Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham ‘doubled down on their principles’ by smashing Premier League champions Manchester City away from home.
Spurs stunned the champions with a 4-0 victory at the Etihad on Saturday night.
Despite four defeats in a row for Man City, the mood was positive following news Pep Guardiola has signed a two-year contract extension, but James Maddison’s brace inside 20 minutes silenced the home crowd.
Pedro Porro would add to Spurs’ lead seven minutes after the break before Brennan Johnson rubbed salt in the wounds with a 93rd-minute tap-in from Timo Werner’s assist.
It was a remarkable night for Spurs and Postecoglou says his players were “really strong” in four crucial aspects.
“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 the way we handled (things),” Postecoglou said after the win.
“Look, I’ve said 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, you’ve got to be disciplined, then you’ve got to play football.
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“I thought all four areas we got to a really strong level today, where the players were just really determined to make sure that after obviously a disappointing game last game we just got back to our core beliefs as a team.
“Credit to the lads. I thought they were outstanding today because we knew first 10 minutes they’d come out firing.
“Obviously, the four losses they’d had were away from home, so being at home there’d be an energy in the stadium.
“We were going to have to sort of weather the storm, which I thought we did fairly well, and then we just grew into the game.
“Just so pleased for the players in 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 hopefully furthers our progression.”
Saturday’s emphatic win proves that Spurs are stronger now than they were this time last year, Postecoglou added.
“I said during the week I really think we’ve progressed as a team,” the Australian said.
“I think we’re a better team this year we were last year but we’ve had some real flat spots, to say the least, that have not allowed us to progress in terms of our standing.
“But as I said, I’ve never sensed the players have lost belief in what we’re doing. It’s very easy to because obviously there’s a lot of noise when things don’t go well.
“Today was about sort of doubling down on our football principles and we did that, and it is significant because obviously they’ve got an unbelievable record here at home.
“So I don’t think it’s something that you can be blase about. It is significant.
“But I think it’s significant for the whole group that we’ve reached these standards before, it’s about now not dropping as we have in certain games.”