Alan Shearer delivers Emerson Royal verdict after Tottenham beat Chelsea

Tottenham Hotspur defender Emerson Royal has made it into Alan Shearer‘s latest Premier League Team of the Week.

The Spurs full-back has endured a difficult time at N17 for the most part since joining in 2021.

Indeed, Emerson’s future appeared uncertain ahead of – and during – the January transfer window.

Speculation was doing the rounds claiming Antonio Conte was open to selling the Brazilian.

In the end, Emerson was the only right wing-back who began the year at Tottenham and actually stayed put.

Djed Spence went out on loan, while Matt Doherty’s contract was terminated to allow him to join Atletico Madrid.

Meanwhile, Pedro Porro joined Tottenham from Sporting CP in the latter stages of the transfer window.

Since the Spaniard’s arrival at Spurs, Emerson has experienced a huge upturn in form.

The 23-year-old is now defending solidly, contributing in attack, and is no longer as error-prone.

Emerson’s latest display, in the 2-0 win over Chelsea, saw Shearer name him in his XI for matchweek 25.

The Spurs ace forced a save from Kepa in the build up to Oliver Skipp’s goal and was heavily involved at both ends.

“His quality has really started to shine through,” Shearer wrote on the Premier League website.

“This was another solid show.”

Two of Emerson’s Spurs teammates, Eric Dier and Oliver Skipp, also made it into Shearer’s selection.

Outstanding turnaround

It’s amazing how quickly things can change in football.

Emerson previously looked like one of Tottenham’s weak links and it wouldn’t have been surprising had he left in January.

However, he’s now keeping Porro out of the Spurs starting XI through a series of much-improved performances.

Porro was a much-needed acquisition as Tottenham have been struggling at RWB for a while now.

Now, if Emerson can maintain consistency for the remainder of the season, then that position will become a good headache for Conte.

And maybe he could potentially even get a contract extension and an increase on his current salary (£62,000-a-week, according to Salarysport).