Late is great for Spurs

Swansea 1 Tottenham 2

Christian Eriksen’s 89th-minute winner means Spurs have now turned four potential draws into four wins with goals inside the final two minutes.

Little wonder that Pochettino was quick to pour praise on his side for their durability and strength of character.

The hard-working Harry Kane sent Spurs into a fourth-minute lead when he exposed Swansea’s frailties by rising to head home Eriksen’s far post corner.

However, three minutes into the second half, Swansea were level when leading scorer Wilfried Bony beat Hugo Lloris after another precise assist from the former Spurs midfielder Wayne Routledge.

Thereafter, it was Swansea who looked the most likely with Bony, Ecuadorian winger Jefferson Montero and Gylfi Sigurdsson all coming close to earning Garry Monk’s side a seventh win of the league season.

Unfortunately, having been served a warning, first by Kane and then Eriksen himself, it was left to the diminutive Dane to beat Gerhard Tremmel with barely 90 seconds of normal time in hand.

Pochettino said: “It was an important win, but it is also important to show character and fight, and we did that.

“They are a very good side with good players and it’s not easy to get three points here.

“Yes, we scored a late goal, but in football it happens. Swansea pushed us after their goal and maybe they were better than us in that period. But we were always alive in the game and it was a great goal to win a game.”

It has not been the most smooth of rides so far for the former Southampton manager, but it certainly seems that his request for an increased work ethic, at White Hart Lane, is hitting home.

Although they were dominant with the ball for long periods of the first half, they were back-peddling at a rate of knots after Bony beat Lloris, at the second attempt.

Bony could have had a hatful after that, whilst Sigurdsson was only just wide with a firm strike from distance. Montero was a constant menace on the left and gave Kyle Walker a torrid time on the defender’s return to league action for the first time since March.

However, after Kane had headed wide from half a dozen yards and Eriksen had been denied by a smart stop from Tremmel, five minutes from time, the Dane struck after Jazz Richards had failed to clear Swansea lines.

Pochettino said; “When you arrive at a new club, with different players, you need time to try and put your ideas across to the squad. However, we are in a good place and I’m very pleased today that we showed that character.

“We needed to manage our players after the game in midweek. If you make changes and you win, you are an unbelievable manager, but if I had have changed things and we had have lost, it wouldn’t have been like that.”

For Monk, it was nothing less than utter frustration. His side threw everything but the proverbial sink at Spurs in the second half and should have been well clear by the time Eriksen struck the killer blow. However, they were careless in front of goal and, in the end, were made to pay the ultimate price.

He said; “It was sickening. I just couldn’t see that coming to be honest, but two individual errors have cost us. And, of course, we were not clinical enough at the other end.

“We regained momentum after the first goal and after we scored, it was one-way traffic. If it was a boxing match, they’d have called it off. That’s when you have to take your chances and make sure you kill off teams. We didn’t.”

SWANSEA CITY (4-2-3-1): Tremmel (6); Rangel (6, Richards 70), Williams (7), Bartley (7), Taylor (6); Britton (6, Shelvey (54,6), Ki (7); Routledge (7), Sigurdsson (7), Montero (7); Bony (7, Gomis 85,5)

TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris (7); Walker (6), Vertonghen (6), Fazio (5), Davies (6); Mason (6,Stambouli 69,5), Bentaleb (6); Lamela (6, Chadli 83,5), Kane (8), Eriksen (7); Soldado (6, Dembele 56)

Referee: R Madley.