Tottenham Hotspur’s recent run of form has cast a new light on some of the media coverage of the club just a month ago, when they were seemingly champions-elect.
“Let them dream” is what Ange Postecoglou told the media exactly one month ago, when asked about the Tottenham Hotspur fans who were starting to believe the team were in contention to win the title.
There certainly seemed to be a lot of dreaming going on at the time.
Jason Burt wrote for The Telegraph that Spurs were “no longer ‘Spursy'”, calling Postecoglou’s team “the real deal”.
Burt claimed no manager in the history of the Premier League had “had such a rapidly transformative effect on a squad, on a club, on a fan base”, surpassing even Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Burt wasn’t the only one in the media making such claims. Jamie Braidwood wrote for The Independent that there had been “no hangover, no sense of loss” since Harry Kane’s departure to Bayern Munich.
Braidwood mentioned that some people (not him, of course) were “declaring out loud that Tottenham are better without Kane”.
Squawka compared Spurs to the Arsenal Invincibles of 2003/04, pointing out that Postecoglou’s side had two more points than Arsene Wenger’s team at the same stage.
The Guardian’s David Hytner waxed lyrical about how this was a revolution “rooted in normality and authenticity, common sense; just saying and doing logical stuff”, comparing Postecoglou’s style favourably against Mikel Arteta’s “unusual motivational moves”.
The Athletic’s Tim Spiers pointed out that “no team has started as well as Spurs and not finished in the Premier League top four”.
A month later, Spurs are fifth.
Far from shaking off their “Spursy” nature, Postecoglou’s side have thrown away leads in all three fixtures in November, losing 4-1 to Chelsea, 2-1 to Wolves, and 2-1 to Aston Villa.
The side certainly seem to be missing Kane, who has scored eight goals on his own this month compared to Spurs’ three.
As for the Invincibles, they may have been two points behind the Spurs of 2023/24 after 10 games, but they’re seven points ahead after 13.
Spurs can keep their common sense normality, Arteta’s unusual style has done plenty to turn the club around over the last few years.
It didn’t seem to matter much to anyone that Spurs were scraping through games even before the last three, requiring a major individual error to snatch a point away at Arsenal, the worst VAR decision of all time to beat Liverpool, and an own goal to beat Crystal Palace.
Arsenal now sit top of the table, but you won’t see many of the same headlines about Arteta’s side this week.