Published: December 16, 2012

by DAN CARRIER at the White Hart Lane

FA Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur 1, Swansea 0

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS hailed his match winning defender Jan Vertonghen and said: He can become a Spurs legend.

The centre back fired home the winning goal in a hard fought 1-0 victory today (Sunday) and after the game, his coach praised the ease the Belgium international has slotted into the Premiership.

He said: "He played in the centre today and the way he brings the ball forward is fantastic. Jan gives us the space to play the ball in the middle. He won titles when he captained Ajax – he is charismatic and he can become a stalwart here in years to come."

AVB revealed he had asked his team during training through the week to work on seeing out matches. He said he had tailored training sessions to be increasing complex towards the end – to tune his team into concentrating right through till the final whistle.

He said: "We addressed this as a group in training. We spoke about concentration, and today we were patient, we were persistent, we defended solidly."

And it was a valuable victory, sending Spurs into the top four against a team that have won in London against Arsenal, Fulham and QPR so far this term – but it wasn't straight forward.

In an opening half where there was plenty of neat approach play but not enough cut and thrust, Jermain Defoe had efforts blocked by a well organised Swans defence, Aaron Lennon found space but not the final ball, and a Kyle Walker pile driver was well stopped by Gerhard Tremmel in the visitors goal. Otherwise, the Welsh side were worth a point.

The second period saw more of the same, with Spurs huffing and puffing but rarely making Swansea's goalkeeper get his knees dirty.

Then, in a season where luck hasn't been present much at home, came the crucial breakthrough.

As the game approached it's final 15 minutes, a deep free kick from Kyle Walker spun off a defender's head and fell nicely for defender Jan Vertonghen. He belted it hard and low home.

 

SPURS COMMENT by DAN CARRIER

When the fourth official held up the electronic board saying there was five minutes of added time to play, the groans around the ground were prolonged. It wasn't so much a query of where the added time had come from, more the damning stat on everyone's mind: if Tottenham's league matches had ended on 80 minutes, we'd be at the summit of the Premiership. Now they had another five minutes to see it out.

But, as AVB said afterwards, they'd worked on this – and today, despite increasing pressure as the Swans threw people forward, we saw some new steel to this team and the relief – and joy – as the players walked off was clear to all.

Man of the Match:

Jan Vertonghen has shown himself to be a top drawer Premiership footballer in the few months of being at The Lane. Today, he steadied the ship when it was needed, and as the forwards were making a hurried hash of things, he absolutely buried the one chance that fell his way. He should be made captain.