Last season with Bournemouth, Dominic Solanke scored 19 goals and picked up 3 assists which helped propel the into 12th spot.
This season Bournemouth are having to cope without their star English striker as Solanke moved from Bournemouth to North London side Tottenham Hotspur as a replacement for Harry Kane.
There were high expectations to live up to as the new #9 for Spurs, and Solanke has delivered to some extent.
Prior to the Aston Villa game, Solanke had been putting up concerning numbers even though Spurs were showing good signs in attack and had been scoring and winning.
Solanke had 2 shots in the 3 games before his outing against Aston Villa and to add to that 0 shots on target dating back till 6 games before Spurs played Aston Villa.
Spurs played Crystal Palace, West Ham, Brighton and Man United over their last 4 weeks and have scored a total of 10 goals in these 4 games. It seems almost impossible to believe that Spurs’ striker has zero goals to show in these 10.
But as the week turned so did Solanke’s performance- the striker bagged a brace on Sunday at home in Spurs’ dominant performance against Aston Villa- a 4-1 win.
Solanke struck twice in the span of 4 minutes in the second half, with his 75th minute goal putting Spurs ahead- a crucial moment in the game.
Solanke chipped Emi Martinez in a cool and composed finish for his first goal, celebrated in his anime style, and also got an Instagram post out of the entire sequence.
The post features comments from big names like his Spurs teammate Kulusevski, ex Bournemouth teammate Kluivert and French star Marcus Thuram.
But the comment that caught the eye of fans is that of ex teammate Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth who commented, “Real9”.
The comment is a nod to Solanke’s abilities as an out and out number 9, something which Semenyo got to see firsthand during their time together at Bournemouth. The comment makes even more sense as Solanke showed composure and calmness in putting the ball past Semenyo.
Fans have taken a spin on this comment, and are convinced that Semenyo is missing Solanke as his no.9. After Solanke’s departure from Bournemouth Semenyo has been crucial in filling in that role as star signing Evanilson was slowly eased in, and he’s only managed 3 goals in his 8 games.
Spurs fans are also asking for the Ghanaian winger/forward to move to Spurs and rekindle the Semenyo-Solanke partnership.
Semenyo has brought himself to the spotlight with his performances this season, scoring 4 goals and assisting 1 in 10 starts. He’d be a good addition to most Premier League sides but some Spurs fans were also quick to observe that Spurs need a left footed option, and Semenyo is right footed.
It’s clear that there is still lots of love between the two former teammates and that they’d be a dynamic duo if they were to ever reunite at a club. For now it seems unlikely that Solanke and Semenyo will feature alongside each other at Spurs.
The two are very likely to continue on their separate paths and will face off against each other for the first time this season on 6th December.
