I don’t know why, but I thought that would be a lot easier than it turned out to be. Sheffield United have vanquished Premier League clubs three times in cup competitions this season and it was easy to see why they’ve proved to be such tough opposition. The away team started the better of the two teams in last night’s game and I was surprised at the quality United possessed. I’m ashamed that I was surprised- definitely caught out by my entitled, Premier League Fan attitude towards a lower league club. Apologies to the people I told before the game that we would win 4-1 if that gave you any false hope for an easy victory. That said, for me anyway, Tottenham did enough to deserve to come out winners, even though it definitely was not the drubbing we all wanted in order to give us some breathing space going in to the second leg. Some good stuff emerged from last night, but some bad stuff also…

Erik Dier had his second good game on the bounce, providing Spurs’ only attempt on target in the first half and he performed well in a strong partnership with Vertonghen. Both centre backs looked largely untroubled in protecting Vorm’s goal and only had to make three tackles between them all game. Dier is not a right back, despite his performances and the occasional goal earlier in the season playing in that position. I’d like to see more of him at the heart of the defence alongside Vertonghen as he clearly feels more confident and looks far more comfortable than he has at full back. I was concerned that Pochettino had maybe written off Dier as an option at centre back this season but I think he deserves his place in the pecking order above all the other players Spurs currently have in this position (aside from Jan). Poch may have been forced in to choosing Dier because of injuries to Fazio and Chiriches but, for my money, he should stick with him as he is looking increasingly worthy of a starting berth.

Whilst the centre backs were good, the full backs showed some poor decision making and footwork which put us under unnecessary pressure at times. Davies sloppily gave the ball away in his own half on at least three occasions and two of these errors resulted in United’s best chances of the game. Campbell-Rice fizzed the ball across the face of Vorm’s goal and Scougall slapped a chance wide after robbing the Welshman a little too easily. At one point in the second half, Campbell-Rice made Davies so dizzy with his trickery I thought he was going to fall over and ‘tap out’ to avoid further humiliation at the hands of the United winger. The-losing-possession bug eventually transferred itself to Walker and United almost punished on the counter late in the game but, fortunately for Spurs, the League One’s side attacking threat was nowhere near as precise as its defensive organisation.

You could argue that these mistakes were forced errors caused by good pressing from United but to me it looked a bit thoughtless from our full backs. Walker has had a mistake-per-game in him from the moment he’s started playing for Spurs but his ‘headless fuckwit’ moments seem to be becoming less frequent, hopefully Davies can follow the same steep, steep learning curve that Walker has endured. Until Davies becomes less error-prone, put Rose in. Danny’s had good form and he deserves a place.

The full backs weren’t the only ones out of sorts; Christian Eriksen also had one of his less memorable nights. Forced out wide due to the absence of Chadli and Lamela, he never really got hold of the game in the manner we’ve become accustomed to of late and his performance only served to highlight why he should always play through the middle. Seeing as he has carried us Bale-Style in a few games this season I think he’s allowed an off game.

With the Dane exiled out wide, Stambouli and Mason failed to carve out much in the way of creative play and the scraps that did get through to the feet of Adebayor and Kane were quickly snaffled up by the Sheffield United defenders. Special praise must be given to the away team’s defensive organisation, playing a compact high line which resulted in no space for our two centre forwards to run in to, even when they dropped deep. With no space to turn and run, Kane couldn’t even let the ball run across as him, take a touch and strike it as he’s done with such devastating effect this season. He was crowded out with great zeal and efficiency by United’s centre back pairing of Basham and McEveley, usually with the help of a third man to stop our top goal scorer from threatening the goal. That United attempted this was to be expected, and that they did it to greater effect than a lot of Premier League teams have managed this season is credit to their execution of Clough Jnr’s game plan.

Talking of credit where it’s due, I have a lot of faith in our manager and think he’s definitely moving the team in the right direction… yet I have to question his decision to give Adebayor not only a starting place, but also the Captain’s armband. It seemed a bit like making the unruly, slightly unpopular school bully ‘Class Captain’ just to see if a bit of responsibility would sort him out and turn him into incandescent beacon of piety and honest example. It didn’t really work. Sure, Ade hasn’t played for a while, and it’s true that he didn’t have much in the way of supply, but setting him up to fail was a sure way to rile up the boo-boys (stop booing your own players!). He missed a good opportunity to bring the ball down from an excellent long ball from Eriksen and that was about it.

Our third Captain in three games was replaced by Soldado who promptly won us a penalty and we were spared our blushes by the once-again-frustrating figure of Andros Townsend. It was a definite penalty after a blatant handball but the conversion was a little less convincing. Impressed with Townsend’s energy but he’s still not there with the minor stuff… like passing and shooting at the right moment. I’m sure he sometimes does the exact opposite of the best option at his disposal as a form of self-flagellation, just to punish himself (and us) for an as yet unpublicised immoral action.

Not a disastrous first leg for Spurs but I hope we are a bit more commanding at Bramall Lane next week. In the meantime, Tottenham host Leicester on Saturday – it will be a tricky fixture as I suspect a lot of players will be rested, but it’s still winnable. After last night I’m tempering my expectations, just a cheeky 3-1 will do.