After beating Luton Town 1-0 on Saturday, Tottenham Hotspur holds the lead in the Premier League heading into the month-long international break.With the help of Micky van de Ven’s first club goal early in the second half, Spurs have already won six of their first eight games of the season.
“We’ve played some good football and we’ve had all sort of different challenges thrown at us,” stated Ange Postecoglou. “We’ve had to come back from deficits to win away games, and we’ve done it several times. Not that everything has been easy. We’ve had to work really hard to reach where we are, so I guess from my perspective it’s terrific that they’re being rewarded with results, and that can only help us grow as a team.
“However, it’s not as if they are seated there believing we have accomplished anything. Nothing has been accomplished; all we have done is set some extremely solid foundations. Our aspirations and goals are to get better. We’ll see where that leads us if we can play better and develop into a better squad.
As Manchester City and Arsenal squared off at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Spurs’ advantage in the league was in jeopardy. Pep Guardiola’s team would have regained the top spot with a victory, but the Gunners displayed class to defeat the Citizens for the first time since 2015.
The difference in north London came from Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-recovery goal in the 86th minute, which brought Mikel Arteta’s team’s tally of 20 points even with Spurs. However, due to the number of goals scored, Tottenham will keep their position atop the Premier League standings.
Given that both clubs have the same number of points and a neutral (+10) goal differential, the next statistic in the ranking is goals scored.In eight games, Postecoglou’s team has scored 18, two more goals than the Gunners, who have 16.
Since December 2020, the team has not topped the Premier League standings. Now the emphasis will be on getting ready for Fulham’s visit in more than two weeks.
