Son flicked the ball through the legs of former Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to give the visitors a priceless victory over their unlikely top-four rivals.
Odion Ighalo’s 30th goal of 2015 had looked enough to earn Watford a point, despite the fact full-back Nathan Ake was sent off in the second half.
The Watford striker’s latest goal cancelled out Erik Lamela’s opener for Spurs, but Son made sure Tottenham finish the year in the top four of the Premier League.
Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino sprung a surprise by not only making personnel changes, but also switching to a back three.
Erik Lamela scores Tottenham's first
Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose came in for Kyle Walker and Ben Davies, but the pair were deployed as wing-backs with Eric Dier dropping back into the centre of defence.
Dier has played as a defensive midfielder this season and it was the 21-year-old who Ighalo managed to muscle free of to score his 14th Premier League goal of the season.
Ighalo had his back to goal and Dier behind him when Troy Deeney headed the ball into the Tottenham danger area. But the England international missed an attempted header and Ighalo managed to turn past him before slotting past Hugo Lloris to equalise four minutes before half-time.
No striker, not even Harry Kane, in England’s top four tiers has scored more goals than Ighalo in this calendar year and it is easy to see why the Vicarage Road faithful love him so much.
Spurs had been relatively comfortable until Ighalo’s leveller, having gone ahead through Lamela in the 16th minute.
Odion Ighalo equalises for Watford
Dele Alli, who started alongside Lamela just behind Kane in Pochettino’s new formation, robbed Craig Cathcart and played through the Argentine, who kept his composure to beat former Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.
The goal was Lamela’s fourth in his last five games in all competitions for Spurs and the 23-year-old has finally started to look like he could eventually justify his club record £30million fee.
Other than Gomes, Etienne Capoue was starting against his old club and the travelling Tottenham fans treated the Frenchman to a rendition of ‘that’s why we sold you’ when he fired a shot well wide.
Pochettino was forced to make a change just before the break, as Christian Eriksen replaced the injured Mousa Dembele. Valon Behrami took over from Almen Abdi at the start of the second half for Watford.
It was Pochettino who stepped on to the pitch to separate arguing players just six minutes into the second period after Miguel Britos had gone through the back of Trippier next to the dug-outs.
The Spurs players were furious with the challenge, but Pochettino turned peacekeeper and Britos got away with a booking before being later substituted by Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores.
Watford's Nathan Ake was shown a red card for this challenge on Erik Lamela
Trippier was fit to continue and the former Burnley man, who was making his first Premier League start for Spurs, produced a dangerous cross that Kane headed wide.
Watford had been treading a fine line with some of their challenges that had annoyed the Tottenham players and on-loan Ake crossed it in the 63rd minute with a foul that earned him a straight red card.
Ake went in high and hard on Lamela, and referee Anthony Taylor swiftly produced a straight red card to reduce to home side to 10 men. As the match threatened to turn nasty, Ighalo was then booked for catching Tom Carroll with a stray hand in the face.
Clearly sensing the three points were there for the taking, Pochettino made an attacking switch by pushing Dier back into midfield and sending on Son to replace Carroll.
The move paid dividends, but not before Watford thought they had won the game with a Ben Watson corner that looked to have gone straight in but replays showed the whole of the ball did not cross the line.
Tottenham went up the other end and won the game in the 89th minute with a superb piece of improvisation from Son. Gomes pushed Trippier’s cross back to the wing-back and he delivered again for Son to flick the ball through the legs of Gomes and into the net.
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