Tottenham 3 Dinamo Tbilisi 0 (agg 8-0): Tottenham's second string gave manager Andre Villas-Boas plenty to ponder ahead of this weekend's derby against Arsenal as they put in an impressive performance to help the north London club into the Europa League group stage.
With €70 million worth of new signings added to this squad this summer, and at least another three players on their way in, there has been little talk of the importance of the likes of Jermain Defoe and Lewis Holtby to the new-look Tottenham so far this season.
Yet the duo gave their manager a timely reminder of their talents tonight, even though Dinamo were very poor opposition.
Defoe, making his first start of the season, fired a peach of a left foot strike past Giorgi Loria to open the scoring after 40 minutes and the England striker doubled his tally in first-half injury time with an easy tap-in. The brace moved the 30-year-old up to sixth in Spurs’ all-time top scorers list and he will now be keen to press Roberto Soldado hard in training over the next few days in the hope that he gets the nod to start against Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.
The spotlight was taken away from Defoe slightly towards the end of the second half thanks to Holtby, who opened his Tottenham scoring account in style with a powerful 20-yard strike that flew in off the underside of the bar.
Chairman Daniel Levy was at White Hart Lane to watch the game while behind the scenes Tottenham were putting the final touches to the transfers of Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Vlad Chiriches. The triple-transfer is likely to trigger Gareth Bale’s world-record move to Real Madrid.
