DJED SPENCE’S case for a possible England call-up is growing stronger by the week.
The versatile defender, 24, has been Spurs’ form player over their difficult, injury-ravaged last few months, handling Mo Salah brilliantly in the Carabao Cup in January.
ReutersBrennan Johnson was hero for Spurs – scoring twice to down Ipswich Town[/caption]
RexJohnson opened the scoring for the away side[/caption]
It has led to talk of possible inclusion in Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions squad.
And if the German was watching this performance, which saw Spence net his first Premier League goal to kill off Ipswich’s resistance, he may have found it quite persuasive.
Ange Postecoglou, who talked up Spence’s credentials on Friday, saw his side race into a 2-0 lead thanks to a Brennan Johnson double.
But given his team’s habit of chucking away leads, the fear was it would happen when Omari Hutchinson curled home before the break.
Yet in the end England hopeful Spence’s deflected effort ensured a third straight league victory for Spurs, before Dejan Kulusevski’s stunner added some gloss to the scoreline.
Meanwhile Kieran McKenna’s Town are now five points adrift in the relegation zone after yet another home humbling.
It is now four straight home defeats for the Tractor Boys with 14 goals shipped in the process, leaving their survival prospects looking bleak.
Tottenham… or Spurs, or Tottenham Hotspur, whatever the club wishes to be called… can be a curious team under Postecoglou.
They seem to live in ‘moments’ – modern-day football-speak for spells in games – more than most sides.
And those moments can shift dramatically from exhilarating ones to desperate ones and back again in any game, against any opposition.
They survived a bad one in the opening six minutes as Ipswich livewire striker Liam Delap ripped them apart.
Delap raced clear and had a shot well-saved by Guglielmo Vicario inside the first 30 seconds.
Jaden Philogene’s rebound strike would have gone in had it not hit an offside Hutchinson near the line.
Delap then breezed past Archie Gray, restored to the heart of Spurs’ backline in Ben Davies’ absence, and prodded a shot just wide of the far post.
Spurs’ scare from the ex-Manchester City man continued when he flicked Kalvin Phillips’ free-kick onto the post before it was hacked away.
But then came a moment of devastating brilliance from Postecoglou’s side.
Gray, deployed at right centre-back with Kevin Danso switched to the left, lofted an inch-perfect ball over the top to Son Heung-min.
AFPOmari Hutchinson got the home team back in it in the first hald[/caption]
RexHowever, Djed Spence killed off all hope of a comeback[/caption]
The South Korean still had plenty to do and proceeded to fool Ben Godfrey with a clever step-over, before fizzing the ball across the six-yard area for Johnson to convert.
Johnson and Son’s double act was repeated on 26 minutes as Rodrigo Bentancur sent the latter clear down the left.
Son cut in and was afforded an age to pick out Wales star Johnson, back in the starting line-up for the first time since January’s win at Tamworth due to a calf issue, to slot home.
In between the two clinical strikes, Danso had pulled off an audacious Cruyff-turn to get himself out of trouble when last man, to the delight of the travelling fans.
The home supporters, meanwhile, had gone quiet, but their enthusiasm was reignited when their side grabbed one back out of nothing – and in style.
Phillips played the ball out to former Spurs kid Jack Clarke, whose first-time ball was met with a beautiful, first-time strike from Hutchinson that found the corner.
GettyDejan Kulusevski put the gloss on a fine away performance by Spurs[/caption]
PAKulusevski celebrates scoring his side’s fourth goal[/caption]
Luke Woolfenden, on for Godfrey at half-time, thought he had levelled around the hour mark but he had wandered offside when heading in from close range.
Former Norwich man James Maddison was booed every time he touched the ball but it was his dancing feet which teed up Spence to find the net via Woolfenden’s hefty deflection.
If the game was not up then, it certainly was seven minutes later when Kulusevski curled in off the post before roaring in relieved celebration.
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