Ange Postecoglou has promised Tottenham fans they will reschedule their game against Arsenal in Sunday’s derby.
Spurs have won four of their five Premier League games under the Australian, but the biggest test of this bold new era in N17 comes this weekend at a stadium where wins are notoriously difficult to come by.
Tottenham’s last league success at the Emirates was in 2010, although the most disappointing aspect of Arsenal’s recent performances has been the lack of attacking imagination, with Postecoglou’s predecessors Antonio Conte, Nuno Espirito Santo and Jose Mourinho opting for pragmatism in this match.
“Absolutely extraordinary – a derby day they will never forget!”
Next up is the North London Derby. pic.twitter.com/q4AurWkUna
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 21, 2023
There appears to be no chance for the current Spurs manager to take a defensive approach and the 58-year-old is looking forward to seeing how his young group fare in a fiery atmosphere against one of the division’s top teams.
“When I was in Champions League games with Celtic or World Cup games with Australia people said I should have changed my approach and we’ve learned some pretty decent lessons along the way but I just think this is the only way evaluate yourself. – Postecoglou explained.
“How do you know if you want to be on a team like this? That is the question. If you want to be a team that challenges, you know you have to play that way, no matter the opponent.
“It makes no sense not to use a game like Sunday as a gauge to see where we are.
“If we shy away from this, don’t play our football, manage to get a draw and survive this experience, what have we really learned? Besides surviving 90 minutes of football? Nothing.
“The players already know what my message to them will be. We’re going to go out and play our football.
“If we don’t have enough money, then we don’t have enough money, and we need to make up for it. If we can match them, that’s great, isn’t it (because) we know we have a long way to go and we’ve already proven ourselves and in the most important cases we’ve shown we’re ready to play our football.”
Spurs had a full week to prepare for their trip to north London, while Arsenal warmed up for Sunday with a 4-0 thrashing of PSV on Wednesday night.
PSV tried to press Mikel Arteta’s side aggressively but were sent off, with devastating consequences for the Gunners’ return to the Champions League.
Postecoglou was told that Arsenal would prefer an open match, but the Tottenham manager replied: “I’m not really worried about what Arsenal want from the game. I’m worried about what we want from the game.
“It’s about us challenging ourselves to become the football team we want to be and the progress we want to make is to play the football we started playing. It is so simple.
“What the opposition may or may not want becomes a moot point for us if we don’t play our football. During the game there are always natural changes depending on what the opponent is doing.
“But we started playing this way because I believe that’s how we’ll be successful, not because I’m trying to create something pleasing to the eye.”
Postecoglou acknowledged his team’s inexperience in this derby, with Guglielmo Vicario, Pedro Porro, Mickey van de Ven, Destiny Udogi and James Maddison making their first appearances in the match.
Even Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr remember little about playing for Tottenham against Arsenal, but the former Celtic boss says it all adds up to Sunday being an important part of the group’s journey.
He added: “This is the kind of experience I want the boys to have and us as a group to help us grow. This is the only way for you to grow.
“You don’t grow literally in the shadows. You need to lift your head, see the sun and allow yourself to grow, even if at times it means the experience isn’t great, because you can grow from it.
“It is a challenge for the whole group and for us, but despite this it will not stop our real intention to become such a football team, whatever the result.”
