Dejan Kulusevski (Tottenham): It was Kulusevski's superb through ball that set Son Heung-min free to put Spurs 1-0 up within the first 10 minutes against Manchester City. From that moment on, the Sweden international's game went from strength to strength. If anyone was going to get the equaliser at the end, it was Kulusevski. The way the player attacked the ball, and buried Nathan Ake in the bargain, was impressive. All credit to Tottenham - they were prepared to take the European champions on, and they did. With Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven in the side, the result might have been different. And that's the point, isn't it? Ange Postecoglou can walk away from this game knowing he's not far away from having a top four side.
Son Heung-min 7/10
A mixed afternoon for the South Korean, who netted Spurs’ first goal having been found by Kulusevski and beating Doku for speed. He was then unlucky to score an own goal and concede City’s equaliser
Forward: Dejan Kulusevski – Tottenham
Another hard-running performance from the Spurs star, who excelled in a midfield role. The Swede has helped fill the void left by James Maddison’s absence and was superb as Spurs fought back to earn a draw at Manchester City.
Kulusevski set Son Heung-min racing away to open the scoring inside six minutes, before grabbing a dramatic equaliser late on to continue his fine record at the Etihad.
The 23-year-old rose above Nathan Ake to head home and rescue a result, becoming just the second Premier League player to score away at the reigning champions in three consecutive campaigns.
AM: Dejan Kulusevski
Match: Manchester City 3-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Notable contributions: One goal, one assist
Fun fact: Celebration was inspired by LeBron James
It was fitting that Dejan Kulusevski celebrated scoring the footballing version of a slam dunk by mimicking one of the greatest basketball players to ever live.
The Swede has now scored twice the amount of goals this season (four) compared to last in 22 fewer games.
Roy Keane on #thfc captain Heung-Min Son: "When you watch him live he is just unbelievable. He sets the standards. He is a great example for any player that plays up front." [Sky Sports] https://twitter.com/HotspurRelated/status/1731386572417708148
5 - Players to register a goal, assist, and own goal in the same @premierleague game:
Kevin Davies v Aston Villa, Dec 2008
Wayne Rooney v Stoke City, Oct 2012
Gareth Bale v Liverpool, Nov 2012
Jacob Ramsey v Man Utd, Nov 2022
🆕Son Heung-min v Man City, today
“People listen to him because he’s such a great player…the young lads are training with us and involved in match day squads, if Sonny is talking, they’re listening. He’s just got a nice aura and a big personality, big player aura, that comes alive in big moments and has clutch moments for the club…”
Monday 11 December
Tottenham Hotspur 01：30 Newcastle United
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.
Assistants: Simon Bennett, Dan Robathan.
Fourth official: Tom Bramall.
VAR: Peter Bankes.
Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard.
Tottenham predicted lineup vs West Ham (4-3-3): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Davies, Udogie; Bissouma, Lo Celso, Hojbjerg; Kulusevski, Son, Johnson.
West Ham predicted lineup vs Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Areola; Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson; Ward-Prowse, Alvarez; Kudus, Soucek, Paqueta; Bowen.
Friday 8 December
Tottenham Hotspur 05：15 West Ham United
Referee: Michael Salisbury.
Assistants: Adam Nunn, Richard West.
Fourth official: Andy Madley.
VAR: John Brooks.
Assistant VAR: Neil Davies.
Erling Haaland (£8.1m), Mohamed Salah (£6.8m) and Son Heung-min (£4.4m) are the only players to have scored more Premier League goals than Hwang Hee-chan (£3.1m) this season.
The Wolves forward has bagged eight at a rate of one every 130.9 minutes 🔥
🚨Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham Hotspur forward Heung-Min Son will go down as one of the great strikers:
🗣️"I've been fortunate to work with some good strikers, but he's elite in every sort of aspect of you know, attacking players who've played in the Premier League.”
🗣️”I'd be very surprised if by the time he's finished - which is well down the track - he's not up there as one of the outstanding strikers because they forget a lot of his career he has played out wide but he's been a goal threat the whole time.”
🗣️”Now I'm putting him inside and that's why he's got nine goals already for the year. I think he's the leading goalscorer for offside goals as well! So he has been outstanding and I knew that before I got here, but just working with him every day the example he sets, as a person as much as a footballer is, it's just outstanding.”
🗣️”It's inspiring for me when you see a person who, for all intents and purposes, has climbed a mountain many times in terms of his own football pedigree but every day, he loves what he does. Every day he feels it's a blessing and every day that rubs off on other people.”
🗣️”Then he plays the game like that. He runs around like, he's literally just chasing balls down. Like I said, to me, that still inspires me, and I feel very grateful to be working with him."
🗣️”[On whether he will continue to build his team around Sonny and how his answer to that could impact whether Spurs choose to sign a striker in the near future] very much. Yes. Yeah, he will be a very important part of what we're building and but that doesn't mean we wouldn't sign another striker because I think even Sonny would demand that of me.”
🗣️”If you're going to build a team that's going to win things, I've always found your best players want more good players in the building. They're not comfortable, they don't want to be comfortable.”
🗣️”They don't want to just be sitting there saying, ‘Well, I'm the man’. They want to know that they're gonna be surrounded by other players who are just as motivated for success, but there's no doubt that Sonny will be a big part of that."
🗣️”[On Son’s leadership] I think he just got this thing in his head that whatever they say about me, good, bad, or otherwise, I'm not going to stop running throughout this period. And that has an effect on people.”
🗣️”It does, because a lot of that running is without reward, it doesn't get a reward for just chasing the ball down, but if your leader, if your best player is doing that, then me as a teammate, well, I can’t not do it. I just cannot.”
🗣️”I have to follow that lead and through this period, where we've had to sort of dig deep and which we are still going through, he's been a force.”
Tottenham predicted XI (4-3-3): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Davies, Udogie; Hojbjerg, Bissouma, Lo Celso; Kulusevski, Johnson, Son
Injured: Bentancur, Dier, Maddison, Perisic, Sessegnon, Solomon, Van de Ven, Whiteman
Doubt: Sarr
Time and date: 8:15pm GMT on Thursday December 7, 2023
Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
