"I always win things in my second year" - Postecoglou provides response when asked if Tottenham could win silverware this season
Ange Postecoglou reaffirmed his confidence in Tottenham Hotspur’s potential to compete for trophies, despite the team's 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday. The Greek-born Australian manager is aiming to end Spurs' 16-year wait for a trophy and has reiterated that his side can still win silverware this season, having said the same thing last month (August).
Tottenham hosted Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in their fourth Premier League game of the 2024-25 campaign. Despite being the better side for the entirety of the match, they ended up on the losing side as Gabriel Magalhaes scored the decisive goal for the Gunners in the 64th minute, heading home from a corner kick.
After the match, Ange Postecoglou was asked if Tottenham could still challenge for silverware this season. Responding, he told Sky Sports:
"Yes, absolutely. If I can answer the question or are you going to keep asking? I will correct myself. I don't usually win things, I always win things in my second year... nothing's changed. I just sort of said it now, I don't say things unless I believe them."
Postecoglou is yet to win a single Premier League match against Arsenal in his three attempts. He joined Tottenham last season from Celtic with whom he won five trophies including two Scottish Premiership titles. In his debut season at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, he guided the Lilywhites to a fifth-place finish.
Ange Postecoglou rubbishes 'set piece' narrative and identifies fault for Arsenal’s goal against Tottenham
Ange Postecoglou has given his response to the narrative that he doesn’t care much about set pieces. His side suffered a narrow 0-1 nil loss against north London rivals Arsenal as Bukayo Saka’s corner kick found Gabriel, who jumped unopposed to power his header past Vicario into the roof of the net.
Argentine defender Christian Romero was assigned the responsibility of marking Gabriel during the corner but couldn’t do so as the Brazilian defender outsmarted him. Prior to the match, Postecoglou has been criticized for not fixing Spurs' poor set-piece record. When he was quizzed about it, he said (via Football London)
''I know, I know, for some reason people think I don't care about set pieces, and it's a narrative that you can keep going on for ages and ages. I understand that. Like I said, we work on them all the time like we do for every other team. You know that they're a threat; as I said, for the most part, we handled them really well today, but we switched off for one and we paid a price and you learn from that and you move on.’’
''But it is what it is, you know, it's my burden to carry mate and I'm happy to do that. It's not like, like I've always said, for me, there's a bigger picture that's at play here that's much more important than the finer details of us getting to where we want to. For us, the way forward is to try to turn the football we're playing now into something meaningful.’’
He added:
''We held them well for the most part and you switch off for one and you pay the price. They took their key moment and we didn't. We had held them well and they're obviously a big threat from set pieces. It only takes one. It wasn't just Romero, others switched off from the set piece.
Three of Arsenal’s last four Premier League goals against Tottenham have been from corners.