Archie Gray’s first start for Tottenham was an entertaining Carabao Cup affair in which Spurs eventually defeated Coventry City, but he still looked like a Leeds player after the game.
The 18-year-old joined Tottenham from Leeds at the beginning of July for a fee of £40 million. However, a quarter of that cash was immediately returned to Spurs for the permanent purchase of player Joe Rodon.
However, Gray has been forced to wait several minutes at Tottenham. He appeared in Spurs’ first two Premier League games against Leicester and Everton, but was benched against Newcastle United and Arsenal.
On Wednesday night, however, Ange Postecoglou gave Gray the opportunity to start, and he played the full 90 minutes as Spurs rallied from behind to defeat Championship side and FA Cup semi-finalists Coventry.
Gray identifies Elland Road as “our ground” during an interview.
Djed Spence’s magnificent goal, followed by an injury-time victory from Brennan Johnson, cancelled out Brandon Thomas-Asante’s opener shortly after the hour mark. Spence equalised in the 88th minute.
Gray noted after the game that he knew that Coventry would be a tough match because he had previously played against Mark Robins’ side for Leeds. He inadvertently referred to Elland Road as “our ground”.
“This is a difficult place to come to. Played here last year, even at our ground last year, they always bring a tough game and lots of transitions. They did well and the fans got behind them,” Gray told Sky Sports.
Gray solid but he was outshone by Spence in first Spurs start
Two tackles, passing accuracy above 90% and an interception according to WhoScored is proof that Gray has a solid, steady first start for Spurs in what was a banana skin for Ange Postecoglou’s side last night.
However, Spence outperformed Gray. The Leeds failure, who has returned to Spurs after a loan spell at Genoa, came on at half-time on the other side of Tottenham’s defence and set up his team’s late equaliser.
Not only that, but he had a higher passing accuracy than Gray, as well as the same number of tackles and clearances in 45 minutes. It’s possible he’ll return to the bench when Spurs face Brentford this weekend.
