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da dobrowin： Tottenham gained at least some form of retribution for their recent Premier League defeat to Arsenal with a 2-0 win at the Emirates in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening, but the performance of Moussa Sissoko will worry Mauricio Pochettino.
The Frenchman has been in fine form in recent weeks and has finally begun to justify why Tottenham splashed out £30m to sign him from Newcastle back in the summer of 2016.
However, his display against the Gunners bore more resemblance to his early performances in a Tottenham shirt, where he struggled to show the quality needed and wasn’t able to secure a run in the starting XI.
Tottenham themselves were impressive as they powered into the semi-finals of the competition. It took the Lilywhites just 20 minutes to open the scoring as Son Heung-Min broke the offside trap and fired past Petr Cech, leaving Arsenal fans seething with Henrikh Mkhitaryan for missing a gilt-edged chance just before.
With the score still at 1-0 Spurs then set up a brilliant counter-attack, and Sissoko was involved as he played a neat one-two with Christian Eriksen, only for the French international to blaze the ball over the bar when given a clear shot at goal.
The miss seemed to affect the rest of his performance too, as Sissoko shrank in stature and failed to get himself on the ball – in complete contrast to recent weeks where he has almost single-handedly driven Tottenham forward at times.
Against Arsenal though the 29-year-old only managed 37 touches of the ball, despite playing in central midfield for the whole of the 90 minutes.
Luckily for Sissoko, his blushes were spared as Dele Alli scored a wonderful second for the visitors to secure the victory in the second half.
Sissoko’s lack of impact on the game though will worry Pochettino heading into the busy festive period. His failure to provide a single key pass or a shot on target, as well as a poor 76 per cent pass accuracy would suggest that he is slipping back to his old ways, just when Tottenham need him to be at his absolute best.