Emerson is proving Antonio Conte right at Spurs after first-half disaster | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur bolstered their claims for a top-four finish in the Premier League this season with a stunning come-from-behind victory over Leicester City on Wednesday evening.

The north Londoners are now only eight points behind third-placed Chelsea and do hold four games in hand heading into the second half of the season.

Spurs looked destined for their first league defeat under Antonio Conte until two moments of magic in injury time.

Super-substitute Steven Bergwijn was in the right place at the right time to poke home an equaliser in the 95th minute before he rounded the goalkeeper minutes later and slotted home with the last kick of the game.

Who is Tottenham's best right wing-back?

EMERSON

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DOHERTY

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There will be plenty of concerns for the way in which they conceded goals though and one player who took plenty of criticism on social media was Japhet Tanganga.

But much of the flak was pretty unfair as he played a big part throughout the 90 minutes – for instance, only one player on either team recorded more touches than he did (91), whilst he also registered three tackles and won 80% of his duels, per SofaScore.

It was Emerson Royal who was hooked at half-time and the Lilywhites instantly looked like a better side with Matt Doherty contributing in the final third.

It’s no surprise Conte is reportedly wanting a new right wing-back this month, despite the Brazilian only joining in the summer in a €30m (£26m) deal from Barcelona.

‘[The] contrast between him and [Sergio] Reguilon on opposite flank was stark before he was dragged at half-time. No wonder a right-wing-back is high on Conte’s shopping list,’ claimed the Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick in his post-match column.

SofaScore graded the 23-year-old as the worst performer on the pitch, having won just one of his three duels (33.3%), whilst he failed to deliver a single cross or dribble from 22 touches.

By comparison, Doherty provided one assist, made 100% of his crossing attempts and registered four key passes (the joint-most in the game).

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Given the rumours that Conte isn’t confident in Emerson due to his poor play in attack, the £26m-rated Brazil international did himself no favours and if anything, proved the Italian head coach right in just about every possible way.

Recently dubbed a ‘flop’ by the Daily Mail, it could be a matter of time before Emerson is axed from the starting XI after another dreadful outing.