Ange Postecoglou has promised to be true to his brand of attacking football when Tottenham travel to Arsenal tomorrow.
Spurs have not won at the Emirates in the Premier League since 2010 but have enjoyed a strong start to the new season.
Postecoglou has turned around a gloomy mood in double quick time thanks to an aggressive and exciting brand of football that has brought about 13 goals in five league fixtures.
A trip to last season’s league runners-up would cause many coaches to shut up shop, but there is no chance of the former Australia boss doing similar this weekend.
“If you want to be a team that challenges, you know you have to play that way irrespective of the opponent,” Postecoglou said.
“There’s no point not using a game like Sunday as a measure to see where we’re at.
“If we shy away from it, don’t play our football, manage to get a draw and survive the experience, what have we really learned? Apart from surviving 90 minutes of football? Nothing.
“The players already know that’s what will be my message to them. We’re going to go out and play our football.
“If we’re short, we’re short, we need to make it up. If we match them it’s great isn’t it? We know we have a long way to go and we’ve already established ourselves and on the biggest occasions, we’ve shown we’re prepared to play our football.”
Postecoglou is aware it will not be straight-forward and knows the majority of his new-look team would not have experienced a north London derby or only featured in a handful.
It is why the 58-year-old will not draw too much into Sunday’s result and instead place importance on their performance.
He added: “Ultimately we’ll still be six games into a new cycle, a new group of players, a very young group of players.
“Either way, irrespective of the outcome, I’d say the performance will be my biggest measure but knowing we have still got a long way to go.”
Opposite number Mikel Arteta is four years into his journey at Arsenal and took over in similar circumstances. The Spaniard experienced bumps along the way but now has the Gunners back in the Champions League and primed for another title tilt.
“I think Mikel has been outstanding, really strong right from the start by having a real vision for the football club and the club’s backed him, but I don’t think that’s unique,” Postecoglou said.
“I think Liverpool did the same with Jurgen (Klopp). Most clubs that end up having a successful period doing it on the back of having a really clear idea of what they’re trying to create.
“The only problem is that a lot of clubs jump at shadows at the first sign of things not progressing at the rate they were hoping to.
“Credit to Arsenal and credit to Mikel that they backed each other and they’re reaping the rewards of it, but that’s not a blueprint for us to follow. We’ve got our own blueprint.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/Ls5PM8N
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