Tottenham Played Their Game At The Emirates
"At times we really asserted our dominance on the game"
In his prime, Jose Mourinho was well known for squeezing a result away from home against the top teams. The performances were never pretty but away from home against the top sides, Mourinho’s teams played the points-game, not entertaining football.
"When you play against big teams away from home, you have to be more careful. You have to be more organized. You have to be more concentrated. You have to make fewer mistakes. You have to be more clinical in attack. You have to be more solid in defense. So, it's normal to play a little bit more defensively."
Tottenham went to the Emirates this weekend to face their biggest rivals in Arsenal and they stuck to their plan and played their game.
Of all the impressive elements of Arsenal’s recent rise in the Premier League, it's their performances at home against the big teams that I’ve enjoyed the most. Every match at the Emirates is a blockbuster affair; the fans are up for it, and the players show up to reward them.
The challenge for Tottenham and Ange in this match was whether or not the team could stick to their risky possession-based style of play against a team like Arsenal, who would be well-drilled in every facet of their tactics. Goal-kicks would turn out to be where the chess match took place.
Tottenham’s style of football, playing goal kicks short for build-up, is not simple, but nor is it a complicated physics equation. If we boil it down, all the Spurs players are doing is setting up in the appropriate positional zones and passing the ball to each other with confidence, even if they are under pressure and closed down in tight angles.
Even the worst players in the league can execute a 5-yard pass, but where things become difficult is when Arsenal applies their stranglehold press and tries to suffocate the opposition into making a poor pass and capitalizing on a near-goal turnover or forcing the ball out, and in turn, back into Arsenal’s possession.
What leaves me impressed with Tottenham is the strong bond and deep trust among the players to stick to the plan even when they come under the intense stress of the high defensive line press. Tottenham, with all due respect, is not a team known for its strong character or identity, especially in the most recent years' failures under Mourinho and Conte when these managers' more old-school character could not be instilled in the team.
Ødegaard, who's on paper playing as a midfielder, would find himself trying to get into the shirt of center-back Micky van de Ven on every goal kick. Van de Ven, who has shown immense quality to start the year, is a top center-back who came from Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga at age 22. He remained calm, recycling ball possession with Romero and the newly rejuvenated Bissouma. There was so much trust in this group to believe in each other's ability; it was amazing to watch.
Ange’s management for this match was nearly perfect, with two fluke mistakes preventing an incredible away win. He has instilled the belief in his players to trust the style of play and believe that as long as the performance is won, the result will follow. You can't control the final result of a match, but if your mindset to its core is to win the performance by trusting your teammates, something you can control, then you have done the hardest job as a coach.