A great dark cloud is lifting from over Tottenham Hotspur, and bright blue sky is finally visible overhead.
This has been a brutal winter for Spurs, a relentless storm of injuries, Thursday-Sunday turnarounds, and more league defeats than anyone would have thought possible. There were certainly moments in January when it felt as if Spurs would never get out of this, that they were stuck in the inescapable doom spiral. The whole project looked broken beyond repair.
No one would say that now. This 4-1 win at Ipswich Town was Spurs’ third consecutive Premier League win, the first time they have done that since December 2023. This was another step in the right direction. Against Brentford and Manchester United, Spurs spent long spells with their backs to the wall, relying on the poor finishing of the opposition to escape with two clean sheets. On Saturday, it was just the first five minutes before they took control of the game.
For the first time in three months, Tottenham are starting to look more like a team again. This was not perfection, and there were spells when Ipswich got back on top of them. But in the main, Spurs were competent, functional, balanced and organised — the boxes that they were simply unable to tick for so much of December and January.
It does not take great detective work to understand what has changed.
First, there is the return of injured players.
This was Guglielmo Vicario’s second start since coming back from three months out with a broken ankle. He made some important saves and radiated calm authority through the defence.
This was Brennan Johnson’s first start after one month out with a calf injury, and he scored two first-half goals, the first of them a classic piece of Johnson forward play, attacking the far post to turn in Son Heung-min’s low cross.
This was Destiny Udogie’s first start after almost two months out with a hamstring injury, and he brought back those bursting runs down the left.
Second, there are the new players.
It was Kevin Danso’s fourth start for Spurs, and he threw himself into every challenge as the left-sided centre-back. (“I think he enjoys the whacks,” Ange Postecoglou joked afterwards.) This was also Mathys Tel’s third start for Spurs and, while he is not a natural centre-forward, he worked hard and took the pressure off other players.
Third, and just as important, is how this was the second straight week in which Spurs had no midweek game, after a punishing schedule in recent months. This has finally allowed Postecoglou to give his players some time off, and to hold training sessions that are not just based on recovery or game preparation.
It was immediately obvious how much Son had benefited from the extra rest. He had that burst of pace back in his legs, skipping past Ben Godfrey, making Spurs’ first two goals.
Dejan Kulusevski, who has played every one of Tottenham’s 41 games this season, ran hard and scored a characteristically excellent fourth goal. “The poor guy’s just been grinding it for two and a half months, without any excuse, without any complaints,” Postecoglou said of him. “He’s just been going and going.”
Djed Spence and Lucas Bergvall, two relatively new players who have carried Tottenham recently, both had an extra spring in their step on Saturday. Spence scored the third goal that sealed the win — his first league goal for Spurs — while Bergvall set the tempo again in the middle of the pitch.
Put all those elements together and Spurs are suddenly a very different prospect from the exhausted, ragged group that trudged from game to game not very long ago. So do these new circumstances mean a new mood?
“It was never the mood,” Postecoglou said. “It’s a different feeling because the lads have got energy. They’re recovering from games. They’ve got an opportunity to train. They see they’ve got support, in terms of other players. Training’s been really good, the first sessions we’ve had for two and a half months. For the players, it’s not so much about the mood, it’s about the mental state. Having an opportunity now to be able to perform at the levels we want to perform.”
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So given this new Tottenham, with their new mental state, you wonder where this season might end up.
With Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dominic Solanke and Richarlison all to return, this team should improve. Over March, April and May, you can picture them playing football on the level of their best games this season. The reality of the league table means the likely best-case scenario is that they finish between ninth and 11th. Which is not fifth, but it is not 15th either.
And with Tottenham 16 points clear of the bottom three, there is no more talk of a relegation battle, even if Postecoglou never countenanced that himself. But it was still a sign of some confidence that he dismissed that as a “ridiculous” notion, and a sign of “hysteria” around the club. This is a manager who believes in his ability to achieve things in this job.
The biggest prize left is still the Europa League. Spurs know their path now — and they know if they play their best football over two legs, no team will want to play them.
Four weeks ago, when Spurs had just lost to Leicester City, their 13th league defeat out of 23, it felt delusional to think about Bilbao, which will host the Europa League final on May 21. But things have changed. Now Spurs have Manchester City on Wednesday, then a weekend off, then a trip to the Netherlands to play AZ the following Thursday.
There is a narrow path to a successful season ahead of Spurs, but it is clearly lit by the emerging sun.
(Top photo: Stephen Pond/Getty Images)