Our final write-up of the Premier League matches contested on New Year’s Day recaps the events at the Cardiff City Stadium, where Spurs bounced back to winning ways with a comfortable victory.
As usual, we cover the main Fantasy talking points, manager quotes and injury news from the fixture in question.
Cardiff City 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur
- Goals: Harry Kane (£12.6m), Christian Eriksen (£9.3m), Son Heung-min (£8.8m)
- Assists: Son Heung-min, Harry Kane
After hinting that fatigue was an issue in the Gameweek 20 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers and suggesting Spurs would make changes (plural) for the trip to Cardiff City, Mauricio Pochettino hoodwinked us Fantasy managers by making only one alteration to his starting XI for the New Year’s Day encounter in South Wales.
Even that change was a fairly unremarkable one, with Danny Rose (£5.8m) replacing Ben Davies (£5.6m) as the Spurs boss continued with his rotation policy in the left-back position.
That meant that Harry Kane (£12.6m) and Son Heung-min (£9.3m) again started in the Spurs attack, as they had done for the three other league fixtures over Christmas, with Christian Eriksen (£9.3m) and Dele Alli (£8.9m) lining up in the midfield diamond that Pochettino has come to favour in recent months.
The Lilywhites showed little sign of the heavy legs that had been evident in the defeat to Nuno Espirito Santo’s side on Saturday as they killed this contest within 25 minutes, a three-goal blitz sapping the life out of a Cardiff team that had registered back-to-back clean sheets in the two preceding Gameweeks.
Pochettino said of his side’s efforts:
We felt disappointed [after the defeat to Wolves] and we wanted to show our energy from the beginning. After 20 minutes we showed how we wanted to play and were clinical.
We suffered with four games in 10 days. I want to congratulate the players. I’m so pleased with the effort. Today we showed great energy and maturity that we want.
It’s a crazy fixture [schedule] – it’s normal that in some games we can drop our mental energy. We were so relaxed and kept calm, it was so important. We showed Wolves was just an accident.
Pochettino also backtracked somewhat from his comments about falling energy levels at Wembley:
When you assess the game against Wolves it was completely unfair. I think we played much, much better than Wolves but I think we dropped in our concentration in the last 20 minutes and we conceded three goals.
When you see the data that we ran more than them, you say no, it wasn’t a problem that we were tired, just a concentration problem. A little bit about discipline, offensive and defensive.
It’s terrible when a team like us didn’t get a shot on target in the second half, because we showed a lack of discipline, in both ways. Today so pleased because from the beginning the team showed massive energy. I think that is the team we want and expect to see and perform on the pitch.
A fortunate goal from Kane (the ball cannoning in off his knee after an attempted clearance by Sean Morrison (£4.7m)) was followed by two fine strikes from Eriksen and Son, with Spurs’ front two also registering assists for their part in the Lilywhites’ second and third goals.
Kane and Son are in a remarkable run of form in Fantasy Premier League, with the Korean in particular making a mockery of the rotation concerns that many of us had for the Spurs midfield over this hectic Christmas period: since the resumption of play after the November international break, Son has started all bar one of his side’s nine Premier League matches.
Son will be available for the Manchester United clash in Gameweek 22 before departing for the Asian Cup and will only miss a maximum of three Premier League fixtures thereafter, returning for the home match against Leicester City on February 10 (possibly sooner, if South Korea are eliminated any time before the final).
Son has four double-digit hauls to his name in his last five league starts and no Premier League player has been involved in more goals (15 – eight goals, seven assists) in the last 11 Gameweeks.
Kane meanwhile has banked attacking returns in each of his last ten Premier League starts, a run that has seen him score on nine occasions and assist a further five goals.
It has to be said that this latest victory wasn’t an exhilarating Spurs attacking display – nor did it have to be.
The visitors scored with each of their first three attempts on goal and had only registered four efforts in total by the hour-mark, which came off the back of a shot-shy second half against Wolves three days earlier.
Spurs would likely have pressed forward with more verve had they not been 3-0 up so early on, of course, and they at least showed a bit of attacking intent in the final half an hour as Cardiff wilted.
Kane should have added to his haul in the last 30 minutes, curling a couple of efforts over and being denied by Neil Etheridge (£4.5m) when clean through on goal as the clock ticked down.
Son also had a shot saved by the Cardiff custodian having earlier fired over the bar, while Alli should probably have scored with his only attempt on goal in an 86-minute showing but had his effort blocked after dallying on the ball.
The former MK Dons prospect was at least brighter than he had been against Wolves as the tip of the midfield diamond, registering more penalty box touches and touches in the final third than any other player on show at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Eriksen oozed class in a slightly more withdrawn role and his own Fantasy contributions have been somewhat lost amid Son and Kane’s recent form: the Dane has banked a goal and/or assist in six of his last seven Premier League starts and also scored off the bench in the Gameweek 17 victory over Burnley.
Interest in Eriksen may indeed increase in FPL circles once Son departs for the United Arab Emirates.
Cardiff have largely held their own against mid-table/relegation fodder this season and only three clubs outside the “big six” have kept more clean sheets than the Bluebirds (five) in 2018/19.
City’s record against those top half-dozen teams is poor, however, with seven defeats from seven since promotion. No Premier League outfit has shipped more goals (25) in meetings with Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and both Manchester clubs in 2018/19.
The good news for the Welsh side and owners of their defensive assets is that they only meet the Gunners from the “big six” in the next ten Gameweeks. Neil Warnock’s troops have, in fact, only conceded 16 goals in 14 matches against sides ranked seventh or below.
Warnock rather nobly didn’t use fatigue as mitigation for his side’s latest capitulation to a title-chasing club:
I don’t think it was a game too far, I just thought we shot ourselves in the foot.
Without going into individuals, I was disappointed with two or three players today. We were let down badly today by (them) not doing their roles and I’m disappointed.
But I’m afraid we’re going to get days like that. We’re going to get punished.
I could easily say ‘it’s a game too far’ and all that but the goals make you tired, they give the opposition a lift and you’re chasing shadows. I think they were just too good for us, to be honest.
The 2.8% of FPL managers who own Victor Camarasa (£4.6m) would have been slightly concerned to see their budget midfielder withdrawn before the hour-mark, but Warnock said the problem wasn’t a serious injury:
We said if another goal goes in, we’ll take Victor off. I don’t think he’s ever played three games in that space of time if I’m honest.
We wanted to make sure he was okay, it wasn’t too bad. He was tired.
I think Sol [Bamba] is just bruised.
Cardiff could only muster five attempts on goal all game, with a saved Aron Gunnarsson (£4.4m) header and a Junior Hoilett (£5.0m) cross-shot that briefly threatened to creep under the bar about as good as it got for the limited Bluebirds in attack.
Callum Paterson (£5.1m) dropped back to a wide midfield role after his recent spell up front, meanwhile.
Cardiff City XI (4-4-1-1): Etheridge; Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Cunningham; Paterson, Gunnarsson, Arter, Murphy (Hoilett 46′); Camarasa (Ralls 59′); Reid (Mendez-Laing 72′).
Tottenham Hotspur XI (4-4-2 diamond): Lloris; Trippier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Rose; Winks, Sissoko, Eriksen, Alli (Llorente 86′); Son (Skipp 76′), Kane.
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