Murphy: Tottenham don’t have a player to compare with this Chelsea reserve
By Harry Sykes
Danny Murphy has claimed that Tottenham don’t have a reserve as good as Chelsea fringe man Pedro.
Spurs dropped two points in midweek when they drew 0-0 at second-to-bottom club Sunderland and failed to take advantage of the league leaders slipping up at Liverpool.
Chelsea missed a late penalty at Anfield on Tuesday night and took only a point from the match against Jurgen Klopp’s out-of-form side.
But second-placed Tottenham did not grasp the opportunity to narrow the gap to seven points, and the midweek results mean that they go into the weekend nine points adrift of their London rivals.
BBC pundit and former Spurs midfielder Murphy believes Mauricio Pochettino’s side have a strong starting XI but not the necessary back-ups to change a match.
“Tottenham are on a par with Chelsea in terms of their defence but I look at their bench and I don’t see enough game changers there,” Murphy said, as quoted by the BBC Sport website.
“Chelsea can bring Pedro on Liverpool can bring [Daniel] Sturridge on and I look at Tottenham’s bench and I just wonder if they have enough.”
Spurs’ substitutes for the Sunderland match were £30million signing Moussa Sissoko,rookie midfielder Harry Winks, striker Vincent Janssen and defensive trio Ben Davies, Kevin Wimmer and Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Davies replaced the injured Danny Rose in the first half and Sissoko and Janssen were second-half replacements for Son Heung-Min and Mousa Dembele but neither were able to influence the game.
Tottenham host Middlesbrough in Saturday’s late kick-off, while Chelsea kick off the weekend’s Premier League fixtures with their mouthwatering showdown against Arsenal.
In other Tottenham news, a striker has signed after Spurs agreed terms.
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