Tottenham Hotspur fans had to wait a little longer for their Premier League campaign to get under way, compared to most of the other clubs’ supporters.
Spurs were handed the Monday night slot as they took on newly-promoted Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.
Tottenham began brightly, dominating the Foxes on their own turf and breaking the the deadlock in the 29th minute of the match.
James Maddison curled in a cross for Pedro Porro to ghost through and head home a deserved opener for Spurs.
It was one-way traffic for most of the first half, but Tottenham couldn’t capitalise on their dominance, and they were duly made to pay.
Not long before the hour mark, Abdul Fatawu floated the ball to Spurs’ back post, where the unmarked Jamie Vardy was on hand to nod home with ease.
Gary Neville delivers positive verdict on Tottenham debutant Dominic Solanke
Despite the disappointing result, there were positives for Tottenham, not least Dominic Solanke’s debut display.
Spurs broke their transfer record to bring the England international to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from Bournemouth in August.
Solanke’s movement, pressing and hold-up play were impressive, and he tested the Leicester keeper with a number of chances.
Although the 26-year-old couldn’t mark his debut with a goal, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville was still pleased with how the player did.
Indeed, the pundit had some words of advice for the Spurs newcomer on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
“I think he will feel like everything went as well it could have done apart from the fact the most important thing, that just there [the header],” he said.
“The goal, I hope he doesn’t take it to heart to much. His pressing is really important to Spurs and why they have signed him.”
Neville continued: “My view on Solanke is that this is a test for him because there will be people, there will be murmurs that he should have taken his chances.
“He had moments, like Richarlison at the end, but I think his overall performance was good.
“But he will judge upon moments like this where he had two or three decent chances.
“He needs to make sure he doesn’t beat himself up too much in the next two or three days.
“I would like to think he looks on the positives that he had a really good game apart from the most important things.
“He will get goals if he keeps doing that as I thought his overall performance was good.”
Dominic Solanke stats in Tottenham draw at Leicester
As per Sofascore, Solanke registered an xG (expected goals) of 0.34 and an xA (expected assists) of 0.15.
Solanke had three shots on target, completed three dribbles, took 35 touches of the ball, completed 15 of 19 of his passes, and made one key pass.
The Spurs forward also won seven of his eight ground duels and one of his two aerial duels, whilst also weighing in with two tackles.