Tottenham squeeze past Sunderland to earn first win of season

Ryan Mason grabbed a wonder goal late on as Spurs finally secured a Premier league win this season after three consecutive draws.

The win sees Tottenham Hotspur climb up to 12th in the Premier league with a game in hand over Aston Villa who remain two points adrift with a game in hand. Dick Advocaat’s side meanwhile remain rooted at the bottom with only two points from a possible 15. The loss also means that the Black Cats have only managed to pick up one point from three home matches.

Neither side’s attack was on top form, and the two sides’ lack of confidence in front of goal showed in a disappointing match.

Dick Advocaat’s side produced a spirited performance and had the best of the chances in the first half when former Spurs striker Jermain Defoe hit the post.

Tottenham did not have a single attempt on target until the close stages, with England striker – fresh from scoring for England against Switzerland in midweek – again fluffing his lines before the goal.

Kane has yet to hit the target for his club this campaign, and again looked off colour against a robust Black Cats defence.

However, Kane played a huge part in Spurs’ first win of the season after combining passes with Erik Lamela before the Argentine substitute passed a defence splitting through ball for England midfielder Ryan Mason, who chipped Costel Pantilimon in the Sunderland goal to score his second Premier League goal and Spurs’ fourth goal of the season.

Mason’s joy was however short-lived as the midfielder was injured in the process of scoring and left the field on a stretcher.

The crossbar denied Jack Rodwell late on as Sunderland threw everything forward in hope of an equaliser.

Heung-min Son, Spurs’ new £21.9m transfer from Bayer Leverkusen was handed his debut by Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino before he was taken off on 62 minutes for Andros Towsend. For Sunderland, Fabio Borini was given his second Sunderland bow after re-joining the club from Liverpool and Ola Toivonen made his first start.

The win sees Spurs move up to 12th, although victory for Aston Villa at Leicester in the day’s late kick-off would see them leapfrog Pochettino’s side.