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LUTON, England, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Tottenham Hotspur beat Luton Town 1-0 at Luton Town on Saturday, despite playing the second half with 10 men. Topping the Premier League standings.
Dutch defender Mickey van de Veen scored the only goal of the game in the 52nd minute, scoring his first shot after receiving a short Tottenham corner kick from James Maddison.
“The team has shown a lot of character and resilience in the first few games leading up to today,” Spurs coach Anj Postkoglu said.
Spurs are unbeaten after eight league games and are now two points ahead of Manchester City and three ahead of Arsenal ahead of the teams’ meeting on Sunday. Luton still have four points.
The visitors were sent off in first-half stoppage time after receiving a second yellow card for diving outside the Luton area, but broke the deadlock early in the second half to take all three points. .
Luton suffered their sixth defeat of the season in the league after weathering an early storm at Spurs and missing some clear-cut chances.
It was all one-way traffic at first, and in the seventh minute Tottenham’s Pedro Polo got in behind the goalkeeper after a one-two with Son Heung-min, but Polo’s shot went wide.
In the 17th minute, Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski came into action again. Dejan Kulusevski’s cross was cleared by Tom Lockyer, but it was not far away from Heung-min Son, but his shot went straight to the goalkeeper. .
“They started strong and we had some luck in the first 10 minutes or so and then we found a way into the game,” Luton coach Rob Edwards said.
Luton had their first shot on goal in the 21st minute, but Nakamba’s shot went over the goal. However, with Spurs scoreless, the home team did muster up the courage to start attacking the visitors’ goal.
Tottenham continued to attack, and after half an hour Kulusevski’s first shot was deflected by Kaminski who was going all out.
Luton thought they had found a breakthrough after 40 minutes. Carlton Morris headed the ball into the penalty area, and Elijah Adebayo took a touch and bounced the ball towards the far post.
The ball bounced vertically, and Lockyer reacted fastest and scored with a header. But after a lengthy VAR check, the goal was disallowed for a foul by Adebayor on Christian Romero.
However, the free-kick proved costly for Spurs, with Bissouma receiving a yellow card for a foul on Chidozi Ogbene. As overtime came to an end, Bissouma received a second yellow card for flagrant diving.
“We started really well and should have been three or four ahead, but then you get the red card and it’s a different type of game,” Postkoglu said.
Luton should have made full use of the extra man at the start of the second half, but Adebayor missed his best chance of the game when his shot went wide in the 47th minute.
Van de Veen’s first goal for Spurs five minutes later was enough to move Tottenham top of the table, with Luton still awaiting their first home win of the season. (Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
