Postecoglou tells Tottenham fans to ‘dream’ of PL title glory; reveals ‘really pleasing thing’ about form
Ange Postecoglou was pleased Premier League leaders Tottenham passed their latest exam with a 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace and did not want fans to stop dreaming of a title challenge.
Spurs, who have come back from behind eight times this season, went five points clear at the top of the table after scoring twice in a short period of time at Selhurst Park.
Joel Ward’s own goal in the 53rd minute broke the scoreless draw. He deflected James Maddison’s cross past Sam Johnstone, the goalkeeper for Crystal Palace, and Son Heung-min, the captain of Tottenham, scored after Brennan Johnson’s assist to make it 2-0 shortly after.
Jordan Ayew cut the Palace lead in the fourth minute of stoppage time, but Spurs held on to make it ten games without a loss in the top flight. They are now five points ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal, who play Sheffield United and Manchester United, respectively, this weekend.
“Let them dream. That’s what being a football supporter is all about. It’s fair to say this lot have suffered a fair bit, so I’m certainly not going to dampen that,” Postecoglou said.
“Top of the table is great and the results are great but it’s more in the manner we’re doing it. Pretty much from the first game we’ve had all sorts of different challenges we’ve had to overcome.
“Every time there has been a real focus and clear-headedness about the group collectively to deal with that.
“It has been a really satisfying experience, and since they are reaping the benefits, it allows us to expedite the process of providing them with additional resources to aid them in overcoming obstacles.”
“I anticipated that tonight’s game would be extremely challenging for us. Coming here, considering Palace’s performance the previous week, it’s a tight field; they had only given up three goals in their previous four games. How would the boys handle the reality that we wouldn’t be creating as many opportunities as we had been?
“I thought it was great how we solved that as a team.”
After returning to the Premier League summit with a 2-0 win over Fulham on Monday, Spurs struggled in the first half at Selhurst Park and were indebted to fine early saves from Guglielmo Vicario to deny Ayew and Odsonne Edouard.
Postecoglou, who had lambasted his side for their second-half showing earlier in the week, introduced Emerson Royal for Ben Davies at the break and watched Ward put into his own net from Maddison’s cross to open the scoring.
It was 2-0 when Son fired home for his eighth goal of the campaign following Johnson’s smart pass, his first assist since a £45million deadline-day transfer from Nottingham Forest.
While Ayew managed to reduce the deficit – in the fourth minute of stoppage time after a lengthy VAR check –
Even with more than 70% of the ball, Tottenham maintained their composure to win for the fourth time in a row and demonstrate another side with a resilient defensive effort.
“I have always felt that matchdays are about the players,” Postecoglou continued. Every day, we make an effort to provide them with the resources they need to solve the problems.
“We prepare them for the test over the weekend, but we are unsure of the questions that will be asked. They must solve them on their own.
“You don’t ask for help from anyone during an exam. You must figure it out on your own; ideally, we have provided them with the necessary tools.
Roy Hodgson, the manager of Palace, expressed disappointment at his team’s second straight loss and acknowledged that his substitutions had weakened it.
“We played a pretty aggressive and disciplined first half, but obviously the first goal leads to a second,” he remarked.
“We lost the intensity we were able to achieve in the first half at that point because we started playing players who hadn’t really played with the first team, like Jes (Rak-Sakyi), (Naouirou) Ahamada, and (Matheus) Franca.
“In the end, it became simple for Tottenham to win the match.”
