Tottenham 3-4 Chelsea (Solanke 5′, Kulusevski 11′, Son 90’+6 | Sancho 17′, Palmer 61′ pen, 84′ pen, Fernandez 73′)
TOTTENHAM STADIUM — There was a dream that was Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur.
It breathed in brilliant flashes, a fragile yet unflinching vision of uniting football’s often opposing twin aims of entertainment and glory without compromising on either.
It aimed towards Son Heung-min with the Premier League trophy aloft, that infamous drought ended by Brennan Johnson inexplicably scoring in every game despite never playing particularly well.
It was a dream you wanted to believe in, a romantic vision that perfection is possible, but it died on Sunday evening with a pendulous thwack of Enzo Fernandez’s boot.
Postecoglou’s childishly naive idealism is beautiful in principle, especially for the league’s oldest manager, but in practice, it looks like this – 11 perfect first-half minutes betrayed by nearly 90 more of chaos and confusion, a team grasping at thin air to find any semblance of control or sense of self.
This was the Postecoglou experience in microcosm, played out under a rainy haze which lent this game the disconcerting miasma of an anxiety dream.
We saw the theory made reality, and we saw why it’s as utopian as it is unsustainable.
It requires a perfection of pressing and decision-making which Tottenham cannot afford to finance, and shouldn’t have much interest in doing so.
Now seven points behind their Premier League total at the same stage last season, sat 11th having won one game in seven, this is managed decline repackaged as a project, in large part through its figurehead’s Roberto Martinez-esque gift for persuasion and “mate”-infused proselytization.
Fifth last season felt like progress, but it was achieved without the distractions of European football and ultimately earned just six points more than 2022-23, which ended with five defeats in seven matches under Cristian Stellini.
Spurs have lost 19 of their past 40 Premier League matches – there’s only so long spin can survive under its own weight for.
And there will be ways of spinning Tottenham’s early two-goal lead as a sign of this side’s capabilities, of what’s possible if only they stick at it and buy the perfect players in every position and never have any injuries or accidents or other inconveniences.
Both Dominic Solanke and the stadium announcer spoke pre-match about what this side can achieve “on their day”, as if that timing is some twist of fortune decided by some higher footballing power.
Yet you could also argue that however well Solanke and Johnson pressed Chelsea, that lead was only made possible by Marc Cucurella’s inopportune footwear – he slipped in the build-up to both goals.
Without that, Jadon Sancho’s second goal in as many games would have been the opener, and Chelsea may have galloped off without reply.
And keeping a clean sheet in those rapidly alternating early phases was entirely dependent on starting both Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, despite neither being fully fit.
Romero’s teary exit after 15 minutes was a reminder of how poorly covered Tottenham’s yawning chasms are.
Reality 1-0 The Dream, once again – this may well be Postecoglou’s managerial epitaph.
With Pep Guardiola’s empire falling and Jurgen Klopp nestled in the posh seats, a great era of tactical idealism, of idolising managers over their players, is dying.
No team exemplifies that better than Chelsea under Enzo Maresca, whose overarching philosophy appears to be to win at any cost, thriving by exploiting the predictability of their opponents principles.
Unless Tottenham act soon, they risk being caught on the wrong side of a tidal shift in management led by adaptable, variable managers like Maresca, Mikel Arteta or Arne Slot.
It’s not that Postecoglou is a poor manager or that his ideas are genuinely unworkable, it’s that he fits almost too perfectly at Spurs, leans into the club’s innate habits and worst traits and excuses them.
Immovable principles in football are the preserve of the super-rich or insane – occasionally both – and Postecoglou will never have the players or the funding to realise his vision.
He had great success at Celtic for a reason, and could recreate that with Manchester City or Chelsea’s budget, but not Tottenham’s.
And so Spurs can waste more time and more money attempting to be something they never will be, giving more air to the idea that there’s something rotten in the psychology of their players and makeup of their club.
Or, they can roll the dice once more, as so many of their rivals have done with almost immediate reward.
Their consistent inconsistency is entirely dependent on their manager’s dogged stubbornness.
Postecoglou’s dream is over, and his Tottenham career should be too.
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