Tottenham Hotspur's 2024/25 campaign has been somewhat stop-start, but there are signs that Spurs have hit a rich vein of form and are beginning to bring it all together.
Last weekend's 3-0 thrashing of Manchester United at Old Trafford was arguably the statement victory of Ange Postecoglou's reign, effectively lifting the club back into the limelight after a poor opening phase that allowed those at the top of the Premier League to create instant space ahead.
Tottenham are bridging that gap with a talented group starting to shine, with some players proving to be the focal points.
One man in particular is truly going from strength to strength: Brennan Johnson. The Wales international has faced his share of detractors since moving to north London, but he's starting to silence the doubters.
Brennan Johnson's season in numbers
Johnson has a faculty for ball-carrying. Quick feet, dribbling that crackles with electricity and a reliably churning gas tank, he's proving to be an excellent option for Postecoglou, especially now that captain Son Heung-min has been sidelined with a hamstring injury.
The 23-year-old has ebbed and flowed from desirable potency for much of his Tottenham career, but has stepped up big-time recently, remarkably scoring five goals in his past five matches - quite the streak.
Now, the goals are coming in apace. Johnson seldom proved that he can be the kind of winger to score with high-level consistency throughout his maiden year, but five goals in as many recent matches showcases a knack that is going to serve Postecoglou well throughout the campaign as he battles for success across multiple fronts.
As per FBref, he also ranks among the top 10% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for assists (0.36) and the top 7% for touches in the attacking penalty area (7.22) per 90, illustrating his fleet-footedness and consequent playmaking prowess.
It's pleasing stuff, not least because he's not firing at goal profligately, instead learning to be more economical in his attacking efforts and more clinical with his shot-taking.
Postecoglou signed Johnson from Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest in a deal worth £47.5m last August, which was a fee that raised a few eyebrows, for Johnson had only plied his trade at top-flight level for one year.
He was part of a collection that was tasked with compensating for the loss of club legend Harry Kane, who has now been directly replaced by Dominic Solanke, but is of such a lofty standard that he was only ever going to be supplanted in the aggregate.
Speaking of Kane, he has - of course - been brilliant for Bayern Munich this season. Tottenham might have a prolific new star in Johnson, but he's nowhere near the level of the England captain, who has started the 2024/25 season in exceptional form, with ten goals and five assists from only eight games across all competitions.
Harry Kane's performances for Bayern Munich
Kane has played most of his career football with Tottenham, but completed a £100m transfer to Bayern in August 2023 after scoring 280 goals and adding 61 assists across 235 appearances for the north Londoners.
The England skipper was due his flowers and received them, allowed with affection to pursue a career overseas to earn his fortune in silverware. He left a "superstar" with his head held high as Spurs' all-time top scorer - and his nation's, too.
Ironically, though, his career-long drought continued during his first year in Bavaria, with Bayern toppled in the Bundesliga by the invincible Bayer Leverkusen before losing the Euro 2024 final with England. The wait for a major honour drags on.
Kane might not have got his mitts on the Premier League trophy during his distinguished career in his homeland, but he did prove himself to be one of the greatest forwards to grace the competition, sitting second in the all-time scoring charts and with a superior strike rate to the record holder, Alan Shearer.
Tottenham were never going to be able to replace him last season, so perhaps Postecoglou was thinking in 4D when deciding to simply not do so. Son stepped up to a focal role at centre-forward and performed with aplomb, scoring 16 goals and supplying five assists from 24 games as a striker under the Australian's wing.
Johnson also deputised up top on a handful of occasions, most notably during the 2-0 defeat against Manchester City at the end of the 2023/24 campaign - the £70k-per-week talent was always going to have a tough time against Pep Guardiola's defensive titans, but he proved that he can operate effectively in a hybrid centre-forward role, winning all four of his ground duels and making three key passes, as per Sofascore.
In accord with the rest of his career, Kane blitzed his way through German football last season, albeit without winning anything. The 31-year-old superstar notched 44 goals and 12 assists across 45 fixtures, with Die Roten CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen remarking that he is a "365-degree striker" who had swiftly "conquered the hearts of our fans in the truest sense of the word".