Tottenham Move To Third Place With Cardiff Win

By Joshua Walters

Tottenham Hotspurs moved to the third position on the 2018/19 Premier League table after beating Cardiff City1-0 at the Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Spurs, who lost 4-2 to Barcelona in a Champions League game at the same venue on Wednesday, looked sluggish, but still grabbed the maximum points through Eric Dier’s 9th-minute strike.

The win represents Spurs’ third on a row after their loss to Liverpool on match day-five, and Mauricio Pochettino’s men now have 18 points; a point and a place above Chelsea, who travels to Southampton on Sunday.

Tottenham got off to a good start as Eric Dier smashed the lead with an easy finish in the 9th minute. The midfielder latched on to a perfectly taken corner kick to put the ball inside the left post from the six-yard-box.

Lucas Moura tried his luck from a mid-range shot towards the middle of the goal in the 21st minute, but Cardiff goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge, made very little efforts of it, three minutes before Sol Bamba rose above the Spurs defence to direct a header few inches over the bar.

Moura headed narrowly wide in the 36th minute, and Heung-Min Son rounded off a good move with a layoff to Moura, inside the box, who shot wide the near post despite having a clear sight of goal.

Harry Kane shot wide after feeding on a shot-pass in the 56th minute, Cardiff’s Joe Ralls received a straight red card from referee Mike Dean in the 58th minute for bringing down Moura in a chase-for-the-ball incident, Harry Kane picked up a yellow card a minute later and Hugo Lloris was brilliant in the 64th minute when he palmed Sean Morrison  header into the woodwork.

Spurs’ Toby Alderweireld saw the yellow card in the 68th minute for pushing Erik Lamela to the ground, and Harry Arter followed suit for Cardiff City five minutes into extra time few seconds before Mike Dean brought down the curtains to the game which represented the fourth straight defeat for Neil Warnock Bluebirds.