Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham may soon see a nightmare scenario become a dream courtesy of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola. The Spurs head coach has been very clear in his hopes of ending the club's 16-year trophy drought with that epitomised by a strong statement made after the North London Derby defeat to Arsenal.
With Spurs on four points from a possible nine following the 1-0 loss to their bitter rivals, Postecoglou made a shockingly clear trophy remark. In an interview with Sky Sports, he stated: "I don’t usually win things, I always win things in my second year."
The comment caused quite the stir among pundits and on social media with Postecoglou giving his own response a few days later. “It is amazing, isn’t it? I just stated a fact and it seems like am I supposed to just lie or just say it never happened?” he said at a press conference.
“It is confusing to me that people are making a big deal out of something – surely I am supposed to answer something that is true? Like if I don’t win in the second year this year, and I come out next year and say, ‘well I always win in it’… well no, actually it is not true.
“But I have just said something that is true and it seems like it has upset a lot of people for some reason.” Quite clearly, even though it is a literal fact, his words did not go down well but that is likely because it followed on from two defeats against opposition also competing for trophies.
However, Tottenham are now on a three-game winning streak having advanced to the next round of the Carabao Cup and won their opening game in the Europa League. Tottenham are among the favourites to win Europe's second club competition, however their Carabao Cup journey could end very soon.
In Wednesday's fourth round draw, Spurs were pulled to be the home side with Man City as their opponents. However, the task awaiting Postecoglou and his players at the end of October may not look as challenging at least as it may appear on paper with Guardiola essentially already confirming his starting XI for the clash.
"The next round, I announce you, I play the second team," he said after a 2-1 win against Watford. "We are not going to waste energy, for sure. The schedule is the schedule, we cannot handle it anyway. For McAtee, Nunes, Grealish, Foden, who didn't play, the young lad, 16 years old, it's perfect."
"That's why it's a good competition, otherwise we wouldn’t win four in a row. We play to go through. We never throw a competition. Never. But we played 50 hours ago. I’m not going to take a risk with the Premier League and the Champions League in this competition."
With Guardiola's priority clear, Spurs could take advantage and pick up a huge victory against a very good team which would also see them knock out one of the favourites. However, it must be noted that City's fringe players are more than capable of putting together a top performance, nonetheless it is still some welcome hope for Spurs.
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