Press conferences are always more fun to read and digest after your team whips the butt of the defending Premier League champions at their place. That’s exactly what Tottenham Hotspur did on Saturday — James Maddison fired home a brace in the first half, and Spurs withstood what felt like a barrage of shots, adding additional goals from Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson en route to a staggering 4-0 away win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
“Cathartic” doesn’t begin to describe it as Tottenham fans. Two weeks ago Spurs were reeling after a disastrous home loss to newly-promoted Ipswich Town, followed by another two week international break that felt as interminable as it was unneccessary. Now, they’re flying after putting together one of their best and most comprehensive wins of the Premier League season.
The Etihad continues to feel like home for Spurs; no team has more wins over Pep Guardiola in his managerial career than Spurs do over Manchester City. But while past wins over City have felt flukish (for example the 1-0 home win in 2021 under Nuno Espirito Santo), this one felt like one of those games where every puzzle piece seemed to fall into place.
Ange Postecoglou was effusive with praise for his embattled team after the match, speaking to the assembled media in the post-match press conference.
“You don’t come to a place like this thinking that it’s going to be probably as convincing as it was for us in terms of just the way we handled it. I’ve said it before, City test you in every football way possible. You’ve got to do a bit of everything. You’ve got to defend, you’ve got to work hard, be disciplined and you’ve got to play football.
“I thought in all four areas we really got to a really strong level today where the players were really determined, after a really disappointing game last time and we just got back to our core beliefs as a team. Credit to the lads. I thought they were just outstanding out there today.
“We knew that in the first 10 minutes they’d come out flying, especially with the four losses they’ve had were away from home. So being at home, there’d be an energy in the stadium.
“We were going to have to weather the storm, which I thought we did fairly well and then we just grew into the game and I’m just so pleased for the players, for the belief they have in trying to play the way we want to and then you get a reward like that. I think it just furthers hopefully our progression.”
Postecoglou has, rightly or wrongly, garnered a reputation for being uncompromising with his tactics and footballing philosophy. He turned the tables on Pep Guardiola on Saturday, tweaking his lineup by moving Dejan Kulusevski to the right wing and relegating Brennan Johnson to the bench. Kulusevski has been a revelation since moving from the wing to a central role, but both he and Son were excellent on the day, with Postecoglou adjusting his tactics to emphasize playing through the wings.
“I thought it was going to be important for us. We knew we were going to have to defend at different times and with Deki and Sonny out there, I thought if we could get the ball to them really early, City are pretty aggressive with their approach. They like to defend almost man on man because they’ve got outstanding defenders who like to defend the sort of man on man, but I think with Dom there as well, we like that sort of set-up where we can the ball to them earlier.
“That’s the theory. The practice isn’t always that easy because they put pressure on you and I thought our build-up play today, at times we got a little bit stuck, especially in the second half, but we just persisted and persisted in trying to hit those areas that we needed to.
“Every time we did it in the second half, we looked really threatening and we obviously scored some good goals from it. For us again, it’s development as a team, which is about trying to within the context of our football find solutions that exist, depending on the opponent.”
One of the big concerns coming into the match was the defensive line — specifically the fact that Tottenham’s two first choice central defenders, Cuti Romero and Micky van de Ven, were both out injured. Radu Dragusin and veteran Ben Davies stepped into the side and put in an outstanding defensive performance. Postecoglou was especially pleased with the way they developed Tottenham’s play from the back. Ange also noted the play of keeper Guglielmo Vicario, who made five saves on the evening, and of Yves Bissouma, who went the full 90+ minutes in defensive midfield, playing 88 of those minutes under a yellow card.
“I thought they were [both] great. You have to be against City because obviously they’ve got big Erling [Haaland] up there, but the way they deliver the ball, the areas they consistently probe, you’ve got to be focused the whole time and I thought Ben and Radu were really focused, I thought Vic behind them was really positive as well with his positioning and the way they communicated. I thought Biss was important to that.
“I think the key for us was we had to do it as a collective today. I think when you play City, you can’t rely on individuals to find solutions out there and collectively, I thought we defended really well, but credit to those two guys and not just defensively, but we had to play out from the back.
“It was the only way we were going to deliver balls to the areas we wanted to and both Ben and Radu didn’t shy away from that. It wasn’t always easy, but they consistently were looking for the ball and looking for us to play out from the back. So credit to those guys.”
But it was James Maddison who stole the show on Tuesday. Criticized for a spell of bad form that saw him benched for a few matches this fall, he roared back in a more central role, scoring Tottenham’s first two goals in the first half. Postecoglou said that Maddison has always had an incredible amount of ability in him, and it was a matter of hard work to snap him out of a small funk.
“I thought he was really good for us earlier in the season and then yeah, he had a couple of sort of flat games but I think the whole team has. I also believe there’s more in Madders and, and I think that’s on me. I always say, that’s my role as a manager.
“If I’m not getting a maximum amount out of the players, the team against Ipswich, or individuals, then it’s about sort of some self reflection of ‘well, ok, can I do something different with them?’. But the thing about Madders was he obviously didn’t go away on international duty.
“He had two weeks with us and the coaches worked really hard with him and he was working really hard at training and I could just see and said he was ready for a big game. He hasn’t sort of lowered his ambitions or his kind of levels of the kind of player he wants to be and it’s about us giving him that platform and it wasn’t just his goals today.
“I thought he was really important for us in the build-up because he was always looking for it in tight areas and, and defensively, he worked really hard. So, yeah, credit to him. Like I said, I still think he’s had a decent season, but it’s like us as a team, we want to be more than that, we want to be more than just a decent team.”
Tottenham are entering a grueling stretch of the season where they will play two matches every week until the end of December. Spurs have been the definition of inconsistent this season, but will hope to turn Saturday’s victory into some momentum. Their next match is this Thursday as they host Roma and new manager Claudio Ranieri in the Europa League, followed by hosting a surprising Fulham side December 1.