Tottenham 3 - 1 Southend

Rainy day today, but I'm still happy about the classy performance the lads put in yesterday. A very pleasant afternoon and essentially the kind of football that allowed for unusually comfortable watching. At least in retrospect...

Kevin Mitchell in The Observer call the line-up 'virtually a Spurs second team' before lauding their brilliance. Second team seems off the mark, certainly in terms of performance, but I have to say that I missed the strike-force that is Berbatov and Defoe up front. In an afternoon of excellent mid-field action (especially by the dazzling Lennon), full of great crosses to the front two, their finishing touches were at times somewhat feeble. Against a tougher opposition midfield it might have looked quite different, but there seems to be a development in the right direction and a depth and variety in the squad which looks promising.
Jenas had a great first game back, and 5 day old signing Ricardo Rocha revealed himself to be a classy player who seems set to quickly get into the English game. Cerny did well with what little work he had to do; the penalty was a very well taken one, so no fault of his. Zokora was also very active and made some excellent runs. I've run out of adjectives for Lennon in general and his performance yesterday in particular, but a suggestion that he sometimes outruns opposition players because they are simply stunned does not seem far off the mark.
The lads kept Southend under pressure and played lovely passing football, which the opposition found it hard to intercept. Our cup runs continue to impress, even if the prospect of Wednesday is already daunting, considering the experiences of Wednesday last. Danny Kelly wrote in The Times about his childishly irrational fear of Arsenal, comparing the sensation to watching Dr Who as a child: 'The current Arsenal side are my Daleks.' I have to concur. And outclassing Southend at the Lane is not to be compared with coming up against the French foreign legion of Daleks at the Emirates.

Goals: Keane (12), Jenas (50), Mido (76) // Eastwood (69, pen)

Tottenham
Radek Cerny, Michael Dawson, Young-Pyo Lee, Ricardo Rocha, Paul Stalteri, Hossam Ghaly (Steed Malbranque), Jermaine Jenas, Aaron Lennon, Didier Zokora, Robbie Keane (Jermain Defoe), Ahmed Hossam Mido (Tom Huddlestone)
Southend
Darryl Flahavan, Adam Barrett, Peter Clarke, Lewis Hunt, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Mark Gower (Gary Hooper), Steven Hammell, Kevin Maher, Alan McCormack (Luke Guttridge), Lee Bradbury (Matt Harrold), Freddy Eastwood