Ten games in to the 2023/24 Premier League season and the league table has taken a familiar shape, with a top four made up of North London and North West heavyweights.
Tottenham Hotspur, managed by the charismatic Ange Postecoglou are top of the pile with a whopping 26 points, eight wins and two draws, followed by Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool. Spurs opened up last weekend’s top flight fixtures with a visit to Crystal Palace and a 2-1 victory took them five points clear on Friday night before the chasing pack all closed the gap on Saturday and Sunday.
It’s the first time since 1964 that Tottenham have held a five point lead; and that is dreamland for Spurs fans who have been waiting for their team to win a trophy for 15 years. Of course there is still a long way to go and the Premier League 2023 betting odds here at SBOTOP rate Pep Guardiola’s City as hot favourites; but Spurs are top of the table for a reason.
The style of football Postecoglou coaches is exciting to watch and, after the pragmatism of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, the Spurs faithful are loving it, and they are taking some of the limelight away from Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. A serious cup run and a top four finish would be a fantastic outcome for Postecoglou and, if he can keep his team above Arsenal, he will approach legendary status at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Ange’s route to Spurs
Born in Greece a young Postecoglou moved to Australia with his family and he broke into professional football with South Melbourne as a tough tackling and ball playing defender, winning four caps for Australia. He went on to manage South Melbourne but Postecoglou started to attract serious attention when he took over at Brisbane Roar in 2009, and his team became renowned for fast flowing, high intensity football as he won the Australian league in 2011 and 2012. After a stint at Melbourne Victory he took over the national team, leading the Socceroos to the World Cup finals in 2014 and 2018 and an Asian Cup triumph in 2015.
In 2019 Postecoglou headed for Japan to manage Yokohama where he won the J-League and then, two years later, he landed in Glasgow to manage Celtic following the departure of Neil Lennon. In two spectacular seasons in Scotland he won back-to-back league titles and a league and cups treble in 2023, and the style of football the Hoops played attracted the notice of Spurs and they swooped to bring him to North London.
Postecoglou arrived at Spurs with ten trophy wins behind him during the period of drought for his new side, but he has stressed that he will not obsess about the need to open the trophy cabinet; something Mauricio Pochettino, Conte and Mourinho all failed to do.
Ten Games, 26 points and 22 goals
Few neutrals expected the superb set Premier League 2023 results Postecoglou has delivered, that’s for sure, but the man himself is not surprised. He is supremely confident in his attacking philosophy and has a talented squad which can deliver on his orders. The signing of James Maddison came as no surprise following the relegation of Leicester City and the creative midfielder has arguably been the biggest beneficiary of Postecoglou’s coaching prowess. He is scoring and assisting for fun and Maddison was on target in Spurs recent 2-0 win over Fulham. Heung-Min Son scored the other against the Cottagers and he doesn’t seem to be missing his old mate Harry Kane, who is now ripping up the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
Alongside Son and Maddison, Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski make up a fluid and threatening front four, with the box to box player Yves Bissouma also joining the attack at times. At the back, the emergence of 6ft 4in centre back Micky van de Ven has strengthened the Spurs rearguard and he scored the winner in a 1-0 triumph over Luton Town, where Postecoglou’s team showed it can scrap it out when necessary.
The victory over Palace made it four wins on the bounce, which included a 2-1 result over a quickly improving Liverpool, and that run followed a 2-2 draw with the Gunners. The other league draw came in their first league game, against Brentford, and Spurs’ only blemish came in a penalty shootout Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Fulham.
The club, once renowned for spectacular failures and slip ups on the pitch is now being taken deadly seriously, and particularly by their local rivals over at the Emirates.
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