Today I'm going back just four years to 2018 and Tottenham's home fixture played at Wembley Stadium due to construction works at Tottenham's new home at White Hart Lane. The match attracted 68,311 spectators.
The programme cover star is, as stated, Fernando Llorente. Llorente, a Spaniard, was born in Pamplona who, at the age of 37, continues to play in the Spanish Second Division for Eibar. His career began in earnest at Athletic Bilbao in 2005 and he managed 9 seasons with the club before falling out with coach Marcelo Bielsa (whatever happened to him?) and being transferred to Juventus of Italy where he would go on to win three Serie A titles as well as a runners-up medal in the Champions League Final. There then followed spells at Sevilla and Swansea City before Llorente joined Spurs in 2017. During his time at Spurs, Llorente was an understudy to Harry Kane as well as being a highly effective impact substitute and in 2019 he was an important part of the Spurs squad that went all the way to the Champions League Final where he collected another Champions League runners-up medal. Despite that success Llorente's contract was not renewed and he joined Napoli later that summer. All in all, Llorente made 654 club appearances scoring 201 goals, all the more impressive when you consider the large number of substitute appearances that he made throughout his career. Llorente was also a Spanish international earning 24 full caps and scoring 7 goals for Spain and was part of Spain's successful 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship squads. Llorente has also represented the unofficial Basque national side on five occasions.
The featured match was settled by South Korean striker Heung-min Son who struck twice to give Spurs a 2-0 victory over The Terriers. His first, the product of a sweeping move in the 27th minute demonstrated his calm but devastating finishing ability despite the sliding efforts of Town's Christopher Schindler and his second, scored in the 54th minute, came from a majestic cross by Harry Kane which he headed home past goalkeeper Lossl. The pairing of Son and Kane are now, officially, the most prolific forward pairing in the Premier League era, to date having scored or assisted each other to 37 goals, one more than Chelsea's combination of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.
Spurs finished the 2017/18 Premier League season in third place, earning a place in the following season's Champions League which they would come so close to winning. Huddersfield Town surprised many by avoiding relegation under the management of German born American David Wagner. Town finished the season in 16th position, four points clear of the drop zone which was occupied by Swansea City, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion. Manchester City won the League that season with exactly 100 points.
CRB Match No. 2210
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