The conditions at the Liberty Stadium were difficult, but Spurs managed to claim another Premier League victory... though luck was on their side

Mauricio Pochettino praised the effort of his Tottenham Hotspur team after they defeated Swansea City in the heavy rain in South Wales on Tuesday night.

Fernando Llorente opened the scoring for Spurs in the 12th minute with his first Premier League goal for the club at the home of his old side.

The Spanish striker headed in Christian Eriksen’s free kick, but appeared to be in an offside position, which left Swansea frustrated.

Spurs managed to defend fairly well for the rest of the contest, however, before Dele Alli made it 2-0 with a minute left after receiving a superb through ball from substitute Harry Kane.

The talk afterwards, from a Swansea point of view, was regarding the opening goal and Pochettino said: “I didn’t see it – people say it was offside? Maybe, but always in football, you need some luck to open the games up.

“It’s true that Swansea can maybe complain and it’s right to complain, but in football this can happen. I’m very pleased with the win because the conditions were difficult, but we deserved the victory.”

Another contentious moment in the match at the Liberty Stadium was whether Davinson Sanchez should have been shown a second yellow card.

The Colombian was booked just past the half an hour mark and was fortunate not to see red in the 55th minute when Martin Olsson nipped in and Sanchez caught the Swansea ace late.

Referee Bobby Madley let the centre back off, but boss Pochettino had seen enough and withdrew the youngster in place of Victor Wanyama four minutes later.

“We were all worried about the second yellow card,” said the Spurs manager in his post-match press conference.

“The first half yellow card wasn’t bad, but the fans started putting pressure on the referee and it can be a problem, so I decided to take him off the pitch.”

With Wanyama returning to make his first appearance since August, things are starting to look positive for Tottenham.

Rivals West Ham United will provide a tough test tomorrow (Thursday), but Spurs appear to be building up ahead of steam again.

Additional reporting by PA.