Ange Postecoglou already has Tottenham fans fully locked in with him… it’s clear that his side are not afraid of any team
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First, pop star Robbie Williams. Then, actor Henry Winkler, the latest in a random cast of feelgood icons from popular culture keen to climb aboard Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham fun bus.
Not so much Jurgen Klopp but more of that later.
Postecoglou has a good thing going on and the Spurs faithful are already locked in with him. Even with a train strike to contend with, none left before the end, gripped as their team poured forward against Liverpool’s nine men to score a winner in stoppage time for the second home game in a row.
This time an own goal by Joel Matip and the High Road was still swarming with thousands late into the night. All trying their hardest to savour what they have and keep expectations under control, while aware they will go top of the Premier League if they win at Luton on Saturday.
‘It’s too early say if we are title candidates this year but we will keep pushing and we’re going to see,’ said defender Micky van de Ven. ‘We’re not afraid of any team. We will keep playing our way and hopefully we can improve even more.’
Ange Postecoglou has quickly won over Tottenham fans with his team’s start to the season
The top four is firmly in their minds, though. ‘You want Champions League because it’s the highest you can get next to being champions,’ added Van de Ven. ‘That’s our goal.’
Having beaten Manchester United and Liverpool and taken a point from Arsenal, Spurs are stepping into a sequence that could help them reinforce this positive start.
After Luton, they face Fulham, who knocked them out of the Carabao Cup, and Crystal Palace. Then it is Chelsea and the return of Mauricio Pochettino, followed by Wolves.
‘I’m not sitting here thinking we’re ahead of some schedule,’ said Postecoglou. ‘I can understand why some people have had that in their minds. But for me it’s just not of interest because I don’t know how far we can go with the group. We just need to keep pushing on.’
The Fonz is on the bandwagon, pouncing on Postecoglou’s revelation on Friday that Happy Days posters no longer adorn his bedroom walls as they did when he was a boy. He was manoeuvring away from the well-known fact he supported Liverpool as a boy.
At 58, he said, he had grown up and moved on. But Winkler, who played the Fonz in Happy Days, sent congratulations after the dramatic late win to ask Postecoglou if he might stick a poster back on the wall if he signed one and sent it from Los Angeles.
Postecoglou has a good thing going on and the Spurs faithful are already locked in with him
All great fun, although probably lost on Klopp, seething with injustice after two of his players were sent off and denied a goal by a terrible refereeing error before conceding the winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time, shinned into the top corner of his own goal by Matip. Son Heung-min gave Tottenham the lead in the 36th minute, by which time Curtis Jones had been dismissed, a straight red for going over the ball on Yves Bissouma. Then came the Luis Diaz goal, brilliantly finished and wrongly ruled out.
‘Significant human error,’ said the referees’ body because the VAR Darren England did not realise an offside flag was up and referee Simon Hooper had ruled it out. England did not intervene because he thought the goal stood.
‘Tough,’ said Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. ‘All a bit strange. Not a good thing. It doesn’t look well either.’
Cody Gakpo equalised, picking up an injury as he did so. Gakpo came off at half-time and left the stadium with his right knee in a brace. Diogo Jota, who replaced him, was sent off for two yellow cards.
Liverpool dug in and seemed to have a hard-earned point until Matip’s miscue. ‘Cruel,’ said Van Dijk but Tottenham did not stop to care. Happy days indeed.
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