Ange Postecoglou has been failed by those above and below him at Spurs but his position is untenable as Mikel Arteta and Arsenal made their transfer point.
Ange Postecoglou would not be the first to talk up “a night to remember” before delivering on a fraction of that promise. For a quarter of an hour Tottenham led this north London derby. Within four minutes of carelessly misplacing that advantage they were behind. At no point before, during or after did they resemble a team in control.
He described this as anything but “just another game” in the build-up yet there was the same old Spurs, dropping points from a winning position, exuding an air of inferiority and panic, running out of ideas almost as soon as the final gamble of a half-time double substitution was made.
Neither Brennan Johnson nor James Maddison could turn the Arsenal-coloured tide when thrown into the eye of the storm and Postecoglou sacrificing his entire central midfield said more than enough. Any semblance of system and shape was surrendered in the name of attack; the visitors did not have another shot on target after Heung-min Son’s opener.
The injury crisis caveat will be pushed again but eight of the players Spurs used were signed by Postecoglou and five points from nine games sounds uncomfortably Juande Ramos-adjacent. There are arguments to be made that he has been failed by those above and below him but as coach of the only non-promoted side in the bottom half not to change managers within the last year, the Australian knows where the axe ultimately falls.
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When the solution to an insatiable Arsenal press is to double down on passing it out from the back then the problems become awkwardly apparent. It would have been an incredible experience to witness Fraser Forster in this game as even Antonin Kinsky struggled at times against the waves of players in red and white.
Jurgen Klopp once said “no playmaker in the world can be as good as a good gegenpressing situation” and it was certainly the chief creator for Arsenal against Spurs. The German also described himself as a proponent of “heavy metal football” in opposition to Arsene Wenger’s “orchestral” approach and the Gunners channelled both philosophies, taking the cliche of trying to pass the ball into the net to infuriating lengths considering the margin of their lead.
Kai Havertz almost caught Kinsky out twice in possession. Djed Spence lost it in a dangerous area. The phenomenal Myles Lewis-Skelly pushed high to win the ball and play in Raheem Sterling to no avail. Yves Bissouma, in a sign of things to come, controlled a pass out of touch under immense pressure.
Yet Arsenal underlined the transfer narrative to almost comedic effect by not only wasting those opportunities but failing to actually turn them into opportunities at all. Once Spurs settled into their defensive drills they grew confident enough to launch a couple of counters and Son’s goal, while theoretically against the run of play, could hardly have been honestly described as undeserved.
Son’s strike had taken a deflection off William Saliba in the sort of fortune slice Arsenal were lacking. It arrived when they were awarded a corner that never was after Leandro Trossard’s cross rebounded back onto him off Pedro Porro, and after a few tries Nicolas Jover had his moment. When Gabriel’s back-post flick took a touch off Radu Dragusin and then Dominic Solanke it already felt like Tottenham’s moment might have passed.
Bissouma certainly should have but once again was caught out of focus, tackled by Thomas Partey when Spurs were at their most vulnerable and naive. Both full-backs had pushed forward and Dragusin took an age to drift out to Trossard, who fired past Kinsky to restore normality.
The closest Arsenal came to panicking was when a fan audibly bellowed at Sterling to “stop f**king walking” when he again received the ball wide on the right and slowed play down to stand up his defender. He remains entirely out of rhythm and Mikel Arteta ensured the point could not be missed by the board when he sent the outgoing Kieran Tierney on for an actually solid stint on the left wing as Trossard’s replacement.
Liverpool will be kept honest and Arsenal’s inability to capitalise on any of their slightly more frequent stumbles had become exasperating. Four points having played a game more remains a daunting gap but last season was closed out so impeccably – against the backdrop of Liverpool’s late-campaign collapse, no less – that momentum has shifted more than a little.
Perhaps the same cannot be said for Postecoglou in the context of this game alone; defeat away to the best home team of the past few years can be explained away easily enough. But this is sustained relegation form from a Tottenham side which has lost more Premier League games than West Ham since his summer 2023 appointment. That alone is a sackable offence, especially considering the Hammers are on their third boss since.