Dejan Kulusevski believes that he has "something that no other player has" after shining once again for Tottenham in their big win at Manchester City.
The Swede has been in phenomenal form for club and country this season with six goals and two assists in 18 appearances despite moving back into a deeper role within Ange Postecoglou's system. He also has two goals and two assists in his six international games in recent months, five of those as Sweden's captain.
Tottenham are the top scorers in the Premier League and many of their goals have involved Kulusevski at some point during the build-up. The 24-year-old has always revelled playing at the Etihad Stadium and his role, back on the right wing, in Spurs' 4-0 win against Pep Guardiola's men on Saturday means it's now six goal involvements in his four visits to City's home since arriving from Juventus in 2022.
Kulusevski admitted that Kevin De Bruyne is a player he often watches and studies and when asked whether he can become one of the best players in the Premier League like the silverware-laden Belgian, the Spurs man said: "I think I have something that no other player has. So you can’t compare me to any other player, so this is what I’m looking for."
When quizzed if that something was his seemingly never-ending energy reserve, the midfielder responded: "Yeah, I don't get tired and I can't let anybody outwork me. That’s the plan. That’s how I play and how I train.
"Clearly, you have to strive to be as good as possible, every day in every kind of way, on the pitch and outside of the pitch. Right now, I’m doing my best and I’m really not demanding anything for myself. You know when a mistake happens, it happens. So I’m maturing a lot and I’m enjoying my football a lot more."
With his new captaincy role with his country, it's clear that Kulusevski's influence at Tottenham is also growing and the player is trying to become more of a leader among his team-mates, especially the many younger ones who look up to him.
"Yeah, I’m improving. I’m getting more mature now as a forward also. That’s important for the club that I take my responsibility and I help the young players," he said. "They really trust me and I believe in them a lot, so I know we enjoy playing together."
The Tottenham man added that he does feel unstoppable right now in what has been a great campaign so far on a personal level, saying: "I feel like that. I feel very good, and I’m trying to keep this way. I’m very happy, I’m trying to improve. I’m never happy. I’m just grateful, but I feel really good. I started the season good, but there is over half of the season left and I hope I can do much better."
Saturday's big victory in Manchester brought two goals from James Maddison, the first set up by a beautiful, curling Kulusevski ball into his path, before Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson finished the job of dismantling the champions.
"I’d say it’s the best result ever in my career. It’s a big night for the whole club, for the coach, for the players," said Kulusevski. "I believed this [result could happen] because in the past years, we’ve come here and played really well. So this is the game I look forward to most in the year and once again, it happens, so glory to God."
The Swede made it very clear though that the hammering of City should not feel like a turning point because of what came before, particularly the dismal defeat against Ipswich at home before the international break.
"No, no because we have to be much more consistent. It’s not a turning point. We have to be better in other games. This game suits us perfectly, but we have a lot of improvement to make in the other games," he said. "Because City have a lot of the ball so sometimes we can rest when we defend. There’s also so much space up there, we play one against one and then it’s always dangerous because we have a lot of quality.
"It’s always great to play great teams because they always want to play football. When you play lower teams, sometimes it’s not. There’s not much football played because they are a lot of fouls a lot of injuries and it’s slow going."
On what lies ahead for the north London club this season, he added: "We have to see, but we have to climb the ladder too. We have to improve a lot, especially in the games where we play the lower-ranked teams, but it’s up to us all to take responsibility because we’re very good players, and now we just have to do it every day."