At the start of last week, Ange Postecoglou was facing calls from some of the extreme fringes of the internet for his dismissal as Tottenham manager.
Spurs had lost 1-0 at Selhurst Park last Sunday, an afternoon when the players never really got off the bus. It almost felt, from some of the reaction, as if this season or even the whole Postecoglou project might never get fully off the ground.
One week on, Postecoglou can look back on two of the best wins of Spurs’ season so far: two huge scalps of teams who both finished ahead of them last season.
On Wednesday night, they knocked Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup, summoning up all of their energy and belief to win 2-1. At the end of that game, the players looked exhausted, emptied out by the physical effort of overcoming City.
And on Sunday, they did it all over again. Aston Villa were almost the worst possible team to face four days after City. They came to north London to be disciplined, physical and efficient, doing everything they could to stop Spurs from playing their football. They took the lead from a corner and then decided to slow things down even more.
But Tottenham kept going and going in the second half, raising the tempo, looking back inside themselves and raising it again. They forced their way through to equalise, got bogged down again, got back to their feet, and then blew Villa away. By the end, Spurs were flying down the home straight, roared on by the crowd, leaving Villa looking like they had long run out of gas. Above all, they worked hard enough to earn the right to play their football.
There is something familiar about this type of Tottenham win now.
They did it against Brentford. They did it against West Ham. They did it plenty of times last season, too. They can afford to start slowly or even go behind at home because they always back themselves to make up lost ground in the second half. They can hit and maintain a second-half intensity that few other opponents can live with. But Villa were the team who beat them to Champions League football last season, a side who have looked smarter and more solid than Spurs in recent months. Tottenham needed to show they could beat them.
Put the two performances together — first City and then Villa — and you are looking at the best week Tottenham have had maybe in the whole Postecoglou era. As ever, Postecoglou did not see it quite this way in his post-match press conference, suggesting that the Palace defeat was also part of this same week, but weeks start on Monday, so here we are.
Looking back to the start of this week, the day after Palace, Postecoglou said the most important thing was that the players did not arrive feeling sorry for themselves.
“We had to come in and get our heads straight,” he said, “and work back towards being the team we want to be. That’s what’s happened but it doesn’t mean that that’s the end of it now.”
It was also a poignant week at Tottenham. Sunday would have been the 52nd birthday of Ugo Ehiogu, Tottenham’s youth coach who tragically passed away in 2017 at the age of just 44.
Spurs senior assistant coach Matt Wells worked with Ehiogu at Tottenham and this week, he spoke to the players about Ehiogu, the impact he had on him as a young coach and his legacy at the club. “When you hear things like that, and how people affect your life, it helps give clarity to the players about what we’re trying to do here,” Postecoglou explained afterwards. “It’s important that his legacy lives on.”
Postecoglou does not want Spurs to rest on their laurels after their win over Villa. They have another big week before the international break: flying to Istanbul to face Galatasaray on Thursday, then coming back to host Ipswich Town on Sunday. Thursday does not feel especially high stakes after Tottenham’s strong start in the Europa League, but fail to win on Sunday and the mood will shift back again — just as it did before the last international window when Spurs lost at Brighton & Hove Albion.
But just because Postecoglou does not want to look back does not mean we should ignore what a big week this was. At this stage of the season, everything is provisional, but Spurs are starting to find answers to some of the questions they face. They have now won nine of their last 11 games in all competitions, a run going back to the Arsenal defeat on September 15, and as painful as the losses at Brighton and Palace were, they increasingly look like the exceptions rather than the rule.
Tottenham will always get accusations about their perceived flakiness or bottle, questions which are as inevitable as the weather, but both of their recent statement wins have been against top sides, teams who won here in the league last season, and who made it as difficult as possible for Spurs in their own ways. Whether holding onto the lead against City or chasing the game against Villa, Tottenham dug deep, survived the difficult moments and stuck to their plans.
Postecoglou himself has faced questions about his own tactics and substitutions, and his ability to change games that were going against him. But on Wednesday, Yves Bissouma came on at half-time and changed the flow of the game, giving Spurs a more solid base in midfield. On Sunday, Richarlison came on and set up the third goal before James Maddison was introduced and scored the fourth.
We could talk about individuals, about Son Heung-min’s cross for the first goal, Dejan Kulusevski’s reverse pass for the second, Pape Matar Sarr’s influence or Dominic Solanke’s selfless work rate, or his first goals since September.
But above all, this was a collective effort: the result of a group of players running and working for each other and for the manager’s ideas.
This is what Postecoglou’s second season is meant to look like. Just don’t expect the manager himself to talk about defeats avenged or corners turned.
“You don’t fall off cliffs and you don’t climb mountains within a week,” he said. “It’s all part of the same process for me.”
(Top photo: Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)
