Sport

Powerful Son keeps Spurs on the rise

Karanka wants Gibson to focus on Boro over England

Spurs had chances to extend their lead through Heung-Min and Erik Lamela, but in the end had to be content with victory by the slenderest of margins.

Son, who scored two in the 4-0 defeat of Stoke City, opened the scoring on seven minutes with a neat finish following soon good hold up play from Vincent Janssen before adding a second on 23 minutes with a superb curling shot - but the hosts ensured a tense finish after Ben Gibson headed home on 66 minutes.

Aitor Karanka's side will certainly need his sides team spirit to pull them out of this slump, after an unbeaten start to the season.

Spurs - robbed of crocked England striker Kane after his remarkable run of 71 Premier League starts - led 2-0 at the interval courtesy of Son, an £18million signing from Bayer Leverkusen in August previous year. "When a front player scores goals it is easy for him to settle".

One other thing going in their favor is that the visitors will be without their talismanic striker Harry Kane who suffered an ankle injury in a 1-0 win over Sunderland.

In truth, Spurs should have enjoyed more than a two goal advantage at the break.

"We have to work on our percentage and we have to work on that for the future".

Tottenham's Son Heung-min scored twice on Saturday.

Spurs' next two matches are very important with a trip to Russian Federation facing CSKA Moscow in the Champions League and hosting Man City to begin the month of October in the Premiership.

"For Danny, Mousa and Eric, we will see (how they are) today (Friday) in the last training session and then we need to take a decision, so we'll see", Pochettino said.

However Karanka insisted he retains belief in his current squad having pointed to their misfortune at home to Crystal Palace and a strong start against Everton at Goodison Park last week.

It was a moment that raised a question mark over Valdes, and also over Karanka's decision to play Calum Chambers, the defender on loan from Arsenal, instead of Daniel Ayala, one of the most reliable members of his usual back four. But he's a calm lad so I think and I know he'll remain calm and he'll be just thinking about the game on Saturday.

"In the second half we allowed the opponent to come back".

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Powerful Son keeps Spurs on the rise