I watched this one sitting with the Spurs fans having been offered a ticket by a former colleague at the last minute.
First thing to mention is the stadium. It really is excellent. That single tier south stand looks absolutely awesome - unlike the London Stadium, the new WHL is still steep and therefore close to the pitch. Were they to make any noise, you'd expect Spurs to be able to generate quite the atmosphere there if they wanted to.
On that point, Spurs fans are not a happy bunch. Lots of hate aimed towards their sideways passing (the bang-average Dier being the most frequent target), but the way we press makes it very difficult to make incisive forward balls.
Spurs did get in behind us out wide a couple of times and I think that's where you realise how effective Jonny is at cutting out attacks. Our press invites teams to go wide and then the idea is to have two defenders on one forward and nick the ball back. Vinagre is still learning that part of his game, as we saw against Espanyol. His work for our first goal, however, was excellent. Great interplay with Jota on the left and it was good to see him take on his man, get to the byline, and cross first time without the need for a thousand stepovers.
Raúl, Boly, and Moutinho all had generally poor games by their standards, but there's a reason we tend not to sub off the former - what a composed finish for the winner. I think Raúl can often swipe at shots that land on his left foot (and he regularly tries to avoid using it), so to cut in like that and back himself was excellent.
For us to be marginally the better team for the majority of the match (iffy first half hour notwithstanding) with three of our best players not quite at the races goes to show the strength of our first 11. I also think we've really nailed the ability to switch between 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 - Dendoncker coming on was the perfect change at that stage due to Spurs throwing caution to the wind.
Jota was excellent in my view. He had a great header go just over from a set play, he ran at players with confidence, and - all of a sudden - the attempts at taking the ball past players (which have, at times this season, looked like runs down blind alleyways) have started to come off. That flick over his shoulder before setting off on the run that set up Raúl's winner was classic 2017/18 Jota.
Special mention for Doherty who was excellent at both ends of the pitch, including a fantastic block right towards the end which he celebrated more than any time I've seen him celebrate a goal.
The Wolves fans were great throughout, notwithstanding the pretty small allocation. It wasn't easy having to sit on my hands when we scored (three times!), but I'm glad I got to see us play at such an incredible stadium.
Finally, a comment on our second goal - what a fantastic move, executed under some pressure by Neves. That type of quick, forward pass is what I've wanted to see more of from the team and I'm glad he backed himself to receive the ball from Moutinho and get it in and out of his feet quickly whilst being closed down. That's the kind of pass that separates the top teams from the rest in my view (something De Bruyne does exceptionally well).
Great day, brilliant performance - just need to make sure we keep it going against Brighton. I'm pleased we're not playing Chris Hughton's Brighton that's for sure.
