Tottenham pip Sunderland, United’s Martial makes dream debut

SUNDERLAND, United Kingdom: Ryan Mason scored and was then stretchered off as Tottenham Hotspur won 1-0 at Sunderland on Sunday to record their first victory of the Premier League season.
Sunderland were on top for three-quarters of the match at the Stadium of Light, hitting the post through Tottenham old boy Jermain Defoe, but it was Spurs who prevailed when substitute Erik Lamela teed up Mason for an 82nd-minute winner.
The England international left the fray moments later after hurting his knee, but his goal proved enough to lift Mauricio Pochettino’s side up to 12th place and leave Dick Advocaat’s Sunderland bottom of the table.
Both sides made three changes, with Advocaat recalling Jordi Gomez and handing debuts to Ola Toivonen and Fabio Borini, who has returned to Sunderland from Liverpool after a previous loan spell in 2013-14.
Spurs, meanwhile, drafted in Ben Davies, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min, the £22 million ($33.9 million, 29.9 million euros) recruit from Bayer Leverkusen, who lined up wide on the right.
Harry Kane and Defoe were the centre of attention for their respective teams — the former seeking his first Spurs goal of the season, the latter facing his former club — and both had early potshots.
But as the first half wore on, it was Defoe and Sunderland who set the tempo.
Jeremain Lens supplied the spark, curling a shot wide from outside the box and then releasing Defoe with a superb through ball that pierced the Tottenham defence.
The 32-year-old striker surged clear, but with only Hugo Lloris to beat, he scuffed his shot against the left-hand post.
The second half initially brought no change to the direction of traffic, with Lloris saving low to his left from Lens.
But as the half wore on, so Spurs grew in strength and after Costel Pantilimon had saved from Eric Dier and Mason, the visitors went ahead.
A neat 15-pass move culminated in Lamela freeing Mason and despite a loose first touch, the 24-year-old midfielder managed to dink a shot past the onrushing Pantilimon and into the bottom-left corner.
Advocaat had sent on Jack Rodwell shortly before the goal and he came within inches of an equaliser with a sweeping shot that rebounded off the crossbar.
Kane, scorer of two goals for England during the international break, was then thwarted at close range by Pantilimon, while Lamela headed wide from Townsend’s cross.
On Saturday, Manchester United’s Anthony Martial exploded onto the Old Trafford stage with a superb strike in his new club’s 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
He made one of the more memorable United debuts in recent memory as the teenage French striker came off the bench to mark his debut with the clinching goal against Liverpool.
Signed from Monaco on transfer deadline day for a reported initial fee of £36 million ($55 million) that even United manager Louis van Gaal admitted was “ridiculous”, Martial had been dismissed in some quarters as a panic buy.
But the hefty price tag, that made the 19-year-old the world’s most expensive teenage player, didn’t seem to bother Martial, who came on as a 65th minute substitute and settled one of English football’s heavyweight clashes with a devastating knockout blow.