Will Lucas Moura prove to be the piece to complete Tottenham's jigsaw?

Lucas Moura wasn’t supposed to score his second and Tottenham’s third at Old Trafford on Monday night. Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino had lined the Brazilian up to be replaced by Harry Winks with around 10 minutes to play. The club’s Twitter account even tweeted the change had taken place. Yet Pochettino opted against the sub and minutes later, Moura raced through one on one with David De Gea to cap off a memorable evening for Spurs in Manchester. 

Despite Monday night marking his first appearance, Moura’s brace against United means he is Spurs’ top scorer at Old Trafford in the Premier League era. It continues what has been a fine start to the campaign for Moura and, in all honesty, one expected by supporters. The 26-year-old move to Tottenham in January after a disappointing end to life in Paris, and he’s had to bide his time in order to exhibit his talent in north London as he made just six league appearances, totalling 208 minutes, in the second half of last season. 

With a full pre-season under his belt with Pochettino monitoring his progress, however, Moura has made a superb start to the campaign. No player has scored more Premier League goals than the winger (3) this term, whose WhoScored rating (7.87) is the fifth best in England’s top tier. He showed glimpses of his quality when called upon following his arrival, but supporters are now seeing the wideman at his destructive best, with his WhoScored rating against United (8.99) enough to secure the man of the match award and a spot in the Premier League team of the week 

Spurs had been crying out for a natural winger for some time prior to his arrival. Son Heung-Min had plugged the gap well, but when the South Korean was enduring an off day against teams that sat deep, Spurs suffered as a result. The best teams in England have options in every position and Spurs now join them with two quality widemen able to stretch defences. 

However, with Son currently on international duty with South Korea at the Asian Games - the Taegeuk Warriors have made it to Saturday’s final where they face Japan as they hope to land a gold medal, which would exempt 26-year-old from military service - Moura had a chance to nail down a regular starting spot and he’s grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Spurs may have failed to bring in any new faces in the summer window, but Moura, as cliched as it may, feels like a new signing in the off-season that was made back in January. 

An injection of pace was required in the Spurs XI, particularly in the absence of Son, with Moura providing just that in the final third. He started up front alongside Kane at Old Trafford in a 4-3-1-2 formation with the winger often the further man forward in order to hit United on the counter. Indeed, as Kane dropped deep in search possession, Moura would apply pressure on the rickety United backline and it worked impressively, particularly in his second and Spurs’ third goal of the game, that one of three counter-attacking goals scored in the Premier League this season. 

The speed he affords Pochettino in the final third grants the Argentine greater tactical flexibility with Spurs now able to dominate opponents or sit back and hit teams on the counter, as they did so efficiently in the 3-0 win over United this week. Yet it’s not just Moura’s attacking performances that have caught the eye, but his work off the ball too, particularly in the final third. Pochettino demands his players to work hard when out of possession in order to pressure opponents and set up goalscoring chances. 

Moura has adhered to the managerial demands of the Argentine head coach and it’s seen him return two tackles and two interceptions per game in the Premier League this season, both of which rank highly of every Spurs player. If he can rediscover the form that saw him score 12 and register five assists in the 2016/17 Ligue 1 season, then Pochettino has a handy weapon at his disposal. 

While teams around them invested heavily this summer, Spurs stuck with the familiar, but the rise of Moura will ease fears over a lack of new additions, not to mention the fact that club held onto Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele and Danny Rose, three players strongly linked with a move away. They travel to Watford on Sunday in a bid to maintain their 100% start to the season in an early top of the table clash in the Premier League. With Moura making the most of the opportunity to consolidate a starting spot, though, Spurs should be confident of making it four wins from four at Watford’s expense this weekend.