Defoe makes his pecking order point

JERMAIN Defoe would rather not be known for his goals in Europe's second competition, but another brace is a timely reminder.

Jermain Defoe

JERMAIN Defoe would probably rather not be known mainly for his goals in Europe's second competition, but another brace is a timely reminder to those who bemoan Tottenham Hotspur failing to sign another striker this summer.

Defoe struck two trademark poacher's goals inside eight minutes midway through the first half of Spurs' 3-0 Europa League win over Norwegian club Tromso, repeating his brace against Georgian team Dynamo Tbilisi in play-offs of the competition last month.

Christian Eriksen opened his account for his new club, when he crisply curled and dipped a shot into the top corner for Tottenham's third goal.

The competition has provided the England forward with his only starts this season and having known that Roberto Soldado would be preferred as the main striker, Defoe had been keen to move in summer to Queens Park Rangers for regular football, a switch that evaporated when Tottenham could not find a replacement.

Defoe's support this week for Emmanuel Adebayor, his attacking partner who has been training with the reserves, was also a thinly-veiled remark at his position in the pecking order at White Hart Lane.

Andre Villas-Boas was so concerned about fixture congestion, with yesterday's match, the first of three in six days, that he made six changes but was still left nursing injuries to three players.

Mousa Dembele was stretchered off after being kicked by Remi Johansen and Danny Rose limped off with a suspected right hamstring injury, leaving Jan Vertonghen to play at left back, a position in which he has said he is unhappy.

Kyle Naughton or Zeki Fryers are the other options for fullback. Younes Kaboul hobbled off at the end, having earlier signalled to the bench that he wanted to be taken off, but the defender was told to stay on with Tottenham having made three substitutions.

Yesterday Tottenham supporters looked forward to a good look at Erik Lamela, making his first start, and one delicate touch showed what a price-tag of pound stg. 30 million ($50.9m) can deliver.

He was one of six changes to the starting side. Receiving a ball from Lewis Holtby, Lamela's angled soft touch pushed Defoe clear and the forward dinked the ball over the advancing goalkeeper to put Tottenham into the lead midway through the first half.

Lamela has barely trained with his team-mates having joined just before the international break and he is using Villas-Boas as a translator while he learns English.

Lamela drifted out of the game and overhit a right-wing cross but showed enough nudges and flicks to back-up a prediction from Erik Thorstvedt, the former Spurs goalkeeper who did a half-time pitch interview, that Tottenham had "sold Elvis but got the Beatles instead", referring to the club's summer arrivals.

Eight minutes later, Defoe raced clear and slipped the ball past Marcus Sahlman in a near carbon-copy of the first goal.

Defoe had struck the legs of Sahlman with a similar chance early on and stepped inside and curled a far-post strike that the goalkeeper made a meal of as he pushed around the post on the stroke of the interval.

Younes Kaboul lashed a loose ball wide from a corner and Gylfi Sigurdsson, with no backlift, dug out a shot straight at Sahlman.

Tottenham was in control. Sandro had a shot blocked and a header saved, from a lovely pass by Eriksen, and Defoe's cross was intercepted with teammates poised to head in. Tromso ventured farther from its backline without once testing Spurs' keeper.

Tromso believed that Tottenham could be vulnerable on the counter but rarely had an opportunity to test the theory.

THE TIMES