The Athletic

Mousa Dembele was a players’ player: a rare talent whose quality is best articulated by his team-mates.

Kyle Walker, who played alongside Dembele at Tottenham Hotspur for five seasons before joining Manchester City in 2017, said he was “probably the best player I have ever seen play football”, and he has lined up with and against some of the greatest of his generation. One is those is City’s Kevin De Bruyne, who incidentally described his former Belgium team-mate as “the best player in the world” at five-a-side. Former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino ranked him in the “genius” bracket of those he had worked with, alongside Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho.

GO DEEPER

Mousa Dembele was the lynchpin of Pochettino’s Tottenham and made the whole system work

Still, none of those statements are as eyebrow-raising as when Kieran Trippier, another ex-Tottenham colleague and a 54-cap England international, described Dembele as the greatest of all time — above Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — in an interview with Sky Sports.

On the surface, it appears a little ridiculous.

Messi and Ronaldo have 1,775 professional-level club goals between them; Dembele scored 65 times. Together, Messi and Ronaldo have 638 assists; Dembele managed 46. Messi and Ronaldo have collected 19 league titles combined (and almost as many continental-level club and national-team honours); Dembele won one.

You may say it is unfair to compare a deep-lying midfielder who rarely ventured within 10 yards of the opposition box with a duo who did most of their damage between the width of the goalkeeper’s posts. However, the fresh-faced 21-year-old who won the 2008-09 Eredivisie title with AZ was not the Dembele you probably remember.

“He joined us because our technical director, Martin van Geel, knew him from Willem II (another Dutch club),” says Edward Metgod, who was Louis van Gaal’s assistant coach at AZ in those days. “At the time, Shota Arveladze was the top guy in that position. They were different players. Incomparable.”

If you can believe it, that position was centre-forward.

Dembele signed for AZ in summer 2006 after one season with Willem II, who had finished second-bottom and only stayed in the top flight by beating second-tier sides FC Zwolle and De Graafschap in the relegation/promotion play-offs. After forcing his way into the starting line-up in the October, the Belgian led the line for the Tilburg-based side for most of that campaign, scoring nine goals in 33 regular-season appearances. His most impressive outing was in a 5-0 win over Groningen in the March, netting once and providing two assists.

Aged 18, scoring at a rate of nearly one in three was enough to put him on the radar of the Netherlands’ biggest clubs, including Ajax. He opted for Van Gaal’s AZ project instead of joining the Amsterdam giants, where his new manager soon spotted his miscategorisation as a striker.

“If you looked at his data, it was not the typical data of a striker or a target man,” says Metgod. “He could hold the ball unbelievably well, but scoring goals was not his key quality. In the beginning, I doubted whether he knew what he was doing or wanted to do with the ball. He was on the ball, turning left and right, holding players away from him, but he’d somehow find a solution because he was so strong. He was not the kind of player who knew his next pass before he got the ball, but he was so strong that nobody could pinch it.

“I remember on the training field the defenders saying, ‘What the hell is this? This guy is so strong! You cannot get the ball from this guy’.”

Dembele started his debut season on the fringes of Van Gaal’s starting XI. AZ, who face Tottenham over the next two midweeks in a battle of his former clubs in the Europa League’s round of 16, were pushing for the title after missing out by three points the year before, and the teenage newcomer had to settle for earning the lion’s share of his minutes from the bench. But Van Gaal began experimenting with Dembele alongside Arveladze in attack, dropping deeper and collecting the ball before embarking on the marauding dribbles that would become his trademark.

He solidified his place as a regular starter with a goal in a 3-2 win at PSV in the February, but AZ would again narrowly miss out on their first league championship since 1980-81. They finished third, four points behind both Ajax and PSV, with the latter winning the title on goal difference. After consecutive unsuccessful title challenges, Van Gaal rejigged things at the top of the pitch.

“He was not a real goalscorer, and that made playing in Arveladze’s position difficult,” says Metgod. “The season after, AZ signed strikers Ari and Graziano Pelle and (striker Danny) Koevermans left, and Van Gaal changed the system. There was also the competition of (Mounir) El Hamdaoui.”

In that 2007-08 season, Dembele was a regular starter and considered one of the Eredivisie’s brightest talents — but still without a nailed-on position. In April 2011, having joined Fulham from AZ the previous summer, he told MailOnline he had learned the game on a basketball court, where you scored by making the ball hit the pole that held up the hoop. Given his unconventional footballing education, it was no surprise he had not yet conformed to the structure of the professional game.

“Van Gaal was searching for a position for him because he had exceptional skills, but not as a striker,” says Metgod. “He wanted him in the team for his possession skills. That was something Van Gaal always thought was incredibly important — he thought about football with possession of the ball.”

He spent most of that season playing behind Ari and El Hamdaoui as a No 10 and scored three league goals in 33 appearances. It was the clearest indicator of the player he would eventually become in the Premier League and paved the way for Dembele to emerge as a key player for Belgium’s national team. However, AZ struggled, finishing 11th on 43 points, 29 behind champions PSV.

The following season, they would finally get over the hump as title winners, breezing home 11 points clear of runners-up Twente, with Dembele playing a key role.

“From the start, I could see this place is definitely going to be a platform, not his limit,” says Brett Holman, an Australia international midfielder who joined AZ before that triumphant 2008-09 campaign. “He was probably a head above the rest regarding technique, speed and balance.”

After what was his worst season in charge in 2007-08, Van Gaal again tinkered with AZ’s system, but Dembele remained integral. He alternated between a 4-4-2 diamond and a flat variation of the formation, where the Belgian started from the wing but had a free role.

“He was one of the first names on the team sheet, if not the first,” says Holman. “It sums up the player he was that Louis put the team out and was like, ‘Well, how can I fit Mousa in?’. It didn’t matter where he played because he was always that good.”

That speaks to his quality, as many of that 2008-09 side went on to achieve big things. Seven of the team later played in the Premier League, and several others had successful careers in other top European leagues and became established internationals.

After losing their first two league games of the league season, AZ got into their groove with a 1-0 home win over champions PSV in mid-September. It would be 29 matches before Van Gaal’s side were beaten in the Eredivisie again, collecting 76 points out of a possible 84. It was Dembele’s brightest start to a season yet, netting three times from the opening five matches, including two in a 6-0 win against Sparta Rotterdam. However, he sustained a torn meniscus in the second half of that game, which kept him out until the new year.

He returned to the starting line-up in the reverse fixture with Sparta in early February and marked it with a goal in a 2-0 win. A week later, he delivered his most memorable moment in an AZ shirt — a brilliant solo effort against his previous team, Willem II.

“Everyone’s seen it, where he runs past six or seven guys,” says Holman. “He just bounces off them all and probably beats one guy three times. That summed him up. That’s one goal where he stood out to me as a player on a different level. He was a different type of player to what was running around in the Dutch league at the time.”

He finished with 10 goals from 23 league games as AZ won the Eredivisie, qualifying for the following season’s Champions League, before moving to Fulham in summer 2010. It was not until Martin Jol replaced Mark Hughes as manager before Dembele’s second season at Craven Cottage that he moved into a deeper-lying midfield role.

“When I saw him in training, when he dropped off they could not get the ball off him,” Jol said in The Daily Telegraph in 2018. “He recovered the ball all the time because of his strength, so I thought if he played in midfield he would probably be OK. But you never know, so I tried. From that moment on, he was our best player. I have never seen a transition like that before.”

Which prompts the question: why did this not happen sooner?

“If you look at him at Spurs and how he was at AZ, where he was more of an attacking player, he didn’t actually change much,” says Holman. “Even as an attacker, he was never that out-and-out goalscorer who would get you 20 goals; he was that type of guy who always kept the ball moving.

GO DEEPER

AZ Alkmaar: The club where coaching goes against convention

“You knew that if you played the ball into him and had three guys around him, he’d never lose it. I felt he wasn’t that ‘real’ No 10, left winger or No 9. That wasn’t where he fitted in. When he went to Tottenham (in summer 2012), it made sense that those positions suited him a lot more, where he had a little bit more freedom with midfield, and he could do his damage from there.”

Re-inventing an international player as he entered his prime years was a brave decision, but it was proven a masterstroke.

Without it, one of the most uniquely brilliant midfielders in Premier League history may never have come close to realising his potential.

(Top photo: AFP via Getty Images)

The clouds of the exhausting winter are starting to clear. The path ahead of Tottenham Hotspur is narrow but visible, even with doubts swirling over the fitness of Dejan Kulusevski. On Thursday, they must take their first forward step.

Any European knockout game is a big occasion but this week’s trip to Alkmaar to face AZ in the first leg of the Europa League last 16 feels especially momentous.

We all know where this path leads, if Spurs can just make their way along it: San Mames Stadium on 21 May.

Tottenham are six games away from the Europa League final. If they force their way past AZ, then it would be Ajax or Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals just before Easter. And then possibly Lazio or Olympiacos (or Bodo/Glimt or Viktoria Plzen) in the semi-finals in early May. Three two-legged ties, all of them against good teams, each one another step towards the target of Bilbao.

To get there would be a huge achievement: a first final since 2021, a first European final since 2019. A chance for Spurs fans to travel abroad in numbers. A hope of recreating some of that magical Madrid energy that feels so distant now.

And if you can allow yourself to picture it, just think what it would mean for Son Heung-min to lift that trophy 11 weeks from now: Tottenham’s first since 2008, and just the second of the ENIC era. The club’s first European trophy since 1984, back in the days of Graham Roberts, Steve Archibald, Gary Stevens and the rest. And a place back in next season’s Champions League, for the first time since 2022-23, with everything that does for a club’s cachet and turnover.

It does not need to be said what a deeply significant moment it would be for Spurs fans; how many of them would be moved to tears by the sight of Son, 10 years after he joined the club, holding up that glistening silver flask. To finally see Tottenham win, after years of seeing them do everything else, would be a bumper emotional pay-off — like the first rain after a drought, or the bursting of a seemingly-impregnable dam.

In an instant, it would make sense of so much that has gone before.

There would be a more specific, more personal meaning, too. For Ange Postecoglou, triumph in the Europa League would be the most profound vindication. Only eight Tottenham managers have ever won a trophy (with all due respect to Peter Shreeves’ Spurs sharing the 1991 Charity Shield, which we are not counting here). Postecoglou would instantly take his place alongside immortal Tottenham figures.

He would have achieved something that even Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs’ greatest manager of the 21st century, could not.

For most of this season, Postecoglou has been on the back foot, having to defend his ideas and methods. Perhaps that is unavoidable when the team underperforms as badly as they have in the league. Even after their recent mini-revival, those three straight league wins against Brentford, Manchester United and Ipswich, Spurs have still lost more than half of their league games this season.

They are still most likely heading for a finish at the top of the bottom half of the table. Opta make their likeliest league finishes 13th, 14th and then 12th.

Postecoglou knows that Tottenham’s league position is not where they should be. After the 4-1 win at Ipswich Town, he said it was “obviously not good enough” and their placing in the table remained “unacceptable”. Of course, there are reasons for this, not least the injury crisis that has effectively deprived him of a whole team’s worth of players, including some of their most important, for the most significant part of the campaign.

Tottenham have shown patience with Postecoglou through this, sticking with him even when the team has been further down the table than anyone could ever have expected.

Whether this horrible domestic campaign actually matters or not will ultimately be decided in Europe. If Spurs reach the Bilbao final, no one will care how many league games they lost or where they finished in the table. If they can qualify for the Champions League through winning the Europa, it will not matter how far away from the top four (or five) they ended up. The whole league season would be condemned to the footnotes of history. And Postecoglou would always then be the man who won Spurs a European trophy, or at least took them close to one.

If he could live up to the implicit promise in his line about winning a trophy in his second season, he would look like an almost magical figure, one who not only accomplishes great things but announces that he will do so in advance.

But if Spurs go out of the Europa League now, or in the next stage, then there will be nowhere to hide. Tottenham’s league form would become the unavoidable story of the season. There could be no distractions from it, little else to cheer people up. By May, Spurs still would have taken a giant leap backwards in the league, and would have nothing in the cups to show for it.

This is why these remaining Europa League games mean so much.

Spurs are playing for more than just this one particular competition. They are playing for the whole Postecoglou era. A good run in this competition would justify Postecoglou’s appointment in 2023. It would build on his progress in his first season, and neutralise any criticism of his style this season. It would create a perfectly digestible narrative: this winter’s crisis as the darkness before the dazzling vindicating triumph at the end of the film.

And maybe this is an unfair framing, to say that everything is riding on these games, and that Tottenham need to win and keep winning. We all know how contingent knockout football is. We know the limitations of drawing conclusions from its random outcomes. But we live in a reductive world.

And this particular path to Bilbao is the only path to vindication that Postecoglou has left.

(Top photo: Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero has been included in a preliminary squad for Argentina’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers — despite not playing since December.

The 26-year-old has played just 15 minutes of club football since the 2-1 defeat by Ipswich Town on November 10.

A combination of a toe injury and, more recently, a hamstring issue have sidelined him for a lengthy period with his only club appearance coming against Chelsea on December 8, where he played a quarter of an hour.

He played 45 minutes for his country in the final international break before Christmas, against Paraguay, before a three-game absence preceded the Chelsea match.

Romero has recently returned to training with head coach Ange Postecoglou indicating last week that he was one of three players — alongside fellow defender Micky van de Ven and striker Dominic Solanke — who had an “outside chance” to play against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday and had “much better odds” for the Premier League meeting with Bournemouth at the weekend.

Argentina face Uruguay (March 21) and Brazil (March 26) over the international break.

Former Tottenham midfielder Giovani Lo Celso — now of Real Betis — is also part of the squad for the games, as well as Villareal defender Juan Foyth, who played for Spurs between 2017 and 2021.

Tottenham return to action following the international window against Chelsea on April 3.

Romero has made 112 appearances for Tottenham since joining from Atalanta, initially on loan, in August 2021.

This season he has been restricted to just 14 appearances in all competitions.

He has 40 caps for his country having made his debut back in June 2021 and was part of the squad that won the World Cup in 2022 and the Copa America twice, in 2021 and 2024.

GO DEEPER

Do Tottenham have a problem with Cristian Romero?

(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

As the ball rebounded to Jamie Donley, stationed on the edge of the box as Leyton Orient attacked a corner, the home crowd left their seats in anticipation.

After all, Donley has built a reputation for scoring stunners since his summer loan move east from Tottenham Hotspur. This time he mistimed his effort, with the ball flying over the bar. Five minutes later, and with five minutes of regular time remaining, he left the pitch at the Gaughan Group Stadium to a standing ovation, having helped Orient to the cusp of a crucial 1-0 win over London rivals Charlton Athletic.

However, with Donley watching from the bench, Charlton equalised from a corner in the second minute of added time and then, in almost identical fashion, got a winner in the seventh. The result lifts Charlton into the League One play-off places, while Orient drop to eighth.

While it is an unwelcome dent to Orient’s promotion hopes, it marks another game in which Donley made an impression. Ask anyone around the club, and they’ll tell you he’s flying. But it hasn’t always been so straightforward.

Rewind to the reverse fixture in August and Donley had barely been in the building for 24 hours before being thrown into the starting line-up, playing 70 minutes in a 1-0 defeat in south-east London. He kept his place for defeats to Birmingham City and Shrewsbury but was dropped to the bench for consecutive league wins against Reading and Stockport.

“As soon as he came into the fold, you saw that he possessed real quality,” Omar Beckles, Orient’s vice-captain, tells The Athletic. “You can see why Spurs regard him so highly; he’s got an eye for a pass. We saw that early on.

“But we had a really difficult start, and he was taken out of the team. He had to bide his time on the sidelines. We almost thought he was down and out because it’s difficult not making the squad for any young lad.”

While many young players from the pampered and protected world of an elite Premier League academy may have downed tools and pushed for a return to their parent club, Donley knuckled down and continued to impress during training. For Beckles, it speaks to his “humble” character, unlike some of the “entitled” young players he has experienced from other top-flight clubs.

“One of the question marks early on was whether he’s got the athleticism and physicality to impose himself on the game, or will the game pass him by?” says Beckles. “Naturally, that’s going to be in the back of the mind of any manager with a young No 10 with loads of ability — can he affect the game without the ball? But he kept his head down and trained like a million dollars. He worked really hard for us.”

It wasn’t until the 3-0 win over Bristol Rovers in December that Donley tasted his first victory as a starter.

After that win, just their fifth from their first 17 league matches, Orient went on a run and surged up the League One table. Richie Wellens’ side went unbeaten for 11 league matches — collecting 29 points from a possible 33 — with Donley starting every game. Over that period, he scored five league goals and laid on as many assists, with left-footed volleys in wins over Exeter City and Wrexham the picks of an impressive bunch.

Particularly eye-catching was a sumptuous pass to set up the second of Azeem Abdulai’s three goals in the 6-2 win at Exeter. But that was nothing compared to what came a little under two weeks later, when Donley delivered a moment Orient won’t forget in a hurry.

Having helped to dispossess Nico Gonzalez on the halfway line in the first half of their FA Cup fourth-round tie against Manchester City, Donley knocked the ball out of his feet and arrowed a shot from the edge of the centre circle that flew over the head of goalkeeper Stefan Ortega.

Donley was not credited with the goal, as the ball hit the bar and deflected off Ortega’s back before crossing the line, but it hasn’t stopped the hype.

At the time of writing, a video of the goal circulated by the FA Cup’s X account has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

After the game, Spurs academy coach Sam Cox shared a video of the club’s youngsters celebrating the goal from the training ground. The audacity to attempt the shot on the biggest stage of his young career, never mind the near-perfect execution, is why many have him earmarked to achieve big things.

“I know a lot of the coaches at Spurs who have worked with him, and there’s no surprise,” says Beckles. “He’s scored from the halfway line before at youth team level. It’s nothing new to him — this is who he is. It’s just all coming together in the men’s environment.

“At this level, there’s nothing like his weight of pass. He doesn’t just pass on his safe side; he’s threading balls between lines and between centre-backs and full-backs with the weight of pass.

“He’s got Kevin De Bruyne-esque elements, but he’s got the graft in him. He’s got the basics and fundamentals and is willing to put his foot in.

“I like to pump up his tyres, calling him ‘Starboy’ and tell him he’s doing really well to make him feel good, but he shuts it down like, ‘Nah, shut up. Don’t worry about it’. He doesn’t want anything to go to his head.”

Any comparison to De Bruyne will raise eyebrows, but given space and time, Donley appears as capable as anyone of threading a pass through the eye of a needle.

Take this sequence from the home game against Reading, where he’s receiving the ball with time to turn towards their defence. With Charlie Kelman directly in front of Donley and in space, a midfield player without the quality (or bravery) could easily have played it forward to him.

Instead, he spots the run of former Spurs academy player Dilan Markanday on the right wing, who is being matched stride for stride by defender Abraham Kanu.

Donley takes on the higher-risk pass but executes it to perfection. He threads the ball in the tight gap — made even smaller by Kanu turning to face the ball and attempting an interception — to put Markanday through on goal.

Markanday keeps his composure, sitting Tyler Bindon down before scoring.

“He sees things quickly, so he wants to play quickly,” says Wellens. “When he receives the ball he’s always looking. He knows what’s around him.

“I think his best types of passes are towards the opposition. When the angle of pass isn’t on, he aims for the opposition legs and by the time it reaches their legs, the opposition keeps running and it reaches his target in a better position. He’s very good at passing through a player’s legs. If you watch a lot of clips of (Lionel) Messi, he passes the ball very similarly to him. He’s an exceptional passer of the ball.”

He’s not just dangerous in transition situations — he can open up deep blocks, too. In this instance below, against Bolton, Donley receives the ball in space on the wing and looks up to see a cluttered penalty box.

Donley resists the temptation to send a searching ball into that area, instead taking a touch out of his body before immediately delivering a driven pass towards Abdulai, who had ghosted into space towards the far post.

Donley executes the pass perfectly into Abdulai’s path, who centres a pass.

The ball reaches Kelman, who converts on the opposite post from close range.

While coaches should be keen to encourage Donley to continue attempting to break lines, he can occasionally be too eager to get the ball out of his feet and rush forward passes. Here is one instance where his desire to progress the ball too quickly caused a potentially promising Orient attack to break down prematurely.

Having received the ball in his half, Donley is in space with the Wrexham defence retreating.

As well as Sonny Perkins in space on the right wing, Darren Pratley is eating up ground in the middle of the pitch and appears the easier pass of the two.

Had Donley taken the ball out of his feet and immediately attempted a pass for his midfield team-mate, he could have helped it along to Perkins, thereby also taking out the covering Wrexham defender, who appeared caught in two minds on whether to press the ball or follow the runner.

However, Donley tried to switch the ball to Perkins and failed in his execution, giving the ball back to Wrexham and setting the opposition off on a potential transition opportunity.

Donley does not have separation pace, so he often looks to move the ball quickly once he receives it. Tottenham legend Harry Kane proves an elite burst of pace is not necessary if you use your body correctly and have the technical consistency to execute those passes. Still, it’s a high-risk strategy, particularly in this era of physical and transition-heavy football at the elite level. To make the step up, Donley will have to improve his pass selection and consistency, but the onus may not be on him to play forward so quickly at other clubs.

“He’s learning his position really well, and he will get away with his current speed, but we all know that in the Premier League, the top, top players have that extra little bit of pace as well,” says Wellens. “If you’ve not got lightning pace, you need to have two other things: technical ability, which he has bucketloads of, and a football brain.

“You might have players who are physically quicker, but their brain isn’t functioning as quickly as his. His football brain is very good, he sees things quickly, and that will compensate.

“If he can develop that part of his game, I’ve no doubt he’ll be a Premier League player.”

(Top photo: Paul Harding/Getty Images)

What is the best way for a Premier League club to promote its brand? And what is the thinking behind changes to approach?

After Jack Pitt-Brooke revealed Tottenham had emailed Premier League broadcasters asking not to be referred to as Tottenham, but rather “Tottenham Hotspur” or “Spurs” for short, The Athletic spoke to experts to try and understand the thinking behind this move — and the strategies of other Premier League clubs.

Steve Martin, founding partner of MSQ sport and entertainment, explains the general mindset for top-flight clubs when they are looking to boost their image. “What all these clubs are looking to do is constantly find a way to connect with their fans, bring new supporters in, and try to make it more diverse in terms of fanbase and cultural relevance,” he tells The Athletic.

For Spurs, their note to broadcasters followed a “remastered brand identity” in November in which they referenced the importance of the name, saying “in a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers, there is only one Hotspur”.

In other words, they felt the ‘Hotspur’ element of their name — and the heritage, history and warrior story behind it — was something unique and distinctive, setting them apart. While just a small detail, it highlights how clubs think about marketing themselves — and Martin says it is part of a growing sophistication because they are now commercial businesses, not just football clubs.

“I think the ones that are looking at football clubs as an entertainment property that happens to play sport are the ones that are going to future-proof themselves and find a better way to connect with their audience,” he adds.

He cited the examples of big franchises in the U.S., such as the LA Lakers, as well as mega sports teams, like Real Madrid and the All Blacks, as ones who have successfully done this, as they appeal to a wide demographic rather than simply their core fans. He also referenced the success of Adidas in moving away from just being a sports brand into entertainment, fashion and music.

“That’s why you’re seeing Spurs trying to change the narrative, so it’s not as one dimensional,” Martin added. “Tottenham could make it feel smaller when they are up against a big competitive set in London, never mind internationally.”

For Misha Sher, global head of sport, entertainment and culture at Essence Mediacom, the importance of creating a compelling and simple story was crucial to any successful brand.

“When you think about football clubs, in a world that’s become more international and you’re speaking to a global audience — many of whom are being introduced to your club for the first time — you are constantly asking yourself, from a visual identity to how it’s referred to, ‘What is the story?’ What do you want your brand to be and represent?

“For Tottenham, the location isn’t the story they want to sell. A fan in Korea, for example, isn’t as interested by Tottenham as a place in north London, but they would be interested in the name ‘Hotspur’. They’d think, ‘Oh, what’s that about? I love that, that’s a great story’. People ultimately connect to a story, they look it up and think, ‘That’s cool, I like that’.”

Terry Stephens, partner of Nomad, a brand agency company, who worked with Tottenham on their new branding, as well as with Burnley and the Premier League, agreed.

“What we learnt from our work with Burnley in America is that there’s a lot of people that are still looking for their club and they don’t instinctively go for who’s winning,” he told The Athletic. “They want a story.

“What the guys did at Wrexham, for example, gives them a story to latch on to, Burnley with JJ Watt being part of that makeup gives people a reason to want to connect to it. A big thing we are seeing with football clubs, in particular, is how do you go behind just a club badge, how do you create a brand that can attract people beyond those hardcore (fans) that have been going for 20 or 30 years?”

Stephens said it was a fine line when striking that balance between keeping loyal, matchgoing supporters on side while appealing to new audiences.

With that in mind, his company reintroduced the Spurs monogram, a fan favourite from the 1950s, during the club’s “brand remastering” in November. That also included a silhouette version of the cockerel to create a “more playful expression of the brand”.

In terms of football clubs leading the way, Sher said Paris Saint-Germain had been very clever with their branding since their takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011.

“If you look at PSG, the way they’ve done their brand, it’s all been about leveraging the power and the appeal of Paris,” he told The Athletic. “Paris is one of the most iconic and cultural destinations of the world and they happen to be the only club in the city. It’s not about PSG as a football club, it’s about Paris and this is a football club that represents this city. This has enabled them to make their club more about culture, fashion and style.”

Before the takeover, PSG averaged around 50,000 shirt sales per year. Now, it’s more than a million annually, with stores opened in locations around the world including Oxford Street in central London, New York, Las Vegas and Tokyo.

“The vision of the chairman (Nasser Al-Khelaifi) in 2011 was clear — to make the greatest sports franchise in the sports industry,” Fabien Allegre, chief brand officer at PSG, told The Athletic in 2023. “PSG is unique. It belongs to Paris. We believe football is part of culture, not apart from, and so creating a bridge between music, art, fashion and sport was a key element of our strategy.”

A crucial part of this has been their collaboration with the Jordan brand that began in 2018.

With an envious eye on PSG’s branding, Arsenal are perhaps the best example of a Premier League club who have pushed hard to replicate their success in recent years.

They have been bold in tapping into their rich history while trying to remain as current as possible to appeal to their young and diverse fanbase.

This season’s away kit, for example, is designed by Foday Dumbuya, founder of the London menswear brand Labrum, and aims to celebrate Arsenal’s African history.

Last season’s vibrant away kit harked back to the club’s roots and featured black lines based on a map of Islington, the club’s north London home. For the 2022-23 season they brought out a warm-up shirt in yellow, green and black — the colours of the Jamaican flag — just before the Notting Hill Carnival, and it was worn by reggae artist Koffee during the event. In the 2023-24 season, the women’s team also had their own bespoke away kit, designed in collaboration with Stella McCartney.

This year, all three of their kits have the cannon as the badge instead of the official club crest, with Arsenal looking to make this symbol a centre point of their visual identity.

Arsenal have released so much streetwear in recent years that their fashion attire has become part of their identity. They revamped the outside of the Emirates in 2023 to modernise the look and reflect different aspects of the club, including more representation of the women’s team, a greater reflection of their global fanbase and more contemporary players like Jack Wilshere. Tourists are regularly seen walking around the stadium and taking photos of the artwork on the exterior.

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'For the Arsenal family' - the how and why of the new Emirates artwork

Kits, and kit launches, have become a big part of a club’s branding strategy as they look to knit together past and present. Shirt sales are a healthy chunk of a club’s revenue.

Manchester United, for example, have used decorated former players, such as Roy Keane and Eric Cantona in recent kit launches, while Gary Neville fronted their Stone Roses collection video which included shots of the current squad — especially their most marketable young players such as Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho.

They have also used celebrities to help boost the club’s image to appeal to a wider and newer audience.

Actor Barry Keoghan, for example, fronted this season’s kit launch, Stormzy helped announce Paul Pogba’s return from Juventus in 2016, while rapper Aitch wore their new kit while performing at the Glastonbury Festival in 2023.

Liverpool have also harnessed the power of celebrity to reach new audiences. Last week they announced their ‘retro retail launch’ featuring the likes of YouTube creator Manny and model Paris Chanel.

That came after Liverpool this month brought out a new design that will appear on all its social channels, website, matchday programmes and digital marketing which is focused around the Liver Bird. They have also created new typefaces called ‘LFC Sans’ and ‘LFC Serif’. Liverpool, who have more than 200million global social media followers, said they wanted to make their content clearer for those using their phones.

Manchester City have also drawn on their links to Manchester culture with their kit designs, since their 10-year, £650m partnership with Puma started in July 2019. This has included an away shirt in 2019-20 inspired by the famous Hacienda nightclub and a Blossoms third kit in 2020-2021, while this season there’s been the ‘Definitely City’ kit, designed by Oasis’ Noel Gallagher. To help launch this, City recreated the iconic Definitely Maybe album cover, with photos of Pep Guardiola playing the guitar and the City players. This proved wildly popular with City’s global fanbase and on the day it was launched it led to the second-highest day of sales revenue ever for the club.

An obvious way for clubs to actively engage with their global fanbase is through overseas tours, particularly when they embrace the local culture. When Manchester City visited east Asia in 2023, for example, their third kit was launched in Tokyo, while Erling Haaland met K-Pop band Blackpink, who have a huge social following, and Kazuchika Okada, a Japanese WWE wrestler and City fan, was photographed in front of City’s three trophies won that season.

Liverpool, who toured the US last summer, wore their new away shirt for the first time during the trip, with the American market a key area for the club’s merchandising business. The tour also offered a chance to connect with their big US following, with 67 official Liverpool supporters’ clubs across the country.

“For years, Premier League clubs have all been wrestling with this problem of how you turn fans into customers, which was Peter Kenyon’s famous phrase,” Tim Crow, former head of international sports marketing agency Synergy, told The Athletic.

“How you do it, and where you do it, is a constant debate and an ongoing challenge.”

(Top photo: Getty Images)

This ended up a far tighter victory than had initially appeared likely, but it will still have felt like a restorative evening’s work for Manchester City after a horribly damaging week.

Pep Guardiola’s side moved back into the top four with a timely win at Tottenham, a team who have made a habit of beating them this season, and City will cling to their first-half performance as reason to be positive, even if they ended up leaning on the excellence of their goalkeeper, Ederson, to maintain their lead late on.

The Brazilian’s smart low save from substitute Son Heung-min at 1-0 left the locals frustrated. Tottenham, initially such obliging hosts, will draw their own encouragement from their second-half revival, even if it yielded them no reward.

The visitors were the more threatening team through the opening exchanges, with the returning Erling Haaland eventually capitalising, converting Jeremy Doku’s low centre after a flowing move up-field. Savinho and Haaland missed glorious opportunities to add a second, both set up by the outstanding Doku, with City revelling in the wide open spaces on offer.

Tottenham, significantly second best, did not stir until Kevin Danso forced Ederson to tip over a header in the final few seconds before the interval. Yet they offered far more of a threat upon the resumption — Wilson Odobert was just unable to convert at the far post and Mathys Tel guided a shot wide — as they shifted the ball quicker and made life distinctly uncomfortable for the visitors.

Haaland thought he had added a second in stoppage time at the end, only for the effort to be ruled out for a handball, ensuring this stayed tense to the final whistle.

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Elias Burke and Anantaajith Raghuraman dissect the key talking points from the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

How did City look to use their front four?

This match marked the first time the front four of Doku, Haaland, Omar Marmoush and Savinho all started a game.

On numerous occasions this season, City have struggled to cover spaces in midfield and given Spurs are capable of hurting any team on transition, there were doubts over how the four-pronged attack would fare. Yet it worked well through the opening period, with City showing much more application and energy than they did in meek defeats to Real Madrid and Liverpool.

The front four alternated positions well. When Spurs were in their own third, they pressed as a quartet, with Doku and Savinho on either flank and Haaland and Marmoush through the middle. As Spurs progressed into midfield, City countered their build-up shape by having Doku drop into midfield alongside Mateo Kovacic and right-back Matheus Nunes, who inverted to great effect, while Savinho, Haaland and Marmoush formed a front three.

Their positional interchanges were evident in possession, too.

With the pace they had on the flanks, Haaland repeatedly dropped deep, while Marmoush and Savinho alternated well on the right wing.

City’s opener came following back-to-back driving runs from their own half by Marmoush and Savinho, with the latter finding Haaland in-field. Haaland laid it off for Nico Gonzalez, who found Doku. The Belgian crossed for Haaland to finish with freedom in the box after Savinho’s unmarked run had worried both Spurs centre-backs.

Pep Guardiola’s side have lacked this kind of fluidity in and out of possession across the pitch this season. Tottenham struggled as the quartet stretched their back line, with Doku, Savinho and Haaland all passing up presentable opportunities before the interval.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

Was this a Tottenham selection with AZ in mind?

Now that Ange Postecoglou has players back, he can do something he has not been able to do for months: rotate.

This meant a surprising team selection, with three of Tottenham’s best players over recent weeks — Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Djed Spence — starting on the bench.

On the one hand, it made sense. Kulusevski had played every single game for Spurs this season and has not been the same player of late as he was at the start of the season. Son has looked tired for a while, although he was better at Ipswich Town on Saturday. Spence has played a lot since he finally won Postecoglou’s trust. And Spurs have a Europa League trip to AZ next week.

That is the one competition they can still win and they need all their top players for that, but it did seem to cost Spurs a physical edge in the first half here, especially given Kulusevski and Son’s successes against City in the past.

As it was, the trio of high-profile absentees were summoned en masse from the bench midway through the second half with the home side still chasing the deficit shipped early. Their presence on the touchline had actually inspired those on the field to whip up some pressure; they entered the fray hoping to build on that burst of momentum.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

How Doku carried a threat

With Jeremy Doku’s pace and trickery, the last thing Postecoglou would have wanted was for him to bear down one-v-one on Pedro Porro with space in behind. Fortunately for City’s No 11, that’s what happened over and over again, particularly through the first half.

From a Tottenham perspective, the first warning sign came within 10 minutes when Doku charged down Porro on the left wing, throwing the former City man — Porro was contracted to City from 2019 to 2022 but never represented the first team — to the ground before the attack collapsed. Shortly after, Savinho, who stuck to the right flank allowing Marmoush to drop inside from the right striker position and create space on the wing, received a pass from his team-mate before driving inside.

The ball reached Doku to provide Haaland’s tap-in.

From there on, Doku had his opposite number on toast. Peter Crouch, a pundit on British broadcaster TNT Sports, described him as “unplayable”. Largely due to the threat carried by the Belgian, City should have considered themselves unfortunate not to be three or four up by half-time.

Elias Burke

How did Spurs make the second half more of a contest?

When City missed as many chances as they did in the first half, it seemed inevitable that they would pay for it later. Far too often this season they have ceded the initiative in the second halves of games and that came to the fore again.

Tottenham came out the more energised team after the break, with Odobert and Brennan Johnson working harder to get on the ball, pulling City’s defenders with them. This, combined with a drop in defensive intensity from both Savinho and Doku, allowed Porro and Destiny Udogie to move higher up the pitch.

Porro delivered a couple of fantastic passes into the box, with Odobert just failing to put one of those away at the back post. Udogie, for his part, repeatedly ran at Abdukodir Khusanov, who often filled in at right-back with Nunes inverting into central areas. He almost set up Tel after dispossessing Savinho, only for Nunes to nick the ball off Tel’s toes.

As City scrambled to close down the wide areas, Rodrigo Bentancur, James Maddison and Lucas Bergvall grew in influence, too, outnumbering City’s midfield of Nico and Kovacic as Nunes dropped deeper to protect the back line.

Tottenham’s substitutes further added to City’s troubles. Son and Spence combined well on the left, while Kulusevski, deployed down the middle, varied his movement well to keep City’s defence on their toes.

If not for multiple crucial interventions from Nunes, Ruben Dias and Ederson, the hosts could easily have drawn level.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

Should Tottenham be concerned?

This was the end of Spurs’ mini-revival, a first league defeat after a run of three straight wins that had started to move them back up the table.

As a game, it felt slightly low-stakes, neither of these teams anywhere near where they want to be in the league but with their eyes on other prizes. Spurs were certainly very poor in the first half, cut open every single time by City. They were lucky to make it into the break only 1-0 down. But they were by far the better team in the second half, making enough chances to win the game.

Odobert grew into it on his first start since September. Johnson improved as the game went on, too. Substitutes Pape Matar Sarr and Son both could have scored.

City had a second goal disallowed at the end, but if Spurs had played all game like they did for their best spells, they could have won.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Would anyone have impressed Thomas Tuchel?

Thomas Tuchel was in attendance with an eye on announcing his first England squad for next month’s internationals, and a couple of players made a positive early impression.

James Maddison, the most established England international on display from a Spurs perspective — which says a lot given he has only won seven caps — was tidy in possession, even if there wasn’t much end product. He created four chances on the night before being substituted in the 82nd minute, but he will have impressed the defensive-minded German with his industry out of possession, winning three tackles and seven ground duels.

Archie Gray, an under-21 international, was the standout for Spurs, delivering a composed performance while Haaland lurked in front. Though he could not prevent Haaland’s goal, he was up for the physical battle and distributed the ball well. The March break may come too early, but it’s no wonder many have him earmarked as a future England international.

Phil Foden and Djed Spence came off the bench but had little opportunity to show what they’re about in front of the new England manager. Spence, who has been excellent for Spurs since forcing his way into Postecoglou’s plans in December, is looking for his debut cap — and first involvement in England’s youth teams since 2023 — and his versatility in either full-back position will do his prospects no harm.

Elias Burke

What did Ange Postecoglou and Pep Guardiola say?

Postecoglu to TNT Sports on the performance: “The first half was difficult. They obviously had the ascendancy, scored and had a couple of good chances. We sort of hung on in there, but second half we kind of dominated. We knew City would come out pretty strong, but also that we would finish strong. It was a matter of hanging in there.

“First half we gave the ball away, we were a bit wasteful, and allowed them to get a roll of it which you don’t want to do against City. But second half we were much better. We dominated the ball, we dominated territory, we pinned them back. We were just missing the goal, that cutting edge in the final third. We certainly created enough opportunities.”

Guardiola to TNT Sports on the display: “Really happy for the victory, for three points, because we needed it. The second half was open because we didn’t close the game in the first half. We had too many clear chances. For the quality we have, we have to convert them. Unfortunately it didn’t happen and we knew we were going to suffer. But the guys fought a lot and I was really pleased. Always, here, it’s a difficult, difficult place to come.”

And on Doku: “The wingers, Savinho and Jeremy (Doku), were outstanding. Jeremy is a threat, a guy who is good in the final third. He made an incredible assist in the first half. In football, when one player dribbles, he opens up everything.”

What next for Tottenham Hotspur?

Thursday, March 6: AZ (Away), Europa League, 5.45pm UK, 12.45pm ET

A trip to the Netherlands awaits next week and a reunion with former Tottenham youngster Troy Parrott. AZ are currently fourth in the Eredivisie.

What next for Manchester City?

Saturday, March 1: Plymouth Argyle (Home), FA Cup fifth round, 5.45pm UK, 12.45pm ET

The Championship side are still in the division’s relegation zone but, under Miron Muslic, are showing signs of life and knocked out Liverpool in the previous round.

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(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

As far as matters on the pitch are concerned, the gloom around Tottenham Hotspur is starting to lift a little. Ange Postecoglou’s team have won three straight Premier League games. Players are coming back from injury and the team is moving back up the league. They go to Alkmaar next week for a Europa League last-16 first leg which could take them one step closer to the final in Bilbao in May.

But off the pitch, the mood remains uncertain. It was only nine days ago that thousands of fans marched to the ground under the banner of ‘Change For Tottenham’. The improved league form will do something to mollify that, but only a bit. There were still plenty of anti-Daniel Levy chants in the away end at Ipswich Town, a game which Spurs comfortably won 4-1.

There is one big off-field question that will determine much of the mood on the terraces over the final phase of the season: what will the club do about ticket prices and concession policies for the 2025-26 season?

It is a question that has hung over the club all year. Ever since Tottenham announced in March 2024 that season-ticket prices for the 2024-25 season would go up by six per cent, with controversial changes to senior concession season tickets too, there has been anxiety from fans about what the next changes would be. Would the club dare to jack up prices a second year in a row? And would they soften the unpopular policies on senior concession season tickets?

There has at least been no uncertainty about when fans would learn about next season’s prices. Tottenham published a new ‘Ticketing Charter’ last March, which enshrined that prices would be announced “no later than 15 March each year”. An announcement was always expected in the next few weeks.

But we are now coming to the end of that process. Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust (THST) has been in negotiations with the club all year. They have another crunch meeting on Tuesday evening with the club. Throughout the process, THST have been very clear with the club that they oppose any future increases, and that there should be another freeze in season-ticket prices. The trust has also called for the club to change its policy on new senior concession season tickets.

The strength of feeling from the fans on this topic has never been in doubt. There was a meeting of the Fan Advisory Board (FAB) on 22 May 2024, three days after the end of last season. The notes from that meeting, published on the club website, say that the FAB “reiterated its unanimous opposition to the removal of any new senior Season Ticket concessions from season 2025-26, any further removal or erosion of concessions and any ticket price increases.”

When the FAB met with the club on 10 December 2024 (two days after the the 4-3 home defeat to Chelsea), the notes from the meeting again point out the strength of feeling. “FAB is opposed to any price increases for the next season,” it says. While also acknowledging that the club “continues to review senior season-ticket concessions in consultation with the FAB”.

More than two months on, with the deadline for a decision ticking closer and closer, those remain the two most contentious points. Will the overall prices go up? And will the club re-examine their unpopular pricing policy? There is certainly a degree of anxiety from fans about the outcome of Tuesday evening’s meeting, and what the policy for next season will be.

On the march on February 16, before the 1-0 win over Manchester United, high ticket prices, in conjunction with record revenues and a reduced wage bill, were consistent themes among those marching in protest against the way the club is run. One fan, Ben Kauffman, spoke about the six per cent ticket price rise from last season and his fear of another hike. “My family has come here since the 1960s,” he said, “and very, very soon, I, as the youngest person in my family, won’t be able to come here any more. I won’t be able to afford it.” Aniel, a fan who pays £1,600 ($2,020) for his season ticket, mentioned that Spurs fans “pay some of the most expensive prices in Europe”.

Other fans have aired displeasure at the recent recategorisation of Premier League matches, meaning an extra fixture falls under the more expensive Category A, and the removal of two cup games from season tickets in 2017.

To many fans, this will be the headline to come out of the club announcement. When the club raised prices in March last year, it followed only one increase (and that of 1.5 per cent) over the previous five years. “Football is not immune to the rising costs of goods and services across the board,” said the club statement, which pointed to a “significant increase in matchday costs outside of our control”, as well as the “need to continue to operate on a sustainable basis”.

There is plenty of public pressure against another price rise. First, there are the Spurs-specific demands from both the FAB and THST, both of whom have been very clear with the club over their opposition to a price rise.

Then there is the general climate. The Football Supporters Association (FSA) has run an eye-catching campaign this season under the title ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’, with banners held up at grounds across the country.

Last week the FSA wrote to Premier League chair Richard Masters calling for a freeze in season-ticket prices across the league. “We have the best league in the world, with some of the best atmospheres, and we want to ensure it stays that way,” wrote FSA chair Tom Greatrex. “This cannot be achieved without the backing of loyal supporters from towns and cities across the country. That love and commitment should never be taken for granted, nor exploited.”

There has been some success on this front already. Brentford and Liverpool have already announced that they would freeze ticket prices for next season. The rest of the league is waiting to see if any other clubs will follow suit.

A Tottenham Hotspur spokesperson told The Athletic: “We have formally engaged in dialogue and consultation with our Fan Advisory Board and Tottenham Hotspur Supporter Trust regarding ticket pricing and concessions on no fewer than 10 occasions since September 2024, and continue to do so.”

The other issue at stake is senior concession season tickets. Under the policy announced one year ago, no new senior concession season tickets would be created from the 2025-26 season onwards. This means that anyone who turns 66 from this summer onwards would not be able to move onto a cheaper rate. Moreover, the percentage discount for the existing senior concession senior tickets would taper down over the next five seasons so that it was only a 25 per cent reduction by the 2029-30 season.

Fans were furious. The ‘Save Our Seniors’ banner has been a common sight at Spurs games ever since, and on the protest march nine days ago it was proudly carried along the High Road to the stadium. It remains a live topic of conversation among fans. And one of the reasons why so many Spurs fans are waiting to hear the result of these conversations and the decision of the club.

(Top photo: Jacques Feeney/Getty Images)

The games keep coming thick and fast. This Wednesday, the Premier League offers a real treat: Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City. It’s a fixture that has come to guarantee entertainment, drama and goals in recent years.

Even at their peak under Pep Guardiola, the visitors have historically struggled with this test. Spurs have won four of the last six matchups between the two (not forgetting one of the performances of the season in November when they blitzed them 4-0 at the Etihad) and 17 of the last 29 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Fresh off a stinging defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, can City recover their form? We take a look at the markets and analyse the key betting angles.

Man City are favourites and that’s…confusing

Despite the poor record in North London, the fact they’ve lost four of their six games this month and the general malaise that’s crept over them this campaign, City are odds-on favourites to win.

That’s a surprise — especially when you add in the context of Tottenham’s recent uplift in form, which has seen them win their last three league games.

That run doesn’t tell the whole story; Spurs have been knocked out of both cups in that time, playing poorly at Anfield in the Carabao Cup and Villa Park in the FA Cup. But the market’s lack of faith in the hosts here should intrigue bettors as a home win is priced attractively.

A draw is priced similarly and could interest those who trust neither team to grab all three points. A word of warning on that, though: Tottenham haven’t drawn a game since Dec. 29.

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Son Heung-min, the scourge of Pep Guardiola

Very few players in history have caused Guardiola consistent headaches like Son Heung-min. The South Korean is probably the key reason why Man City’s record against Tottenham is so poor. His blend of speed, directness and finishing ability has proved a consistently unsolvable problem for the Catalan tactician.

In November’s 4-0 win over City, Son became just the second player to register 10-plus goals and assists against Pep’s team, with the other being Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. That’s elite company to keep.

Son’s score or assist anytime odds in this fixture feel all the more enticing following his imperious performance against Ipswich Town on Saturday, where he teed up Brennan Johnson for two goals in a thumping 4-1 win. It’s almost as if the club captain was warming up for his favourite opponent.

Can Spurs crack the top half? Can City make top four?

It speaks to the mess Spurs have found themselves in this season that they’re priced at 7/4 to finish in the top half. Not the top four, not the top six, but the top half! Not since 2008 have they failed to meet that fairly basic mark.

The gap to Fulham in 10th place is currently six points, and there are just 12 games left in the season, meaning time is of the essence if they’re to make up that ground.

Achieving anything more meaningful than that is considered a long shot; they’re a whopping 25/1 to make the top six, while any chances of a top-four finish have been effectively dismissed (200/1).

Meanwhile, the bookmakers still consider Man City close to a lock to make the top six (1/10) and extremely like to finish in the top four (2/5). Again, that feels questionable; the Citizens may have a weight of history and boast incredible quality on paper, but the performances aren’t there.

Four teams — Newcastle United, AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea and Aston Villa — could all overtake them this midweek if they win and City lose, which would see Guardiola’s men drop to eighth in the table. That combination of results is unlikely, but it does tell you that the Citizens are just one bad week away from plummeting down the table, making the market’s confidence in them a little curious.

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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.”

GO DEEPER

'Never refer to us as Tottenham' may seem a small edict but it says a lot about the modern game

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)

Eagle-eyed viewers of Sky Sports’ coverage of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win against Manchester United last Sunday will have noticed a change.

When head coach Ange Postecoglou was interviewed before kick-off and asked about the lift of having players back from injury, he was described as “Tottenham Hotspur Head Coach”. When the Tottenham starting XI was displayed down the left-hand side of the screen, it said “Spurs” at the top. And when the graphics showed the team in their positions, starting with a cutout of Postecoglou, arms crossed, the word across his chest was “Spurs”.

Nothing too surprising about that, you might think. Tottenham Hotspur is the name of the club. Spurs is their common nickname.

But if you saw the Sky Sports coverage of Tottenham’s 3-2 defeat at Everton on January 19, it looked subtly different. During Postecoglou’s pre-match interview, he was described as “Tottenham Head Coach”. The team graphic just had the word “Tottenham” at the top. And the cutout image of arms-crossed Postecoglou again had “Tottenham” written across his chest. When Sky Sports showed the current Premier League table, it was “Tottenham”. And the form table, in which they were 18th out of 20, “Tottenham” again.

So what changed? What happened to the word ‘Tottenham’ over the last few weeks?

The answer lies in an email that was circulated to Premier League broadcasters on February 10, that has been seen by The Athletic. Titled “Tottenham Hotspur Naming Update”, the email makes clear how the club wants to be referenced.

“Tottenham Hotspur have provided clarification regarding the club’s name. They have requested that the club are primarily known as Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs being the preferred short version. The club have requested that they are not referred to as Tottenham.”

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This guidance has gone out to Premier League broadcasters all around the world. The changes that Sky Sports made to their graphics have also been made by other networks that show Tottenham matches. The Premier League website is in line too. It is always “Tottenham Hotspur” or “Spurs” there, never “Tottenham”.

The club’s explanation for this is simple: Tottenham is the name of the area, but not the name of the club. It is long-standing club policy not to refer to themselves as ‘Tottenham’. There is nothing new about this, it has been the club’s position going back to 2011.

What specifically changed is that in November last year, the club unveiled a “remastered brand identity”, which was “rolled out across all the Club’s physical and digital touchpoints”. This came with a “Brand Playbook”, which explains in comprehensive detail what the new brand identity means. Towards the end of a section titled “Tone of voice” (“Defiant, Authentic, Rallying, Energetic”), there is a paragraph that makes very clear how the club wants to be described.

“In a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers, there is only one Hotspur, Tottenham Hotspur. When referring to the team or the brand, please use ‘Tottenham Hotspur’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ or ‘THFC’. Never refer to our Club as ‘Tottenham’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’ or ‘TH’.”

This month’s fresh guidance to broadcasters is an apparent attempt to underline this, and to make sure that ‘Spurs’ rather than ‘Tottenham’ becomes the common shorthand when ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ does not fit.

On the one hand, there certainly is an argument to be made that ‘Tottenham’ is just the name of the local area, and not the name of the club itself. There are plenty of Premier League clubs for whom no one would just use the first geographical part of the name.

You would get some strange looks turning up at Villa Park saying you were looking forward to watching ‘Aston’ play. Very few would refer to the side who play at Molineux simply as ‘Wolverhampton’, or at the City Ground as ‘Nottingham’. And that is before we confront the thorny issue of places, including Manchester or Sheffield or Bristol, where two clubs share the same regional descriptor.

But on the other hand, there are clubs where the first part of the name does the job. Everyone knows who Newcastle or Leeds or Leicester are. And for many Spurs fans, the name ‘Tottenham’ is perfectly serviceable in telling the world who they support. It has always been commonplace in the Spurs community in a way that ‘Aston’ never has been at Villa Park.

It does lead you to question why ‘Spurs’ might be preferable to ‘Tottenham’ as the shortened name of the club. ‘Spurs’ certainly is distinct “in a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers”, although maybe less so in the global marketplace, given San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. Still, it is memorable and punchy and looks good emblazoned on merchandise.

‘Hotspur’ is certainly unique and indispensable heritage. The name comes from when a new football club was established in the area in 1882, and two brothers, Hamilton and Lindsay Casey, were searching for a brand identity of their own. They named their club after Henry Percy, the box-office medieval knight who tried to overthrow Henry IV and was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. His nickname was ‘Hotspur’, hence the name of the club, and hence the club’s logo too. This is history worth clinging to.

But Tottenham is inseparable from Tottenham Hotspur too. It was on Tottenham Marshes where the Casey brothers started playing 143 years ago, Tottenham where the old White Hart Lane ground was opened in 1899, closing in 2017, and then Tottenham where the futuristic new stadium was opened in 2019. Other than their brief spell at Wembley while the new stadium was built, Tottenham Hotspur have always played in this very specific corner of north-east London. This is the club’s home, and their community, for whom they do so much good work.

For many fans, there is no distinction between the club and the area itself. They are synonymous. And they will continue to be ‘Tottenham’ regardless of what the guidance says.

(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)