Tottenham have faced Leicester for the third time in 10 days in the most recent F.A. Cup tie. It’s safe to say that both sets of fans are relieved that this particularly grueling schedule is over – not before the proverbial heart attacks at the Lane and King Power, of course.

All three games were enjoyable for a neutral and heart-pounding for fans. It was indeed a triumvarate of sameness: Leicester happy to have a pitiful possession percentage while Tottenham dictated – but didn’t dominate- the game. Pochettino played right into the hands of Ranieri, with the Foxes hoping to score a goal quickly on a counter-attack or set-piece. Leicester won the league game with 38% possession. Granted it was due to a (hopefully) one-off mistake by Alderweireld, but nevertheless that percentage showcases two important points: Leicester doesn’t need many chances to make their opponents pay and Tottenham were both wasteful and lacking in attacking ideas.

The beginning of the F.A. Cup replay on Wednesday started off in the same manner, which was worrying for Tottenham fans.

Leicester were all too willing to give the flanks to Tottenham’s fullbacks – Kyle Walker and Ben Davies. They were almost daring Tottenham players to cross it because they were so confident in their clearance and aerial abilities. This makes sense, considering neither Son or Chadli lead the line particularly well and, while the latter is good at heading the ball he is by no means great – not to mention he looked rusty as well.

The image below perfectly depicts just how much space was given to the fullbacks, in this case Walker. Keep in mind that this was in no way a mistake or a one-off by Leicester. This was their defensive shape throughout the game.

Eriksen comes towards the ball in order to both open up space and link up play (an excellent article on his new role was recently written by The Tottenham Way, and can be found here.)

Within the first 15 minutes, Walker and Davies accepted the crossing dare and failed. They proved Leicester right. Their crossing was sub-par throughout the night, constantly failing to pass the first man and constantly falling to defenders’ feet. The fact that Trippier was kept out of a game in which crossing should have been Tottenham’s main attack route suggests that Pochettino was refusing to fall into Ranieri’s trap in the first place. That is to say that Tottenham would find success attack through the center and dribble through the channels rather than crossing. Indeed that’s how Spurs scored the first goal.

Leicester received their first warning early in the game. One of the fullbacks would pass the ball into space for one of Son, Chadli, and Lamela to pick up. The first instance was a Davies/Son combination, as seen below.

The movement created a half-chance for Eriksen who scuffed the shot after Son cut it back to him. This was a sign of things to come – Son added an attacking impetus that would result in a goal and an assist. Although Son has received most of the plaudits, Lamela and Chadli should get some credit as well because their runs split open the Leicester defense more so than the previous two encounters.

In the image above, we see Son receiving the ball in space going inside Leicester’s fullback Simpson. For the goal, however, Son receives the ball wide of a very narrow Leicester defense (repetitive, I know) and scores with a superb strike.

Chillwell here does as Leicester have been told to do – keep Tottenham players wide. What he fails to do seconds after the above image is close down Son, simply because he assumes that he’s going to cut inside – as Lamela and Chadli have done so many times. Son punishes his lackadaisical defending by blasting it in the top corner.

It bears mentioning that Carroll racked up the assist for Son’s goal. He’s been heavily criticized for the amount of times he seems to give away the ball. I’ll admit that even I was a bit shocked to see him start after Dembele’s master-class performance against Sunderland. Dembele is just the type of player you would want against a packed defense; agile and able to drag defenders out of position, in turn opening up space for anyone willing to run into it.

Carroll’s passing qualities, however, make him unique in Tottenham’s midfield options. He is great at passing the ball accurately with one touch and has proved to be a very positive player. If there’s a player making a run into space, Carroll will try to find him. Perhaps that’s what makes him frustrating to watch for some. When it doesn’t come off it’s a cheap giveaway, when it does it can result in something like Son’s goal. Indeed what Carroll offers is quick and purposeful passing.

This is essential against a packed defense.

The more time a player dwells on the the ball, the more time the opposition have to reset into their organized blocks. When you approach a game with this in mind, it’s no wonder that Dembele didn’t start, as he tends to dwell on the ball the most out of any of our players. This might explain why Dier (who also hangs on to the ball) was shifted back as well.

Although our attack deserves the plaudits it’s been receiving, the fact that we were able to hold Leicester scoreless was equally impressive. Wimmer specially had a sublime game, something a bit unexpected considering both his lack of game time this season and Leicester’s attacking potency – the latter of which was greatly aided by Demarai Gray.

The 19 year-old looks to be a good acquisition by the Foxes. He’s already busting with confidence, something that will surely grow the more time he spends around the likes of Vardy and Mahrez. He looked like the one player that could make something happen for Leicester, whereas Ulloa was wholly ineffective and underwhelming.

The title of Chief Nuisance in the second half however has to go to Shinji Okazaki. The man is tireless; his body’s natural state seems to be set at ‘sprint’. In the two games previous, he was incredibly threatening – scoring a goal and generally making our defense look nervous.

Even Okazaki’s tireless running wasn’t enough to stop Spurs from progressing in the F.A. Cup. Tottenham defeated Leicester by using their own plan against them – using the wide areas efficiently and abusing the narrow defense with ball-on-the-ground tactics and quickly extinguishing any major attacking move that Leicester attempted to pull off.