

But Gudjohnsen’s clever dummy allowed Niko Kranjcar to fire a cracking winner worthy of any Champions League stage. Yet Tottenham’s win did not pass without incident.

Stoke’s Ricardo Fuller amazingly had to pull Spurs team-mates Vedran Corluka and Benoit Assou-Ekotto apart when the pair became embroiled in a crazy shoving match in the second half. And while the rest of Tottenham’s players celebrated a crucial victory on the pitch at the end of the game, Assou-Ekotto headed straight for the dressing room.

Redknapp attempted to laugh off the incident.

“Benoit is a strange boy. He didn’t know the result! He probably thought we’d drawn,” said the Tottenham manager.

“He’s a bit highly strung and doesn’t hardly speak English. He hasn’t improved his English in the couple of years he’s been here. He’s unreal. He walks off and he’s thinking about the music he’s going to play when he puts his headphones on.”

Despite an impressive season, Stoke have now won once in seven league games.

Manager Tony Pulis, who tried to have referee Mike Dean replaced in the days before the game, was unhappy with the dismissal of Whitehead.

The former Sunderland midfielder is the third Stoke player the Wirral official has dismissed this season.

But Stoke’s long-throw specialist Rory Delap insisted the team could not blame defeat on that incident after Fuller missed a glaring chance to put his side ahead before Kranjcar’s winner.

Despite boasting a 12-point safety cushion with eight games remaining, Delap believes Stoke still have work to do to secure their Premier League future.

“We want to better our position and points total from last year. If we do that we will be safe,” said the former Ireland international.

“Safety comes first and foremost, but we’re still on course to better what we did last season.”

MATCH RATING: *** – Slow start but in the end an entertaining contest between two committed sides. Stoke only have themselves to blame for wasting some great chances while Tottenham dug deep to produce one of their most impressive away results of the season.

REFEREE: Mike Dean (Wirral) 6 – It is fair to say he has been wiped off Tony Pulis’s Christmas card list after sending off Whitehead, the third Stoke player he has dismissed this season. Inconsistent performance by the official.