Tottenham 1-0 Southampton: Saints fall short as Pochettino's Spurs march to victory

Christian Eriksen helped Tottenham end a run of four league games without victory, giving Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino a win over his former club.

Another run was broken as Saints had enjoyed their 2014/15 season's visits to the capital, with Ronald Koeman's men beating London clubs Arsenal, West Ham and Millwall in their three visits prior to today's trip to the city.

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The home side took the lead five minutes before half time when Eriksen struck a shot low and hard into the right-hand corner of Fraser Forster's net. Eriksen was once close to joining Saints as a 17 year old, but the deal never came to fruition due to the club's poor financial situation at the time.

Southampton looked flat throughout the first half and defended poorly to allow Eriksen to shoot from just outside the 18-yard box. It was only the fifth goal Saints have conceded so far in this Premier League season, so it was somewhat uncharacteristic of a usually-solid Southampton backline.

Nacer Chadli was the man who assisted the Dane Eriksen, and he could have extended Tottenham's lead further only for his shot to bounce off the post just minutes after the Spurs opener.

Saints looked a lot better after the break, but Spurs were always ready to break away and counter Southampton as they looked to advance and try to nab an equaliser.

Kenyan midfielder Victor Wanyama went close to grabbing the tying goal after seizing on some sloppy defending from Pochettino's men, but Tottenham's goalkeeper Hugo Lloris did well to save, flying to his left.

With six minutes to go, Sadio Mané had a golden opportunity to level the scoring, but he failed to get any decent contact on the end of a fine, arrowed cross from Ryan Bertrand on the left. All the Senegalese winger had to do was to side-foot the ball into the net, but totally misjudged it and the ball then harmlessly rolled out for a goal kick.

Pochettino, who was often maligned as being tactically predictable by Saints fans during his tenure on the south coast, used a perfect gameplan to foil his former club today.

Spurs allowed Saints' midfield to have no time on the ball today, meaning the usually lively duo of Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pellé suffered as a result.