Tim’s troops reverse trend

Spurs 3 Southhampton 2

The Tottenham boss had been asked what he said at half-time that caused such a transformation, and saw his side turn an initial 2-0 deficit against Southampton into a rousing 3-2 win.

“I can’t tell you everything,” Sherwood smiled. “It weren’t pretty.”

Whatever it was, it at last makes prettier reading for his team.

With the brilliant Christian Eriksen scoring twice, Spurs secured their first win in five games to leave Sherwood claiming that a Champions League place is still not out of reach. The victory also puts them within six points of Arsenal, who were so humiliated 6-0 by Chelsea on Saturday, although Arsene Wenger’s side still have a game in hand.

“We are going to try and accumulate as many points as we possibly can,” Sherwood said. “I think we might be a point behind where we were last year and we pushed Arsenal really close, so who knows what could happen. It is squeaky bum time, time for men to stand up and get as many points as we can.”

The Spurs players certainly did that yesterday, which also meant Sherwood managed to put this right in a manner he hasn’t been able to do so of late. Because, if overtaking Arsenal will require a hugely significant comeback and reversal, Spurs set the tone by reversing another trend against Southampton.

One of Sherwood’s main complaints since taking over has been that Tottenham have so often struggled to recover once going behind, but that also reflected the manager’s own inability to arrest such situations. The 4-0 thrashing at Chelsea was a case in point.

This, however, was the opposite. It was also all the more impressive because a sophisticated Southampton team looked so superior for the first half-hour.

While Spurs tried to crash their way towards goal, Mauricio Pochettino’s side displayed cruise control. On 19 minutes, James Rodriguez took advantage of a Kyle Naughton rush of blood to curl the ball around Hugo Lloris. On 28, Rickie Lambert worked Adam Lallana into space for a tight finish.

Sherwood had watched all this from the directors’ box rather than the bench, meaning there wasn’t so much focus on his often-futile touchline antics, but this did give him the vantage point to make more meaningful changes.

“It’s a better view from up there,” Sherwood said. It led to a better Tottenham. The Spurs boss bounded back down to the dugout, reshuffled his midfield and immediately saw Eriksen slot a goal back from a Nathaniel Clyne slip.

Sherwood next introduced Gylfi Sigurdsson for Mousa Dembele at half-time and, within moments of the restart, Eriksen had plundered the equaliser.

He insisted, however, that the recovery wasn’t just down to the changes. There was also his players’ refusal to be affected by the score.

“I want to give credit to Kyle Naughton today, and I’ve told him in there. Anyone can make mistakes, and it was obvious he made two mistakes in there, but what everyone can’t do is stand tall and put themselves on offer in the second half.

“Too often, not only at Tottenham, but all around the country, players go hiding. They want to go off. He didn’t want to come off, he wanted to go out and put that right. And he did that in the second half. I give him massive credit for that. He’ll only grow for that.

“That’s the character I’m looking for, that’s what I want to see. I want people who want to roll their sleeves up and have a go. And he typified what I want from my players.”

Then, Spurs got an untypical late winner — and from the player Sherwood had first brought on. Sigurdsson powered in the winner from 20 yards.

There was also another dimension to all that, given that Pochettino has been mooted as a potential Spurs boss. This was a statement from Sherwood, then, and he summed it up in the way only he can.

“We’ve took a couple of knocks in the privates and we’ve come back.”

The hope for Spurs is that applies to the campaign as a whole.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Lloris 6; Naughton 6, Kaboul 6, Vertonghen 6, Rose 6; Lennon 6 (Townsend 72; 6), Bentaleb 6, Chadli 7, Dembele 6 (Sigurdsson 45; 8), Eriksen 9; Soldado 7

SOUTHAMPTON: Boruc 6; Clyne 6 (Chambers 45; 6), Lovren 6, Fonte 6, Shaw 6; Cork 6, Ward-Prowse 7; Davis 7, Lallana 7, Rodriguez 7 (Ramirez 64; 6); Lambert 7 (Gallagher 90).

Referee: A Taylor.