Spurs' best win in the Premier League era?
49:21 Share

The Acura ZDX is more than just 100% electric. It's 100% Acura energy. With nearly 500 horsepower and an impressive range rating, the ZDX Type S delivers 100% excitement and brings unprecedented performance to the Type S family.

And it's 100% loaded with innovative features like an 18-speaker Bang & Olufsen premium sound system, available hands-free cruise, and Google built-in. Test drive the Acura ZDX and unlock electrified performance today.

As you've probably heard by now, we've teamed up with BetMGM this season. We'll be using BetMGM lines to make all of our picks, and we'll have special offers for our listeners each week. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code THEATHLETIC, and you'll get a one-year subscription to The Athletic, plus up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Here's how it works.

Download the BetMGM app and sign up using bonus code THEATHLETIC. Make your first deposit of at least $10, place your first bet on any game, and claim your voucher for a one-year subscription to The Athletic. See BetMGM.com for terms. U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Available in the U.S., call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369 in New York. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP in Arizona, 1-800-327-5050 in Massachusetts, or text HOPE-NY 467-369 in New York.

1-800-BETS-OFF in Iowa, 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help in Michigan, 1-800-981-0023 in Puerto Rico, first bet offer for new customers only in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code THEATHLETIC and you'll get a one-year subscription to The Athletic, plus up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager.

This episode is supported by Merrill. With a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan for your financial goals. And when plans change, Merrill's with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Incorporated Registered Broker Dealer. Registered Investment Advisor. Member SIPC.

The Athletic FC Podcast Network. Hello everybody and welcome once again to The View from the Lane. Don't worry about being multi-award winning. It's a fact. The Tottenham Hotspur podcast from The Athletic.

And of course, we are fully loaded for this, given the result of the weekend. Joining me, Danny Kelly, your host, are from The Athletic, Jay Harris, James Moore and Jack Pitt-Brooke. I have to tell you, for reasons, we're recording this at 7.30 in the morning. Jack, of course, is the most used to that. He's got a young child. So he's got the toast and the look of a man who's ready for action. One or two rather more bleary-looking individuals staring into cameras here on Zoom. But

None of us can pretend that we're not overexcited about what happened at the weekend. Jay, you were there. What was the atmosphere like before the start and when the team was announced? Well, the atmosphere before the game was all about Rodri winning the Ballon d'Or. His face was plastered all over the programme. They did this special presentation for him. It's obviously the first game since Guardiola signed his contract extension.

They'd lost four games in a row. So I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit concerned about the reaction. The fans were extremely excited. They were well up for it. And then when Basuma got booked inside, I think it was actually 11 seconds. It's the quickest ever booking in the Premier League. I mean, I'm not surprised. But yeah, after that, I'm thinking, wow, this is going to be a long game. And then, yeah, within 10 minutes, I was quickly proven wrong.

Well, in those first 10 minutes, you could be forgiven for thinking it was going to be a long game. James, I'll come to you because, you know, massive Spurs fan. We'll get on to how big a win it was and where it stands in the pantheon. And there's no other word for it. Again, pantheon of Spurs victories. First 10 minutes, not like the rest of the game. It was a game of not two halves. It was a game of two ninths, wasn't it? Yeah, maybe. I mean, there was a spell at the start where it was kind of what we expected, like City kind of,

rattling at the door and then there was probably a longer spell in the second half I guess probably at 3-0 where they had a lot of the ball and had some chances but I mean you know to win a game 4-0 and to go on about the defensive performance maybe seems a bit odd but I mean it's an incredibly good defensive performance given you'll revamp your first two centre-halves and the one who generally we think can play in the way that the manager wants to play I mean we probably shouldn't really be surprised because obviously and I mean we've said we've

both criticised and praised Dragosin recently. We criticised him as a fit for the system as we see it and praised him for his kind of more traditional defending, including in the previous game against Manchester City.

But yeah, I was kind of stunned that Spurs have come away from this of all games with a clean sheet, even against kind of relegation-difficult lower table teams when they're playing incredibly well and they score three or four goals, they seem to concede one. But to come away from this game specifically with a clean sheet. And we should praise Vicario as well, by the way. We'll literally praise them one by one, I suspect. And you're a neutral, Jack.

What did you make of the game overall? Overall, I thought it was the best win under Poster Coglu. One of the best wins I think I've ever seen the Tottenham team have ever. I'm sure we said on the podcast in advance that this was a game where anything could happen. We wouldn't be surprised with a big win either way. And yet, despite that, seeing Tottenham win 4-0 was really quite something. It was such a...

It was just a reminder of how good Tottenham can be when they're good, but also a reminder that they, you know, it's maybe slightly too simplistic to say they always play the same way every time. You know, they did a lot of, you know, I'm not saying that they abandoned their principles because obviously, you know, you have to play the game that the opposition allows you to play to an extent, but they...

The way they were happy having slightly less possession than City. They were really good on the counter-attack. They were happy just to defend a little bit deeper, or they had to defend a bit deeper at times. And they did it all without their best two defenders, without whom we've been saying for a long time, how are they going to cope without these guys? So yeah, kind of an amazing combination of

of circumstances and performance, which I think will have huge... I mean, I was going to say it'll have huge ramifications all season. It will really have huge ramifications until the next game where they do the exact opposite in classic Tottenham style.

Listen, I mean, some of the things just pick up on two of the threads there. I thought it was a fantastically important performance. I think the clean sheet, even as I say, I feel another day things have gone differently. They didn't. That's what the result was. I was desperate for them by the end to keep the clean sheet.

I had, of course, after 3-0, I kind of got to the point where I thought, maybe we'll get something out of this now. That was really important because it convinced the team they can do that sort of thing. I think the tactical tweaks, the manager who likes to pretend he doesn't change things, you know, we changed the team. Johnson was left out, though he still managed to make an important contribution. I think Pastor Cogglue will look at it and tell you that

overall Spurs played seven forward players in the course of the 95 minutes every one of them scored or assisted it was an incredible performance by Spurs as forward players and I think we shouldn't let the early part of this podcast go by without thanking the person for whom made all this possible Jay Harris because

because I think you're in charge. Manchester City are getting beaten at home, aren't you? Yeah, I've got a special record now. So the last time Man City lost at home before Saturday was against Brentford way back in November 2022. I was there and obviously I was there again on Saturday. So I'm a lucky charm. I'm available for hire. Well, you did get paid for that, so I don't know.

Very quickly about the selection then. I was worried about Madison's form, but I liked the selection because I thought, you know, you've got to bring something in midfield against Manchester City. I'd forgotten that their midfield is so denuded just now. Yeah, I think so. I feel like this selection was based on a few things. One is that

Madison had had these two weeks. I mean, this game is always really hard because you've got players coming back in who've trained, you know, two or three, maybe two sessions with the team. They've had a tiring, like physically, mentally tiring international break, a lot of them. Whereas Madison has just been kicking his heels, or not just been kicking his heels, he's been training hard, but he's not been, he wasn't, you know, playing for England or

in Athens or at home against Republic of Ireland. So he'd been able to train and really focus hard. And I think Ange said afterwards that, you know, they saw how hungry he was to play in this game. So I think it's partly that. I also think it's partly if you have Kulosevsky instead of Johnson on the right, which is obviously where Kulosevsky played last season, but not this season, then you are giving this team probably a little bit more in the counter-attack, a little bit more physicality. And, you know, we saw that from the way that Kulosevsky robs

Gravadiol for the first goal. So, and I think the reason that it really worked is that

Madison's first two goals both come from him making really good runs without the ball. And when Madison is fully fit and on it, he has those legs and he can make those runs. If he's not fully on it, I think sometimes he doesn't quite have that same physical dynamism. But I think just watching him move around the pitch, you could tell that he was back to his best.

And for that reason, I think actually it made total sense in hindsight to bring him in for this game. Yeah, I was really not convinced by that change. And I mean, I tweeted, oh sorry, I blue-skied before the game that I was surprised that Maddison had come back in and Kulishevsky had gone back on the right based on...

kind of four-man tactical things. I mean, as Jack says, Madison in midfield works incredibly well. And then in second half where he kind of dropped even deeper and was basically kind of conducting the whole thing and running the game, which is a thing we haven't seen him do for ages. But Kulosevsky out on the right as well. And when we've become so infatuated with the way he's played through the middle, you've kind of forgotten. I think our old mate Rob Daly tweeted it after the game or posted it on Blue Sky. In a game like that, Kulosevsky's so big and strong and good on the ball

he's the perfect out ball in a game like that where you're kind of going to get overrun for periods and you're going to have a lot of defending to do and you know he can hold the ball up so well and just like drag the whole team up the pitch just because he's doing it from a wide area doesn't mean it has any less value and that was I mean that was evident in that game not just in terms of like the assist and the other goal he created but like the

the way he enabled the team to get up the pitch in those more difficult moments? Just quickly. So firstly with Madison, it's probably one of the best individual performances I've seen, certainly in recent memory in the Premier League, because we can talk about his goals and

But there were times, especially in the first half, where he basically had the ball in Tottenham's own half right by the corner flag. And I thought, this guy's going to get caught out here. City are going to create a great opportunity. But he's so good at keeping the ball. And then what happens is City's forwards get excited. They push higher and higher and higher. Then all of a sudden, one or two passes and Tottenham are on the counter-attack and basically completely bypassed Tottenham's midfield. I actually spoke to Kulosevski in the mix zone after the game. And he said that

This is the game he always looks forward to the most and that the way City set up was basically perfect for Spurs to win because they do this really aggressive man marking approach. So how many times were there during the game where it was basically a 3v3 on the counter-attack or Tottenham even had numerical superiority or Kulishevsky's up against Vardy or 1v1.

And the quality of Son, Solanke and Kudasevski in those situations means you're just having a lot of fun, basically. So very, very good approach to the game from Postakoglu. Well, that reminds me of a bit, and I kind of, this is why I think the scoreline, this is why, one of the reasons why I think the scoreline is kind of fair enough is that if you remember the, if you remember the League Cup game last month at Tottenham, which Tottenham only won 2-1,

Tottenham had four amazing chances in the second half. Tottenham were genuinely ripping through City on the counter. And again, for the reason that Jay says, City leave so many players committed forward that if you can break through the press, you can get into these really, really dangerous counter-attacking situations. And if you remember that game, like...

Richarlison missed a sitter at the end. Kulosevsky had one where he should have scored. Werner, like, on another day, that League Cup game could easily have been 4-1 or 5-1. And it was just kind of, you know, variance, bad luck, bad finishing or whatever that meant that it wasn't.

And so I think that what Tottenham showed that day is that if you commit to this kind of approach, if you leave players forward on the counter and if you're good enough, you can really get... And also, if you're ahead in the game and so City need to come out even more, you really can get yourself in a situation where you continue to create chances. Because I think one of the other... I mean, there's a million things I think about the game, why the women are so important. The quality of the goals...

all in one game, away from home against the champions of England. Who wants to take the first goal? We'll have one each. I'll take goal number four. I've got something to say about it. Who wants to take Dragosin's 70-yard pass? Well, I was actually looking down typing when I just suddenly saw the ball in the air. Really helpful, that. Yeah.

Yeah, well, you know, Dragoson had the ball in his own half. Yeah, exactly. And the next thing you know, Kulosevsky suddenly whipped the cross into the box and Madison scores. But this is all about...

Kulishevsky's desire to chase what looks like a lost cause. And Vardy probably switches off for a split second, thinks the ball is going out for a throw-in. Kulishevsky doesn't let him rest. Barges him off the ball. Yeah, plays a brilliant cross into the box. And as Jack said earlier, Madison makes a really intelligent run and basically steers a left-footed volley past Edison completely free. So,

It was a good pass from Dragosin, great piece of skill from Kulisevski and then a great run from Maddison. I think what I liked about number two is that Tottenham was so... If the first one was basically a break, or I mean it was a break from that direct ball from Dragosin, the second one was Tottenham pressed their way into it. I think it started from a City goal kick. Yeah, it starts with...

I think a City goal kick and then Vardio is the one who plays it inside. Yeah, Vardio... And Tottenham have got a lot of bodies up. And then Vardio plays the pass inside. It's quite a bad pass. But then equally, when Vardio plays that pass, he's got... I think Poro is all the way up with him. Solanke is kind of lurking near... I think that's Rico Lewis. Son, Maddison and Sarr are all ready to pounce. Then as soon as the pass...

doesn't go to the City teammate. Maddison is straight onto it. Son's in the good position. And then Maddison and Son play this amazing 1-2 where Maddison kind of plays the ball into Son, runs all the way, curls his run all the way around the back of Son and into the gap. And into this weirdly big gap. And again, not for the first time in the game, like...

It's not clear. I mean, City don't really track that run that he makes. Like, he runs basically right in front of and past Kyle Walker. And Walker looks a bit confused. There's no... I don't know whether it should have been Gundogan or Lewis who's tracking him. Like, City's... This is a slightly separate topic, but City's lack of physical competitiveness in midfield is amazing now without Rodri. Like, they're so... You do realise how...

how much that work Rodri did all by himself because there's just nobody, like, they cannot do it. And so Maddison makes this run completely untracked. Son gets the ball back to him with a really, really, like, the kind of, like, it's incredible how he, because Son is kind of changing direction and then he knocks the ball back the other way.

Madison takes a perfect like an unbelievably good first touch because he's barely got any space to play in and then but it's so good that he can then get the ball out onto his left foot and dink it over Edison like it it's a brilliant brilliant bit of team play with the ball great bit of pressing to win it back and um an incredible finish and for all you know it's a reminder that

Madison can do things technically that other players can't do. And we saw that really with how easy he makes the finish for his first goal. But just the way that he sorts his feet out to Dink Edison on that second one, there's not a lot of people out there who can do that and make it look that easy. And it's a reminder that if you get... If you kind of get Madison...

fit, firing, motivated, making those runs, their technique will look after itself because he's an absolute technical wizard and always has been. James, I can see you've been pawing the ground there. Tell us about the third goal. Yeah, well, I mean, we talk about going from back to front, but the thing that is possibly already been forgotten about this goal is that Ben Davies won the ball, I think pretty much on the line of the penalty area from, I want to say Bernardo Silva. I think he got the ball from Haaland.

And then, yeah, I mean, Kulizevsky, you know, despite talking about how well he plays out on the right, basically what he does here is kind of classic central midfield Kulizevsky stuff. Skipping past two players, one little nutmeg, shitting the ball out to Son for the touch that you just alluded to there. And then he's away. And what I really like about it is that although Kulizevsky has presumably overhit that pass,

The reaction of all the other players is so good. So Porre continues that run into the penalty area. They obviously know that in this circumstance, full-back is attacking the penalty area. And Solanke knows he's coming, slots that ball back to him and an incredibly good finish for a full-back. I mean, we talked about Porre's finishing before. I mean, I think pretty much every goal he scored for Spurs has been a really good finish.

And yeah, I mean, it's slightly odd to see him do a kind of muted celebration against a club who he like kind of trained with like half a dozen times and never played for. But that was the moment that I kind of, I think, celebrated the most and kind of sensed that a comeback was unlikely. What was that, kind of 53 minutes into the game?

Oh, no. Yeah, about that. Look, we've all lived through Spurs losing three gold leads against Manchester City. I can think of two occasions. But, you know, the way the game was going and the confidence which Spurs were starting to play, I wasn't worried then. It was a brilliant goal. Not just how they were defending, but how good they looked on the counter-attack like that. Like the possibility that they could do that again at the World. They did both the sides of the game. They were doing it...

even to my satisfaction, it was, and then the goal was a brilliant goal. The one-two was son. Once you've made that touch, if you've got the technique and the vision to do it, the space it created, the geometry of football is so fascinating. You know, a three-yard pass creates 70 yards of space. It was incredible.

The fourth goal, first of all, the manager will take tremendous credit because Grealish tries to pass the ball across. There is a slight touch off one substitute, Lucas Bergvall, which takes the ball into the path of Werner. And then I felt, now this is, maybe it's because he's an ex-Spurs player and I loved him. I felt so sorry for Kyle Walker. He spent the first hour up against Son, literally torturing him.

Then Spurs brought on someone even faster. He played against Johnson for 15 minutes. Then they brought on someone even faster. And the poor old geezer is now confronted with Timo Werner, 90-odd minutes into the game. And he's got to make the recovery run that he's made, I suppose, one billion times in his career, Walker. But the body wasn't responding. And I don't blame him. He'd had a torrid game there against Spurs' left-side attack. And Werner runs past him as though he wasn't there.

And so that's one sub to another sub and then across the goal for the classic Posta Coglu winger to winger goal, all made by the pick that he's brought on in the past 25 minutes of the game. I loved it. I was really, really praying for that clean sheet. And then to add the

The icing on the cake, away from home against Manchester City, you can't not love it. It was just a brilliant, brilliant moment. And, you know, I like the way that Johnson as well didn't try anything fancy. He took himself, his knees, he threw himself across the line with the ball, leaving Ake with no chance at all. They were brilliant goals. It's worth saying something about the depth, the fact that Tottenham could bring on

Johnson, who's having a very good season, and Werner, who I know is not to everyone's taste, but there's clearly some things that he's very good at. This is at a moment where Tottenham have got a £50m striker who's barely played this season and is injured. I'm sure if he was fit, would have been a great player to throw on in a game like this.

And there's been a lot of moments in the last few years where Tottenham have gone into these big games with basically no firepower on the bench whatsoever, with no experienced attacking players who can make a difference. And it's cost them so, so, so many times. So it is, it's a kind of, you know, obviously their bench was not super stacked yesterday. Like there was a few very young players who not played much before, you know, Hardy and Olaseisi as well as Lancashire. But it does, it does suggest that they do have some options and they are able to make

they are able to make improvements off the bench.

This episode is brought to you by Dutch Bros. Get stoked for all the holly jolly vibes this season at Dutch Bros. Stay cozy with returning winter faves, hazelnut truffle mocha and candy cane mocha. Plus, the new Winter Shimmer Rebel Energy Drink blends up sweet cream and blue razz flavor with soft top and shimmer sprinks to keep those spirits energized all winter long. Download the Dutch Bros app to find your nearest shop, order ahead, and start earning rewards.

Hey, it's Austin James. Yes, I'm living with diabetes, but it doesn't have to define me. Thanks to the Freestyle Libre 3 Plus sensor, I get real-time glucose readings throughout the day. The Freestyle Libre 3 Plus sensor is small and easy to wear, giving me the freedom to focus on my life as a parent and a musician. Now this is progress. You can get a free sensor at FreestyleLibre.us. Offer available for people who qualify. Visit MyFreestyle.us to see all terms and conditions. Certain exclusions apply. Data on file, avid diabetes care, or prescription only. Safety info found at FreestyleLibre.us.

This episode is brought to you by AWS. Amazon Q Business is the new generative AI assistant from AWS. Many tasks can make business slow, like wading through mud. Help! Luckily, there's a faster, easier, less messy choice. Amazon Q can securely understand your business data to help you streamline tasks, like summarizing quarterly results or doing complex analyses in no time. Q got this. Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you at aws.com slash learn more.

Yeah, welcome back, Jack. You've been on the Spurs beat, with all due respect to Jay, a bit longer, and you've seen a lot of recent ones, but I'm going to try and stretch this back almost, you know, where do you want to, how do you want to do this? Where does it stand in Spurs' victories in the Premier League, or do you just want to talk about your own beat? I think it's weird, isn't it? Because in the one sense...

It's very precedented. Like, Tottenham have beaten City an awful lot in the last 10, 12 years. Like, much more than you would probably expect. But to beat a City team who are this hegemonic, you know, who are going for... Who've won, what, four Premier League titles in the spin. And to do so away from home and to win 4-0, I think that does make it different from what we've seen in the past. I actually can't think of a Tottenham...

win, that is comparable. I'm sure that there's things which are kind of close, but in terms of winning away from home to that margin at a team which has been that dominant, James has got one. The best stat I saw over the weekend was that there have been three occasions where the reigning champions have been vanquished by four goals or more at home in the Premier League and two of them were by Spurs.

Can you tell me the other one? Yeah, I think I saw this on Opta. Is it Man United? No. Okay, forget what I said. Leicester won Tottenham 6 in May 2017.

They were up the floor with him. An even more comprehensive win. Harry Kane repeatedly not celebrating against his old team, yeah. Who were about 14th in the Premier League at the time. I mean, but just to... I don't want to pre-empt your list. I mean, I actually thought about this a lot as well. In the whole time in the Premier League, it was the best win, I think, because of the circumstances you outlined, James, but not the most important. Oddly enough, that also happened away from home against Manchester City. Peter Crouch's goal...

that qualifies them for the Champions League. There was so much of the future of the club riding on that goal and that performance. Very different, of course. Again, back to the wall and then that breakaway goal and Crouch in that extraordinary... Most people over that height would have stooped to head it, but somebody decided to get his leg up and put it into the net. I do think that was...

In the scheme of things, more important, but that's yet to be proven. If this proves to be a springboard for both Postakoglu's philosophy and this group of players, then this could be more important. But James, you've got much to say about Spurs and how good a performance this was historically. On the basis of all that, it kind of struck me that if you looked at the last decade, and as you mentioned, Spurs have beaten Manchester City many times in that time period.

not just Pep Guardiola, but in the years before that as well. I mean, how many of Tottenham's best 10 performances in the Premier League, performances-to-results in the Premier League in the last 10 years would be against Manchester City? And when I put this in our WhatsApp group on Saturday night, I actually thought it might be like six or seven, but maybe it's only five.

In order from five to one. Ascending order. And I think the Top of the Pops theme tune has been cancelled, so I don't think our producer can put this in. Less tune from there, of course. Five, the 4-1 win in September 2015. They certainly rode their luck a little bit. I mean, the first half, I think they went in at 1-1, maybe.

But yeah, I mean, they were kind of fortunate to be at 1-1 at half-time and then kind of took the game away from Manchester City. And Kane scored his first goal of that season. And when people were saying he was a one-season wonder and whatever. The Clinton and Gee assist game. Of course, yeah. Ryan Lee passed out when Lamella scored, as listeners to the podcast will know. For the 2-1 win at the Etihad later that season...

which was probably the point that it felt like Spurs were in a title race for the first time. I think that was kind of mid-February. Actually, it might have been Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In at number three, the 3-2 win under Conte in February 2022. Number two, the 2-0 win in October 2016. I believe Pep's first defeat as a Manchester City manager. I feel like Jack will know that. Yeah, it was his first defeat. They'd been flying through the first few months and then basically taught him steamroller than that day.

Tottenham were really good that day. Yeah, probably the point that that team, I mean, obviously we talk about that season all the time, probably like the point that it really felt like this was a good team. These guys are flying. Yeah, they can be kind of proper sides consistently. And then number one, Saturday. Very good. It's a shame that we can't have the, because it wasn't the Premier League, but the 1-0 win in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg in 2019. Spurs were really good that day.

Let's talk about individual players or groups of players if you want to. Somebody said at the start here that it's gone under the radar about Vicario. Overall, you could argue one of his best games for Spurs. Anyone want to argue with that?

I think he saved the close range shots, he was good under the high ball. I think, so again, I was in the mix zone after the game and Vicario came through limping on his right foot. And so we shouldn't forget that I think it was just before half-time where Poro heads it backwards and Savinho has this sort of half chance to chip Vicario and misses the ball and Vicario injures himself in the process.

But if that limp was genuine and not for the cameras, which, you know, clearly he was in a little bit of pain, fair play to him because he's gone on to make some incredible saves in the second half while he was probably just flying on absolute pure adrenaline. That's not an easy thing to do, especially when you are expected to play out from the back and be bold with your distribution. But yeah, I think because Maddison and Kulosevsky were so eye-catching with their contributions,

And Davies and Dragerson were the unexpected defenders, you know, heroically throwing themselves in front of shots, etc.,

We sort of just thought, yeah, Vicario played well, just doing what he normally does. But it was a sensational performance from him. I think there was one save in particular, can't remember who it was from, but a really close range and just sort of stuck out his boot. He tipped a few shots over the bar. Like you said, he was really good from corners. A really, really impressive performance. It's no surprise that

At the end of the game, I remember seeing the goalkeeper coach, Rob Birch, and senior assistant, Matt Wells, run over to him immediately and give him a massive hug because he was integral to that performance and integral to the clean sheet. Team game, but he deserved that clean sheet. Absolutely. Who wants to praise further the centre-back pairing? Yeah, I thought Davison Dragerson was so good. I think it was...

I mean, we know that Davis can come in and play to such a high standard. And what I like about him is that he really does get involved. He does try and do what they would want him to do. He tries to win the ball high up the pitch. He tries to play out from the back.

He was fantastic. I thought Dragosin was great too. We've seen recently in the last few months with Dragosin that these games really suit him, I think. I don't think it's quite as simple as raising his level to the opponent. I think it's also to do with, in a game where Tottenham have less than 50% possession, his strengths get highlighted and his weaknesses get covered up a bit. The onus isn't so much on him to make the play, although he did obviously play the diagonal ball to Kulishevsky for that first goal.

But if it's just like, if it's physical defending that you're after, he is fantastic. Like he's really, really good. And we've got to remember as well, like he's only 22. Like he hasn't played that many Premier League games for Tottenham. He was one of several players who benefited from the international break. He went away and played twice, played two 90 minutes for Romania. So he was getting Matt Sharp on somebody else's dollar there. And you're right, he...

It's a cliche, but he seems to be a very good siege defender. He was great. I'd also like to throw in a mention for Saar, who I thought was great. Saar, physical energy over 90 minutes, brilliant at pressing, making crucial interventions all the way through the game, popping up in both penalty areas. He's an amazing player.

It was his running, sorry, that showed up the lack of legs in Manchester City's midfield. But it was the comparison to what he was doing and what they were not able to do with the ghost of Gundogan playing in central midfield there. We talked about Maddison. James, who would you want to pick out? I think Solanke's in danger of not getting a mention here and he was immense again.

Yeah, I mean, to the untrained eye or to the kind of eye that hasn't been trained on Spurs for most of the season, I think there would probably be a sense that he had underwhelmed base purely on the number of goals, but that just isn't the case. I mean, it's just got to the point now where you're not even, you know, sometimes you kind of worry about a striker not scoring. We talked about it, I think maybe before the Villa game, where, you know, his number of goals wasn't massively impressive, but we weren't really that concerned because...

He was playing well and he was clearly bringing so much to the team. I just don't think you even think about that now. Like, he hadn't kind of come away from that game thinking, great, but it would have been nice if Solanke scored. Like, he looks kind of satisfied with the role he's playing. I mean, I'm sure he'd rather score than not. But, I mean, you know, as we mentioned, the assist for the Poro goal, probably an indication of his kind of selfishness, I should say.

Yeah, and those running on and off the ball, clearly incredibly useful. I mean, we talked about how good, how kind of bullish Kulishevsky can be as he plows through people. Solanke's kind of got a similar kind of ability to hold up the ball and hold off defenders and kind of power through them too. And I think in a game like that, where as we've mentioned, you're going to be up against it for long spells.

To have another outball like that is incredibly useful. Yeah, he was terrific. He shouldn't worry about the goals. I suppose they will come. That's what people say. But he is an integral part of an attack that now is far and away the most productive in the Premier League. Four clear of Chelsea as the top scorers. Incredible when you think about it.

And, Jay, we're missing an extra man here, and that's the manager. I mean, how important – look, we accept it. The current form line is very simple to read, isn't it? Win, lose, win, lose, win, lose, win, last seven.

Fulham upcoming and all the rest of it. But if this turns out to be not just us giving ourselves a nosebleed with how excited we were about the win, but actually a springboard, how important was the win for Antipas de Coglou? It was a massive win for him. Firstly, the fact that Kulishevsky after the game was praising the subtle tweaks and the way that they approached the game is a massive compliment to Pas de Coglou. It's the second time in, what, three, four weeks that

that Spurs have beaten Man City, the reigning champions, and they've done it without their two first-choice centre-backs. And I think, I know Jack was just praising Dragosin and Davies a minute ago, but Postakoglu spoke in the press conference after the game about how Dragosin and Davies didn't shy away from playing out from the back. And that's an area of Dragosin's games we've criticised quite a lot. So to see him be a little bit more comfortable on Saturday was certainly very encouraging. And actually, just after the Ipswich game,

Postakoglu sort of said, you know, I need to take responsibility for this. I might have to make some tweaks to my approach. And look, we're going off a very small sample size. It's one game. But even the fact that he, you know, moved Kulitevski back out wide, went a bit more pragmatic in midfield, suggests to me that he's sort of

reflected on some of the other games and realised that he does need to change it from time to time but as we said there have been quite a few full storms this season so to make sure that's not the case there needs to be a good performance against Roma there needs to be a good performance against Fulham and then hopefully this team will have turned a corner Can I disagree on one point you made there? Go for it What I want to see against Fulham is a bad performance and a win

I think that's what this team needs. They've not won when they've played badly all season. Yeah, that's true. But they need to know how to win when they're playing badly. When they play well, they're incredibly good and they can beat anyone. And the rest of the time, they can't win. Well, they need the kind of team equivalent of one going in off their arse. They've still only...

teams by at least a three goal margin this season I think which is nuts which is mad you've beaten Manchester United away Aston Villa and Man City away when I think about what this season's been like so far I think it's been marked by almost almost unbelievable change

changes in vibes. Like Tottenham are on a sort of nauseating vibes roller coaster at the moment. If you just think about how incredibly happy everyone was after the City and Villa games, just how devastated everybody was after the Ipswich game, and now everybody's back up to the top again. And sometimes I think

Spurs fans have kind of lost it, haven't they? Spurs fans are so febrile. Why do they get so happy when they win and so unhappy when they lose? But the team is objectively incredibly high variance as well. This is not normal, what we're seeing at the moment. Yeah, of course teams are inconsistent, but the gap between Tottenham's

ceiling and floor is I think bigger than any team I can remember seeing in recent Premier League history. I can't remember a team which is that good on its good days, that bad on its bad days. And so I don't actually, when I think about it, maybe I don't blame Tottenham fans for being so up and down because they're just a reflection of the team itself. Like James and Jay say, I really hope that Tottenham, I kind of sense that Tottenham are kind of moving in the right direction and

even though it's hard to detect. Sometimes it can be difficult to detect a trend line when the graph is zigzagging like this. I'm just hopeful that they can build on this, you know, with... I mean, Roma is maybe not so important in the scheme of things, but certainly with Fulham and Bournemouth,

like they can't, if they can just kind of keep the vibes roller coaster on an even keel, that's a very mixed metaphor. It's 825 in the morning, then I think that's got to be the target for the next week or two.

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in places that could expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, their U.S.-based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.

♪♪♪

Head to Jack in the Box and pick up a Smashed Jack. It's a juicy, delicious smashed burger topped with cheese, pickles, grilled onions, and boss sauce. And it's now available on sourdough. The Smashed Jack. Only at Jack in the Box. Order one on the Jack app today.

Welcome back to The View from the Lane. As I said, we should mention the fact that Spurs women, having had a difficult run, beat Aston Villa in the League Cup on Saturday with a fantastic goal by, I must get her name exactly right, Ivalina Sumanen. Anyone want to quickly describe the belter? It is a ridiculously good hit. It must be... Unsavable. 40 plus yards out, 45? Like it's much, much closer to the halfway line than it is to the opposition penalty area.

Has it kissed the underside of the bar? I can't really work out whether that's like a... It absolutely hammers it and it sort of dips. It has this amazing arc and it dips and it comes down like so satisfyingly and it sort of hits the underside of the crossbar in the far corner of the goal, like really close to the far post. And obviously the keeper is nowhere. Like it's an incredible bit of precision and skill.

and strength to smack, you know, to find the top corner like that is brilliant. Well, one day we'll do Spurs' best long-range goals and we'll include that in it. I'm already, Eric Edmund is starting to form out of the fog of my mind.

Spurs play Roma at home on Thursday under new management. They got beaten, but only closely beaten by Napoli at the weekend. He's got limited choices here, Pastor Koglu, because of the injuries. And of course, the suspension means that

whether we like it or not, Benton Kerr will be available for selection, Jay. Is there an argument for going with a very strong team here to virtually clinch at least qualification in this league and for momentum purposes, or will he try and get as many of the fringe players who are available into that XI? I think he'll probably still make a few changes, but what can he actually do to that defence other than maybe bring in Archie Gray? Romero's definitely not back.

Well, we'll find out a little bit more on Wednesday. He did sort of suggest on Friday that Romero might not be away for long. But even so, he can't completely change the defence, right? No, he hasn't got any options there, no. So that gives you at least a solid base to kick on from. Bentoncourt will come in. Will Sarr probably start again?

I'd expect to see Werner and Johnson start this game. So there'll be a few changes, but as Jack said earlier, there is much better strength and depth for this team now. So I don't think the level would change massively. Solanke will have to play, won't he? Because Lanx is suspended. Oh yeah, of course. Good shout. Wouldn't you keep... I'd keep Maddison in, just because he'll be flying off the back of City.

Gray will come in. Benton Kerr will probably come in. Not sure if I'd necessarily bring in Bergvall. Why are you playing Gray out of interest? One of the fullbacks. Yes, play right back or left back, depending on which of them. Yeah, you'd get Werner and Johnson indefinitely. Werner, Solanke, Johnson in the front three. And then Benton Kerr. Maybe Benton Kerr, Madison, Saar in the middle.

I'm not sure it's a game for Bergvall. And then, yeah, Gray. Gray is one of the fullbacks, but keep the rest of the same bat of four. And I definitely play Beccario as well.

And I don't think Roma will be coming at Spurs in the way that they like. Ranieri's first game, they lost 1-0 to Napoli. But like all managers, experienced managers coming in at teams in free fall, he stabilised them. They played very defensively and did very well, actually. And I suspect they'll be compact against Spurs and say, go on then, do your worst. We'll see what happens.

It's one of those lovely mornings where a victory like what was achieved in Manchester is

reminds you why you follow this team and the joy at the end of it was just... I hate to use a word, it's profound for me, just to see them all play so well. And as a group, they defended well, they attacked well, they stuck together with each other, they enjoyed it. All the things I want, it was absolute joy. And I don't care if I was on a verge, like my friend James there, of wetting myself because of the way we watched the game. It was beautiful.

Um, thank you all three of you for reflecting some of that in the course of this very early morning, the earliest ever start for the view from the lane. Um, thank you all for listening to it. I hope you're doing in a absolute luxury and not waiting for the sun to come up and all the rest of it. Um, don't forget that we'll be, um,

You can still find us on Twitter and these days on Blue Sky at VFTL Podcast. You can email us your thoughts about things at vftl at vftl.com. I'm going to be careful how I end this because somebody pointed out that on at least one of the major platforms, the last –

the end of the phoneme in Come On You Spurs was cut off, and they thought this might be a new thing I was doing to try and get Spurs going again. So thank you all for listening. Thank you, James, Jack, and Jay for their contribution. Roma upcoming. Come On You Spurs.

The first ever 12 team college football playoff is set and you can join me, David Ubbin and me, two time national champion, Alabama, Damian Harris and me, Chris Vanini, two time national champion in the college football 25 video game on until Saturday, the athletics college football podcast for all the playoff previews, predictions, coaching carousel and transfer portal news four times a week throughout the CFP.

Dame, how do you think Bama is going to do in the playoffs? Shut up, David. The time may be out of the playoffs, but I'm super excited to see the 12 best teams in the nation play. All the banter, insights and more on Until Saturday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.