What was largely expected to be a routine victory for Tottenham on a fine Saturday afternoon at Wembley turned out to be a real battle for Mauricio Pochettino’s men against a newly-promoted Fulham side that had put up a relatively poor showing against Crystal Palace in their opening fixture of the Premier League season.

It was a hard-fought win for Spurs but a win nonetheless. The game could’ve had an entirely different outcome, though, if former PSG winger, Lucas Moura hadn’t come up with something special for Tottenham right before half-time to take some pressure off his side going into the half time-break.

Ever since Spurs signed Moura back in January, he’s become somewhat of a forgotten figure. Once heralded as Brazil’s next big star but pushed out of PSG to accommodate Brazil’s current ace, Neymar, the 26-year-old’s acquisition was viewed as a great one, but mostly for the increased depth he offers Pochettino’s side than anything else.

With Heung-Ming Son away on international duty for South Korea at the Asian games, Moura is effectively doing what he was signed for – providing depth and filling in for an unavailable starter whilst undoubtedly looking to usurp Son’s position in the first-team, or at least give Pochettino something to think about before the South-Korean international’s return.

As we all know, as long as a player gets a good run of games, and puts up stellar performances in those games, he can go from the fringes of a team, to being an important first team player pretty quickly and that’s what Moura looks poised to achieve in Son’s absence; to reignite his career and introduce a new dynamic to Spurs’ attack as a ‘new signing’ considering he is, after all, somewhat new to the team and hasn’t really been given opportunities to show the Premier League what he’s capable of.

Moura possesses blistering pace and superb dribbling skills which allows him to pose a massive threat when he steps on the pitch. His creativity and penchant for spectacular tricks and goals serves to make him unpredictable as evidenced by his sublime curler against Fulham which seemingly came out of no where.

Before moving to Spurs for $25million back in January, Lucas Moura had started exactly zero games in the Ligue 1.

His playing time didn’t improve immediately upon his arrival at Spurs having made just 6 league appearances, four of which saw him come off the bench. Moura, though, surely wouldn’t have been expecting to be a first-team player right off the bat considering the quality Pochettino’s attacking options which inadvertently ensured the Brazilian winger remained a fresh face to Premier League sides.

Given he’s got a massive chance to start games now, Moura will definitely be looking to replicate his performance against Fulham in Spurs’ subsequent games due to having an opportunity to make strides towards becoming a regular first team player as well as to gain popularity amongst the club’s fans.

Tottenham’s forays into the transfer market were nonexistent, something they may very well come to rue at some point this season despite Moura’s presence within the squad. Although, having been able to retain the services of the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Cristian Eriksen thus far means Spurs still boast of a strong squad that is capable of challenging for a top four spot and getting to the latter stages of the FA Cup and maybe even the Champions League.

But despite holding on to their best players, Spurs’ season looks likely to be one of ‘almosts’ as has been the case with their recent campaigns due to the lack of the overwhelming quality required to go all the way and win a piece of silverware.

Lucas Moura, to a large extent appears to be capable of supplementing Tottenham’s lack of signings up front, but he still faces competition for a starting berth from Erik Lamela who has been in the shadows of Spurs’ perpetual progression over the past few seasons due to injuries but looks keen on becoming a key player once again.

Lamela made a case for himself after coming off the bench to produce a great assist for Harry Kane which helped the England international to dismiss talk of an August goalscoring Hoodoo.

At the moment, Moura’s only competition for a starting spot is Lamela, but should he manage to build on his latest performance he will be able to cement his place in Tottenham’s starting XI, at least until Son returns from international duty.