Ange Postecoglou challenged Tottenham’s players to maintain the standards set in Saturday’s stunning win at Manchester City having doubled down on their football principles in style.
Spurs went into the international break on the back of a chastening 2-1 home loss to promoted Ipswich but returned from it with a jaw-dropping 4-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium.
James Maddison’s first-half brace sparked wild Spurs celebrations against City, whose fifth straight loss in all competitions looked all but certain after Pedro Porro scored shortly after half-time.
Substitute Brennan Johnson added gloss as City’s unbeaten home record in all competitions that had stretched back to November 2022 came to a remarkable end.
“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),” Tottenham boss Postecoglou said.
“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.
“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.
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“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.”
Postecoglou was pleased by the way Spurs’ players put his game plan into practice and stressed the importance of now building on the performance.
“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.”
