Davies: Johnson 'going to be missed' by Tottenham

Tottenham's current longest-serving player Ben Davies admits Brennan Johnson will be missed but has urged the faltering squad to return to winning ways at Bournemouth.

Spurs made the decision to allow last season's leading scorer Johnson to leave on Friday to join London rivals Crystal Palace in a £35 million deal.

It has raised eyebrows given Johnson's finishing ability and Tottenham's lack of goals in recent months, which again hampered them on Sunday when they let a lead slip to drop more points at home in a 1-1 draw with Sunderland.

To compound matters for under-fire Spurs head coach Thomas Frank, his favoured right forward Mohammed Kudus was withdrawn due to injury after only 19 minutes and, coupled with Johnson's departure, it left the north London outfit short of firepower.

Amid a busy spell and a run of two wins in 11 Premier League matches before this Wednesday's trip to Bournemouth, Davies called for the Tottenham squad to dig deep.

Davies said: "I think it's sod's law that when one guy leaves, Mo picks up something.

"Brennan is a great player, I'm lucky that I get to play with him on the national team as well as here.

"I think he's going to be missed here but this is the business of football. When players aren't playing, other suitors will come along and that's what's happened.

"That's the positive to look at [unbeaten in three] but we've got a stretch now, I think it's five games in 15 days where it's intense.

"You can see at the end of that game that both sides were pretty flat out, it's not really an excuse and we've got to go again in the next three days. It's part and parcel of what we do."

Davies was handed a surprise first start of the season against Sunderland and marked it with an even more unexpected tap-in from a corner in the 30th minute.

It was only his 10th Spurs goal in 361 appearances and while Tottenham failed to hold on for a much-craved home victory, the 32-year-old was encouraged by aspects of their display.

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"It was good, we've been working on set-pieces a lot and everyone has to kind of do their job and I feel like I did mine today," Davies reflected.

"First half we were really good. Then in the second half, they came out a lot more aggressive and they caused us a few more problems.

"We could have been a bit more clinical I think on the counter-attack when we had the opportunities.

"[Home form] hasn't been the one and only thing that we've looked at, but we want to be better and we want to be winning games.

"Ultimately, it will only get better if we play better."