Tottenham vs. Wigan: 5 Lessons Learned from Spurs' Third Consecutive Win

'Tis the season to be a Tottenham fan.

Though they probably should have won by a greater margin, Tottenham still managed to stroll to a relatively comfortable 2-1 win over Wigan, making it their third straight victory in the Premier League.

Jermaine Defoe's illness ment that the Van der Vaart was given the opportunity to reprise his old role behind the new striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, while Sandro came in the side and partnered with Scott Parker in a defensive midfield partnership that Tottenham fans have been waiting some time to see.

Let's look at what we learned from the game.

Ledley King Is World-Class (When Fit)

I know I already talked about how important Ledley King is to Tottenham last week, but when he continues to prove his importance week after the week, its hard not to give him the attention he deserves. Eventually I'll stop, but I don't know exactly when.

Tottenham's defense didn't look especially secure individually against Wigan.

Kyle Walker looked fairly solid, but Benoit Assou-Ekotto was the defender who made the mistake to give the ball back to Wigan deep in Tottenham's half of the field in the build-up to their goal, and Younes Kaboul's man-to-man marking was once again suspect as he was unable to stop Mohamed Diame from scoring what turned out to be a very impressive goal.

But aside from that error, Ledley King's play was excellent as he dealt with practically all the balls that came his way before they could develop into serious threats for Tottenham's defense.

This also may have been the first time in a long, long time that I've seen Ledley King play back-to-back games in defense for Tottenham.

If he can stay fit, and Michael Dawson or William Gallas can return soon, Tottenham will be a fearsome defensive force in the Premier League.

The Scott Parker-Sandro Partnership Lived Up to the Hype

Although they will face much harder tests than Wigan in the future, Sandro and Scott Parker performed fairly well together today. 

While Sandro broke up plays and put in his usual strong tackles in the midfield, Scott Parker's passing was excellent, opening up play and taking alot of the pressure to playmake off Luka Modric.

Though the scoreline was close, the possession was clearly in Tottenham's favor (64-36), and a huge reason for that was Sandro and Scott Parker's great play.

If Tottenham revert to their 4-4-2 when Jermaine Defoe recovers from injury, we might not get to see that partnership too often, but it definitely has the potential to be useful and effective against more midfield-oriented teams. It also gives Harry Redknapp the flexibility to shift between formations, an option he hasn't had before.

Sometimes, It's All About Defense

Many Tottenham fans were hoping for a big scoreline in this game, reminiscing on the 9-1 victory that Tottenham recorded over Wigan not too long ago.

And after Rafael van der Vaart scored the opening goal in the third minute and Gareth Bale followed it up in the 23rd minute, it looked like Tottenham would indeed end up dominating the game.

But in the end, it all came down to defensive errors.

Maynor Figueroa's horrible backpass early in the game allowed Emmanuel Adebayor to go clear of the defense and find Rafael van der Vaart, who still had the difficult task of finishing with the recovering defenders closing in on him, which he did it with aplomb.

Gareth Bale's header, while a solid goal created by great movement from the Welsh winger, was also scored to a significant degree because Figueroa did such a bad job of keeping up with Bale as the corner was taken by Luka Modric.

Finally, Wigan's goal was the result of two seperate incidents of poor defending by Tottenham. Benoit Assou-Ekotto's poor clearance created the opportunity to score for Wigan, and Younes Kaboul's poor man-to-man defending allowed Mohamed Diame to finish the opportunity, although to his credit it was a skillfully scored goal.

This leads directly to the next point/lesson learned from the game...

The 4-5-1 Wasn't Bad...But It Wasn't Better Than the 4-4-2

I'm not faulting Harry Redknapp here at all for going with a 4-5-1 when Jermaine Defoe was unavailable.

Roman Pavyluchenko and Giovani Dos Santos have yet to prove themselves remotely reliable enough to replace a guy like Jermaine Defoe (on his current form), and definitely haven't been good enough this season to justify keeping Rafael van der Vaart or Sandro out of the starting lineup.

But despite the promise showed by Scott Parker and Sandro in midfield, the performance of 4-5-1 overall was a tad disappointing.

As already explained, the only goals scored by Tottenham were goals scored off of poor defensive errors, and most other teams in the Premier League are not likely to make those kind of errors.

Also, aside from VDV's opening goal, Emmanuel Adebayor and VDV failed to link up in a manner as impressive as the way Defoe and Adebayor have been linking up in recent weeks.

Adebayor individually had the same game, but the stagnation that took place when VDV had the ball at his feet was reminiscent of Tottenham in 2010-11.

In the end, the 4-5-1 was good, and it was good that Redknapp got the opportunity to test its effectiveness, but the 4-4-2, so far, is more impressive.

Onto the Next One

At the end of the day, Tottenham and EPL fans alike shouldn't look into this game too much.

There were definitely some lessons to be learned, but against lower-level opposition like Wigan, sometimes the most important thing is to pick up the result and worry about the pretty play later.

Tottenham could definitely have been better, especially in the second half once Wigan lost Steven Gohouri to a red card.

Yet they weren't, and as I've already said, that is something Harry Redknapp will have to address, both tactically and personally. He must talk to his players about being more clinical and keeping their collective feet on the pedal for the full 90 minutes.

But that's it, it would be foolhardy to think that this performance means that Tottenham are guaranteed fourth place, or that Wigan are set for relegation. It is an indication that Tottenham are going in the right direction, and Wigan are currently going in the wrong one, but little more than that.