What is Dembele's best position?
In only his fifth start of this season, Spurs' midfielder Mousa Dembele was convincingly voted Spurs' man of the match after Saturday's 0-0 draw at home to Liverpool.
In this game, with former ever-present Eric Dier suspended, Dembele was required to play in one of the two defensive midfield roles. According to the Daily Mail, the player is "demanding talks" with Mauricio Pochettino about his role at the club, and yet the direct quotes attributed to Mousa are far less confrontational than the headline, when he says, "It is something that we need to discuss but I will try to impress the manager wherever he plays me. It is something between me and the gaffer that we need to sort out". So there it is, a mountain made out of a molehill by the media. Nothing new there then.
Dembele's last man of the match vote was achieved in the away game against Liverpool in February, which we lost 3-2, with Dembele getting on the scoresheet for a rare occasion. On that day, Eriksen was shifted to the left to accommodate Dembele playing the central attacking midfield role.
In the previous season, Mousa headed the spursometer player grades twice. Once was in the home game against Chelsea, when he played at the back alongside Paulinho. The other was in the home win against Stoke, when he again played next to Paulinho in a Tim Sherwood 4-4-2. Perhaps he is at his best playing deeper in midfield. His stats after Saturday's game were certainly impressive regarding tackles won, ball retention and passes made.
Sadly, Nacer Chadli is likely to be out for six weeks with an ankle ligament injury sustained so early in the game. I must admit, I missed the tackle on him, but I have received a comment or two suggesting that this was just one of many perceived errors made by referee Craig Pawson, who got the worst mark of any referee so far this season, and also his worst in 7 games in charge of Spurs since February last year.
The absence of Chadli and Heung-min Son (hopefully back soon!) leaves Harry Kane with a) little support and b) little chance of respite in a busy programme with two games to be played in 4 days later this week.
· See the spursometer in full.
Results 17-19.10.15
Spurs 0-0 Liverpool
Chelsea 2-0 A. Villa
C. Palace 1-3 West Ham
Everton 0-3 Man Utd
Man City 5-1 B'mouth
S'hampton 2-2 Leicester
West Brom 1-0 S'derland
Watford 0-3 Arsenal
Newcastle 6-2 Norwich
Swansea 0-1 Stoke
Barclays Premier League Table
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Man City 9 7 0 2 24-8 16 21
2. Arsenal 9 6 1 2 16-7 9 19
3. Man Utd 9 6 1 2 15-8 7 19
4. West Ham 9 5 2 2 20-12 8 17
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5. Leicester 9 4 4 1 19-17 2 16
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6. C. Palace 9 5 0 4 12-10 2 15
7. Spurs 9 3 5 1 11-7 4 14
8. S'hampton 9 3 4 2 15-12 3 13
9. Everton 9 3 3 2 12-11 1 13
10. Liverpool 9 3 4 2 8-10 -2 13
11. Stoke 9 3 3 3 9-10 -1 12
12. Chelsea 9 3 2 4 14-17 -3 11
13. West Brom 9 3 2 4 7-11 -4 11
14. Swansea 9 2 4 3 10-11 -1 10
15. Watford 9 2 4 3 6-10 -4 10
16. Norwich 9 2 3 3 14-20 -6 9
17. B'mouth 9 2 2 5 11-17 -6 8
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18. Newcastle 9 1 3 5 12-19 -7 6
19. A. Villa 9 1 1 7 8-15 -7 4
20. S'derland 9 0 3 6 8-19 -11 3
