Michail Antonio has described the tactics used by Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou on Monday night as “genius”.
The West Ham ace, speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast, says Spurs really impressed him with how they faced up to Chelsea in the game.
Tottenham gave a great account of themselves despite going down to nine men and only two very late goals added gloss to the scoreline.
Spurs had to play over a third of the the game with nine men after Cristian Romero was shown a red card in the first half and Destiny Udogie was sent off in the 55th minute.
Despite having two fewer players on the pitch than their opposition, Postecoglou made sure that Spurs continued to play a high line and press the opposition.
Indeed, it almost worked, with Eric Dier seeing a potential equaliser ruled out for a marginal offside and Son Heung-min also coming close.
In the end, Chelsea ended up breaking down Spurs’ resistance and added two late goals in injury-time as the hosts continued to push forward.
MORE TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STORIES
Despite Tottenham being on the receiving end of a heavy defeat, the Spurs fans applauded the players at full time, wowed by the effort they put in against the Blues.
Tottenham wowing fans, neutrals, peers and rivals
Antonio also enjoyed what he saw from Tottenham, saying: “I’m not going to lie. Tottenham, I’m so impressed by.
“I’m so impressed by the way that they dealt with that. It was genius management.
“Normally when a team goes under they try and soak up the pressure and counter.
“No, they weren’t doing that at all. They were playing as high as possible, had the keeper sweeping, pressing Chelsea all over. It was beautiful to watch.”
There haven’t been many instances where a home team loses 4-1 and gets cheered off the pitch by their own fans.
This just goes to show how Tottenham have grown and improved under Postecoglou.
Even though Spurs only had nine men on the pitch, they didn’t compromise on their principles, instead going all out for an equaliser.
There will always be games where things go wrong. Indeed, to lose four key players in one match – two sendings-off and two injuries – is about as pear-shaped as it can get.
But despite this, the Spurs players fought valiantly and very nearly came away with something. Tottenham will surely go far under Postecoglou.