Ange Postecoglou is not usually prone to shows of affection with his players but when Richarlison squeezed his second and Tottenham's third goal past Martin Dubravka on Sunday, the Australian welcomed in Pedro Porro for a bear hug.
Porro, it is fair to say, had earned it. The Spaniard made the goal which killed off Newcastle with a sublime pass - no back lift, perfectly weighted - into Richarlison to cap an outstanding performance as Spurs ended a run of five games without a win.
In all, Porro was involved in three of their four goals and composed defensively, containing Anthony Gordon after an early scare when the winger raced clear and forced Ben Davies into a defensive clearance. It was the closest the Magpies came to a serious threat until Joelinton's stoppage-time consolation.
It is probably time Porro got some real credit. Three days earlier, he was Spurs' best player in the deflating 2-1 defeat to West Ham, looking the likeliest to fashion a breakthrough against a Hammers side who dug in at 1-1 and particularly after they took a late lead.
— 🐥 (@namppyong11) December 10, 2023
Since coming into Postecoglou's side against Manchester United for the second game of the season, Porro has arguably been Spurs' most consistent performer, a mainstay on the right side of defence throughout their rollercoaster campaign so far.
Signed from Sporting Lisbon on deadline day last January to finally provide Antonio Conte with the right wing-back he so desperately wanted, Porro's attacking quality has been obvious from the off and there is a certain irony that his first Spurs goal came in the Italian's final game in charge, the 3-3 draw with Southampton.
Porro also scored against United and Leeds under interim boss Ryan Mason before the end of the campaign, and since his debut in February he has been directly involved in 11 top-flight goals - the most for a defender aside from Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold.
In the eyes of many Spurs supporters, however, Porro was badly burned by playing right-back in Cristian Stellini's disastrous four-man defence in the humiliating 6-1 defeat to Newcastle at St. James' Park on April 23, which spelled the end for Conte's assistant.
The game helped to foster a widespread perception among Spurs fans that Porro was a liability defensively, a specialist wing-back who was fundamentally unsuited to playing in a back four.
No one thinks that anymore and it is a testament to Porro's intelligence and technical quality that a player signed for Conte is now the archetypal 'inverted' full-back under Postecoglou, so adept at playing creative passes from the middle of the pitch.
If the Newcastle game under Stellini was Porro's worst afternoon in a Spurs shirt, Sunday's rematch was surely his best, amid a sense that the Spain international is quietly establishing himself as one of the Premier League's most exciting and effective defenders.
