Ange Postecoglou reveals Tottenham 'key' to Aston Villa comeback he saw at half-time

Aston Villa must be sick of the sight of coming up against Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham team. Having managed to keep Spurs at bay in the opening 45 minutes of Sunday's game despite the hosts having the better openings on goal, the Midlands club could only hold out for four minutes in the second half before Brennan Johnson restored parity.

Tottenham were to hit a further three goals in what remained of the match, with Dominic Solanke scoring a double and James Maddison adding a free-kick deep into stoppage time. It was the second game in succession against Villa that the north London club had hit four second-half goals.

It was a similar scenario at Villa Park back in March as Maddison put the team one goal to the good five minutes after the interval. Further goals from Johnson, Son Heung-min and Timo Werner sealed a statement win against Unai Emery's impressive Aston Villa team.

Tottenham's latest four-goal haul has seen them become the Premier League's top goalscorers for the season on 22 goals. Even if they do fall a goal behind, which has been the case in 12 of their 14 Premier League fixtures at home in 2024, Spurs have more than enough firepower in the team to go on and win the game.

It would certainly be easier for Tottenham fans and also the team that they do not concede the first goal, yet you know that chances are always going to be there for Spurs due to Postecoglou's attacking football philosophy. As he mentioned in his interview with SPURSPLAY after the game, the 59-year-old knows "we've got other gears in us" and that is always going to prove crucial to the end result.

At a time when heads could drop given the team were trailing to a very good Aston Villa team, Postecoglou saw nothing of the sort in the changing room at half-time. Instead, he felt an energy in the room and noticed that his players "couldn't wait to get back onto the pitch for the second half" and complete the turnaround.

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"I wasn't happy that we were 1-0 down, but I was happy with the way we went about things, because I could see that Villa were working really, really hard," he told SPURSPLAY following the 4-1 win. "What we know is that we can work really, really hard for 100 minutes, not a problem, we’ve got other gears in us. It’s then about testing the opposition.

"So, the key for us was to come out second half, go up a notch and really take the game to them and see if they could cope. I wasn't really worried at half-time that we were falling into the same traps as last week, I felt the energy in the room and the players couldn’t wait to get back onto the pitch for the second half, and the performance reflected that."

When asked if the result was reward for the sheer hard work of the players, he added: "It's a big part of our game, a big part of who we are, then you allow the quality we have in the team to bear fruit, because if you want to play the way we want to, where we’re constantly at the opposition, aggressive, attacking, for want of a better word, then you need a big, physical capacity to do that.

"That's why we work hard in training every day. Having that fitness base is one thing, but having the mental capacity to use it, because you could leave it in the tank. You saw that on Wednesday night, today, they emptied their tanks, everything they had they gave, and they got the rewards."

Tottenham have certainly got their rewards from their last two fixtures, leaving them with a record of nine wins from their last 11 games in all competitions. This weekend they could possibly jump a few places in the Premier League standings providing that they win and results also go their way.

Currently seventh in the table and three points off Nottingham Forest in third, Tottenham host Ipswich Town in a 2pm kick-off on Sunday afternoon. In terms of the teams above them, Forest play Newcastle United at home, Chelsea and Arsenal do battle at Stamford Bridge and Aston Villa travel to league leaders Liverpool.

Going on Tottenham's excellent record at home this season coupled with Ipswich failing to win a game following their Premier League return, the hosts will be the red-hot favourites to claim another three points. Regardless of whether they go a goal behind or not on Sunday, Postecoglou will be very confident of his team chalking up another victory as they more than have it in them to move up the gears and get the job done.

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