How can a staff comply with up a house loss to a promoted facet with a 4-0 mauling of the champions? Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham are the Premier League’s most complicated staff.
Tottenham have lengthy been able to springing a shock. The issue is, it’s not at all times the kind of shock that can please their followers.
Already this season, Ange Postecoglou’s facet have handed two winless sides – Crystal Palace and newly promoted Ipswich City – their first victories of the season, and have thrown away a two-goal half-time result in inexplicably lose 3-2 at Brighton.
They’ve additionally dropped factors at one other promoted facet in Leicester and really almost crashed out of the EFL Cup on the earliest attainable stage to second-tier opposition. Some sections of the fanbase have grown bored with Postecoglou and are already calling for his head.
There have additionally been some good surprises, although. They received 3-0 at Manchester United with out their captain and finest attacker, Son Heung-min, thrashed an Aston Villa facet who pipped them to fourth place final season, and have received the third most factors from shedding positions (9) of all Premier League groups this time period.
However Saturday introduced the most important shock of the lot. Spurs ran riot at Manchester Metropolis, successful 4-0 towards the staff who’ve set a report for probably the most consecutive top-flight titles in males’s soccer in England, with an unprecedented 4 in a row.
The listing of exceptional statistics this match threw up was an extended one, exhibiting simply how sensational the outcome was.
It was the joint-biggest lack of Pep Guardiola’s managerial profession (his fourth four-goal defeat), and his largest in a league recreation on residence soil. The outcome prolonged the longest shedding streak of his profession to 5 video games, and meant Metropolis at the moment are on their worst run of consecutive losses since 2006, when Stuart Pearce was their supervisor and the membership was a quite totally different place. They’re the primary reigning English top-flight champions to lose 5 aggressive video games in a row since Chelsea in March 1956.
The defeat was additionally Metropolis’s first in 52 residence video games in all competitions, that means an finish to the longest unbeaten run on residence soil within the membership’s historical past.
This was simply the third time in Premier League historical past {that a} staff has overwhelmed a reigning champion by 4 or extra objectives away from residence, after Man Utd 1-6 Man Metropolis in 2011 and Leicester 1-6 Tottenham in Could 2017. James Maddison scored the earliest ever brace away from residence towards the reigning champions (twentieth minute).
Maybe most telling of all, although – at the least from Tottenham’s perspective – this was solely the second time ever {that a} staff has adopted up a house defeat towards a promoted facet with an away win towards the reigning champions (additionally Liverpool in December 2000 – 0-1 vs Ipswich and 1-0 vs Man Utd). This was the primary time anybody had achieved so whereas beating the champions by multiple purpose.
It was a very unimaginable win. One of the crucial seismic in latest Premier League historical past. However whereas Tottenham ought to unquestionably get pleasure from this victory, there’ll understandably be frustrations on the staff’s wild inconsistency. Had they overwhelmed Ipswich quite than misplaced, or held on to a lead they appeared completely in command of at Brighton, Tottenham can be third within the desk, some extent off Metropolis, and, if not truly within the title race, actually worthy of being within the dialog.
So, are Tottenham on the verge of one thing nice underneath Postecoglou? Or are they too inconsistent, and much more prone to slip up of their upcoming video games towards mid-table Fulham and Bournemouth?
A lot of their numbers present simply how good a staff they are often, rating prime of the Premier League in 2024-25 in a number of key metrics. They’re the league’s prime scorers, with 27 objectives, whereas they’re additionally first for non-penalty anticipated objectives, with 24.2 xG. Their overperformance in comparison with their xG of two.8 is hardly large (and 1.5 of it got here towards Metropolis this weekend once they scored 4 objectives from 2.5 xG), suggesting their spectacular goalscoring price may simply be sustainable.
Spurs have additionally scored at the least 4 extra objectives from quick breaks (9) than every other staff, and have had extra pictures from such conditions than everybody else (25). Additionally they lead the Premier League this season for pressures within the last third (959), pressures within the last third leading to a turnover (158) and complete regains within the last third (80).
They’re within the prime two or three groups in loads of different areas, additional exhibiting how constant they’re throughout the board. They rank second within the Premier League in 2024-25 for possession (59.9%), pictures (198), profitable passes within the opposition half (2,828), touches within the opposition field (455), and discipline tilt (64.6%) – which measures territorial dominance by evaluating a staff’s share of possession within the attacking third with their opponent’s possession on the reverse finish of the pitch.
In the meantime, Spurs are at present third for pictures on the right track (76), passing accuracy (86.3%), excessive turnovers (successful the ball inside 40m of the opposition’s purpose line) that result in a shot (20), and profitable open-play crosses (44).
There’s clearly loads to be cheery about on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. However it’s additionally value remembering that within the precise league desk, Tottenham had been tenth earlier than the weekend, and even after battering Metropolis, they’re nonetheless solely sixth. They’ve solely received half of their league video games, and have misplaced virtually as many (5). They’ve as many defeats as half of the groups at present within the backside half of the desk.
So, what precisely is occurring? How can a staff be dangerous sufficient to lose at residence to Ipswich one week and ok to thrash one of many best groups in trendy soccer historical past the following (albeit at a time when they’re greater than a bit of out of kinds)?
For all of their energy in assault, the defence stays a major problem. They solely rank seventh for anticipated objectives towards (15.3 xG), whereas the common xG worth of each shot they face is the fifth-highest within the Premier League, at 0.12 xG per shot. They don’t concede tonnes of possibilities, however they have a tendency to permit their opponents at the least one excellent one in each single match. And that’s an actual downside.
The second factor to notice is how clear it’s that Tottenham are battling their busy schedule this season. They performed solely 41 video games in the entire of 2023-24, dumped out of each cup competitions early on and with out European competitors to take care of. This time period, they’ll play at the least 50 video games in complete and that quantity is prone to be nearer 60 than 50 come Could.
Their three most disappointing outcomes of the season – the losses to Brighton, Palace and Ipswich – have all come on a Sunday after a Europa League recreation on Thursday. Postecoglou has rotated closely in Europe, so it might’t simply be fatigue that’s a problem, however Spurs’ gamers is perhaps battling solely a few days to focus solely on the weekend’s recreation and put together to face Premier League opposition.
Particular person gamers are additionally battling the workload. Solely seven gamers have been capable of play an element in all 12 of the league fixtures to this point this season, and solely three – Guglielmo Vicario, Future Udogie and Pedro Porro – have began all 12. They’re but to undergo a full-blown damage disaster like final season, however lots of their most necessary gamers have already missed at the least a few video games.
Tottenham are completely determined to finish a trophy drought that can have reached 17 years by the point the following out there cup last rolls round, so there are only a few video games during which they will afford to be off their finest. The expanded Europa League means there may be barely extra wiggle room in that competitors, however having insisted in a latest press convention that he “at all times wins a trophy in his second season”, Postecoglou can’t take too many possibilities. Because the season goes on, there’ll be fewer and fewer possibilities to rotate.
Just a few underwhelming performances have advised he can’t combine issues up an excessive amount of. Spurs wanted rescuing by first-teamers late on within the EFL Cup tie at Coventry, whereas they had been removed from their finest in beating AZ Alkmaar 1-0 – via a Richarlison penalty – final month. The choice to play 17-year-old Mikey Moore on the wing at Selhurst Park with a number of different key gamers absent days later didn’t precisely work out within the 1-0 loss to Palace.
However in the principle, Tottenham’s squad gamers have achieved what has been requested of them, and stepped up once they’ve wanted to.
Timo Werner has proved a really helpful squad member, Radu Dragusin has achieved nicely since coming into the primary staff to switch the injured Micky van de Ven, and Ben Davies was genuinely sensible on his first Premier League begin of the season on the Etihad on Saturday. The squad is beginning to show simply how deep it’s.
And it’s undoubtedly a constructive that they aren’t too reliant on a person for objectives, which may have been a criticism of them in the course of the Harry Kane days. Tottenham are as an alternative sharing the load all through the staff. Their joint-top scorers solely have 5 objectives every (James Maddison and Brennan Johnson), placing them exterior the league’s total prime 10, whereas solely Brighton (11) have extra totally different goalscorers within the prime flight this season than Spurs (9).
So, will Tottenham, now given a 0.15% probability of successful the title by the Opta supercomputer (up from zero earlier than the weekend), construct on this scarcely plausible outcome, and go on a run that makes folks ask whether or not they may truly compete for main honours, if not this season then subsequent, underneath Postecoglou?
Or, will Spurs do probably the most Spursy factor attainable, let their momentum dissipate away, and cross up on what seems to be an enormous alternative to determine their place within the top-four battle?
Properly, that is the wonder and the insanity of Tottenham Hotspur: no matter you assume may occur, it’s best to put together to be stunned.
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