Sun 02 May 2021, 22:40
Tottenham HotspurRyan Mason felt the players delivered the perfect response to last week’s Wembley woes with a convincing 4-0 victory against Sheffield United on Sunday.
Interim Head Coach Ryan said the pain of the Carabao Cup Final defeat, ‘was there, and still is’ during the build-up to facing the Blades, but the excellent week’s work he also alluded to on Friday translated to a fine performance as we returned to Premier League action at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Gareth Bale led the way with a hat-trick, taking him to 51 goals in the Premier League, including nine this season. Heung-Min Son added a deserved fourth as we climbed up to fifth in the table.
We had to be patient, but a moment of magic from Serge Aurier and Bale finally opened up the visitors on 35 minutes. We led 1-0 at half-time, Sonny had a goal chalked off by a narrow VAR offside call at the start of the second half, United came back into it but Bale’s second on the hour took us up another level. The Welsh star soon completed his hat-trick via a second Serge assist, and Sonny completed the scoring on 77 minutes as we ended with 20 efforts on goal.
“It was excellent, I’m really, really happy with the boys, I thought they were committed for the 95 minutes, played some really good football, and most pleasing was our attitude to compete and to be brave,” said Ryan.
“We’ve had a really good training week after a disappointing result last weekend, but this was the best way to respond, to put on a performance, to win, to score some good goals and play some good football.
“In the first half we had moments where I was thinking, 'come on, it should be 2-0, 3-0 at half-time', but it wasn’t meant to be.
“Sheffield United made it difficult for us in the second half for five or 10 minutes, that’s normal in the Premier League, every team has these spells, but I thought we defended well as a team, competed in every single moment, showed bravery to play under pressure and showed real quality.
“In the second half we were clinical, some of the finishes were world class and some of our play as well was really positive. Gareth’s finishing was frightening. He’s a world-class player, we all know that, and he proved it again tonight. It was a really pleasing night.
“It’s a clean sheet, which is important, that’s 11 in the Premier League this season, so that’s good from a team point of view. The win was massive and the manner in which we won was pleasing as well.”
