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MOTD: Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 AS Monaco

By on December 10, 2015

Erik Lamela’s first-half hat-track capped off an exemplary night for Tottenham Hotspur as they defeated a lackluster Monaco side in the Europa League. A youthful, exuberant Spurs side showcased the confidence that has defined their recent run of form and Lamela took the reigns in wake of Harry Kane’s absence. Tottenham’s starting lineup was so young, in fact, that Lamela is marginally above the average age, twenty-three.

The Argentina winger has used the Europa League as a platform to develop his game and a springboard into Spurs’ starting lineup. Beyond his hat of tricks and the spectacular, Lamela has shown signs of growing into a well-rounded player capable of driving Tottenham’s creative midfield and his hat-trick today makes him Spurs’ top scorer in Europe this season with five goals.

“Today he scored three goals, he deserves the headlines,” said Mauricio Pochettino of Lamela, per The Guardian. “Always the younger players need time, they need time to improve and adapt their game to a new culture and country. It’s a difficult process to adapt, some players do it quick and for others it takes time. Now I’m very happy for him. It’s true that today he’s more confident and looks a different player from two years ago.”

Academy graduates Joshua Onomah, who made his senior debut for Tottenham today, and Thomas Carroll also impressed for Tottenham, the latter scoring his first senior goal for the club since his debut against Hearts in 2011.

Pochettino’s men easily sliced apart Leonardo Jardim’s shambolic side and even Stephan El Shaarawy’s consolation goal was a piece of individual brilliance. Monaco lacked rhythm and pace on the ball and suffered from individualism and a lack of unity stemming from their approach to the transfer market. The French side needed a win to progress from the group stages yet their attacks were sporadic and lacked potency.

Lamela opened his account barely a minute into the match, steering in Ben Davies low cross from the left with all the time in the world to direct the ball into the far corner of the net from six yards out.  Son Heung-min had another goal disallowed soon afterward and Davies blasted narrowly over from the edge of the area, but it was Lamela again who added to Tottenham’s tally in the thirteenth minute with a lovely, curling finish from the edge of the box. Danijel Subasic flapped at the bouncing finish down low to his left.

Thirty-seven minutes in, Lamela wrapped up his first ever club-hat-trick with a clinical near-post finish from Son Heung-min’s through ball down the right, although Subasic again might have done better with his positioning.

Shaarawy whipped a beautiful twenty yard effort into the bottom right corner on the hour mark, yet he didn’t bother to celebrate. Thomas Carroll rounded of Tottenham’s rout in the seventy-seventh minute when he was allowed to rob his defender of the ball inside Monaco’s penalty area and poke a low effort past Subasic from a tight angle to the right of goal.  Although Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal all sealed their respective qualifications for the knockout stages in the Champions League over the past few days, it’s Tottenham who have looked most convincing in Europe lately.

Homepage photo credit: Hsien-Hsein Lei, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.