Tottenham Hotspur moved to seventh in the Premier League after beating Aston Villa 4-1 at home on Saturday (3 November).
Spurs once again failed to deal with set-pieces as Morgan Rogers scored from close range, and they were thoroughly outplayed in the first half.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have made a reputation for winning games from behind, especially at home, and they did exactly that in the second half.
The full-backs, especially Destiny Udogie, made good overlaps, and Spurs looked like a completely different side after they got the equalizer through Brennan Johnson.
While Dominik Solanke grabbed the headlines for scoring two goals, there were some strong performances from elsewhere.
One of them is Pape Matar Sarr, who was simply superb in the middle of the park. The 22-year-old produced a dominant performance against Manchester City, and he was brilliant against Villa as well.
The Daily Mail gave him an 8/10 rating, as he repaid the faith of his manager for putting him into the starting line-up ahead of other midfielders at the club.
Sarr has made only three Premier League starts this season, and most of his appearances have come from the bench. But in recent games, he has started to show his true quality.
He dictated the tempo of the game with his accurate passing and boisterous energy in midfield.
The Senegal midfielder managed 59 accurate passes out of 64 attempted, making an impressive 92% passing accuracy. He had 79 touches and made one key pass.
He managed three shots and kept one on target. Sarr also contributed defensively, making two interceptions and three clearances, and blocked two efforts.
With Rodrigo Bentancur now fully fit, Postecoglou has loads of quality midfielders to choose from. James Maddison, who came from the bench, also made a point with a fantastic free-kick, and this competition for places should get the best out of the players.
Spurs will travel to Turkey to face Galatasaray on Thursday in the Europa League, and Sarr will be hoping to get some minutes under his belt.
Stats taken from sofascore.com.
