Dejan Kulusevski loves playing against Manchester City, claiming he takes it “personally” whenever he locks horns with Pep Guardiola’s champions.
The Swede grabbed two assists in Tottenham’s gutsy 2-1 Carabao Cup triumph on Wednesday night to set up a quarter-final clash with Manchester United.
And the 24-year-old attacker, thriving as a central playmaker under Ange Postecoglou, has registered more goal contributions - three goals and four assists - against City than any other opponent in Guardiola’s tenure. He said: “I knew I had to do something important as it’s an amazing game to play against this team.
“I take it personally to play against City, I promised myself that I was going to have a good game and I think I did.” Kulusevski insists his stunning all-action display wasn’t born from frustration following last Sunday’s disappointing defeat at Crystal Palace.
Instead, he revealed his vendetta against the Premier League leaders stems from his desire to compete with the elite. The ex-Juventus attacker continued: “It wasn’t about Palace, no, it’s just because it’s City. I love to play against the best because it’s extra-motivating.
“It’s a personal thing, everybody that is close to me knows it and I knew that I was going to shine because I prepared for this game for a long time. I knew I had to perform and I did. I’ve played City away three times and scored three times. There is no fear. In fact, it’s the complete opposite of fear.”
While Aston Villa are now in Kulusevski’s crosshairs, he refuses to skate over his team’s defensive frailties after successfully weathering a late City storm. He said in response to Spurs gifting Matheus Nunes a lifeline on the stroke of half-time: “I’m very angry that we conceded the goal in the last second of the half, we can’t do that.
“It changes everything when you’re going to go in at half-time at 2-0 and then it’s 2-1. But we handled it well in the second half, we created so many chances and if we killed the game before it would be all over.
“In the end we stayed strong and everybody contributed.” Now Postecoglou’s indispensable leader wants Tottenham to find some consistency to ensure they make something of their season.
The forward continued: “We don’t want to be up and down. If you want to be a champion you have to be there every game - that’s the main part that everyone has to understand. We have to improve away from home against teams that play physically and don’t play the football that was played against City.”
Kulusevski is adamant Spurs have a real chance of ending their 16-year wait - 17 come March’s Wembley final - for silverware, concluding: “We want to win every trophy and this is a great opportunity to win a cup.
“It will be fun to play against a legendary team next in United.”