Towards the end of Ange Postecoglou’s press conference after Tottenham Hotspur lost the north London derby to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, he was asked if the only positives to take from the game were the performances of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.
It was an opportunity to acknowledge two players who are excelling in difficult circumstances and end a bad evening on a hopeful note. Gray prefers to play in midfield but has started the past 10 games in all competitions at centre-back, while Bergvall has arguably been the most impressive performer in recent weeks.
Instead of praising the two teenagers, who 12 months ago were playing in the second tier of English football and Sweden’s top flight respectively, Postecoglou fired a warning shot.
“I hope not, I want them disappointed,” he said. “This can’t be accepted by anyone at the club. Us losing so many games in a league season is not right. I know we are going through a tough trot and are asking big jobs (of people) but I hope they are hurting, the 18-year-olds, as much as anybody else in terms of us not being able to deliver on a big night.”
Postecoglou’s frustration was understandable. Spurs withstood 20 minutes of intense pressure from Arsenal to take the lead through Son Heung-min but conceded twice just before half-time. There was an element of misfortune about Dominic Solanke’s own goal but Yves Bissouma was easily dispossessed by Thomas Partey in the build-up to Leandro Trossard’s strike. Postecoglou said his team were “too passive” and “nowhere near the level they needed to be” which he described as “not acceptable”.
That didn’t take long!
Leandro Trossard gives Arsenal the lead four minutes after they equalised 💥
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/ixqtOGhRf0
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 15, 2025
It was a complete contrast to how Declan Rice talked about Arsenal’s display on TNT Sports. “Tonight meant more than anything, from the first minute,” Rice said. “First 45 minutes was pure domination. We showed that intent, that pressure, that desire. You could tell it was a derby. To be honest with you, we are unlucky we didn’t score 10 tonight, that’s the feeling.”
This is the 11th time Spurs have lost in the Premier League this season — the only teams who have suffered more defeats are Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City (both on 13) and Southampton (16). Or, to describe them another way, the three sides in the relegation zone.
Tottenham have taken only 24 points from 21 games and are closer to that trio than the top four. They have won once in their past nine games and that was against bottom-of-the-table Southampton. All of the goodwill that they generated from last week’s victory over Liverpool in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final has slipped away following this flat display against their rivals.
In the first few minutes of the game, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jurrien Timber made interceptions high up the pitch which led to Arsenal attacks. Gray, Bissouma and Djed Spence found it difficult to progress the ball up the left wing. Then Kai Havertz blocked Antonin Kinsky’s pass in the box and nearly scored. Tottenham were overwhelmed and struggled to string a sequence of passes together. Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Solanke were peripheral figures. Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr were replaced by Brennan Johnson and James Maddison at half-time as Postecoglou tried to find “a different intent in our football”.
“It’s not who we are,” he said. “Allowing Arsenal to play to their tempo. It just wasn’t good enough.” This is not the first time this season Postecoglou has made drastic changes at the break. Yes, Spurs have been struggling with an injury crisis but their midfield has been left relatively unscathed, apart from Rodrigo Bentancur suffering two separate concussions. However, Postecoglou is still trying to find out what his most effective combination is in that area of the pitch at the halfway stage of the campaign.
Maddison is leading the way with Son for direct goal involvements (12) but has started the past four games on the bench. The 28-year-old has not completed the full 90 minutes once this season and has been substituted more times (14) than any of his team-mates. Paradoxically, he is either the first to be sacrificed when Spurs are underperforming or he is asked to perform a rescue act off the bench.
Bergvall is showing a lot of promise as the deepest-lying midfielder but it is a lot of responsibility to place on someone so young and inexperienced. Kulusevski is tasked with switching between a central role and the right wing in the same game sometimes. The Swede (1,681) has racked up the second-highest number of minutes after Pedro Porro (1,716) and needs a rest. If Postecoglou only tweaked his midfield on certain occasions, you could argue he was tailoring his approach to nullify the strengths, or capitalise on the weaknesses, of specific opponents. Instead it feels like he tinkers too much and it is difficult to build any consistency.
Postecoglou’s comments about how this poor run of form “can’t be accepted by anyone at the club” can be interpreted in two different ways. Was it a brutally honest admission he is running out of time to change this dire situation? Or was he applying soft pressure to chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Johan Lange to find solutions to their problems in the transfer market? Richarlison made his first appearance since the beginning of November after recovering from a hamstring injury but Solanke needs more help up front. Spurs were interested in signing Randal Kolo Muani on loan from Paris Saint-Germain but he is expected to join Juventus.
It is always frustrating to lose a derby but Postecoglou has failed to beat Arsenal in four attempts. Spurs have looked more solid when they defend set pieces but this is the second time this season Arsenal have scored from a corner against them. Mikel Arteta’s side were reeling from back-to-back defeats in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup and the loss of Gabriel Jesus to an anterior cruciate ligament injury. If Spurs had reached half-time in the lead or level, the frustration and nerves inside the stadium would have increased. Tottenham could have capitalised on the tension by sitting slightly deeper and hitting Arsenal on the break. Instead they made costly individual errors and failed to create high-quality chances, things that have happened on countless occasions over the past six months.
If Manchester United beat Southampton on Thursday then Spurs will drop to 14th. Postecoglou can only lean on their impressive performances in the Carabao Cup for so long until serious questions are asked about his long-term future. As the 59-year-old admitted, their form “is nowhere near good enough and it needs to change”.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
