Manchester City played host to Spurs, more often Pep Guardiola's Achilles' heel than any other side in the Premier League, hoping to turn around a run of four straight defeats. Unfortunately for them, Ange Postecoglou had spent the previous fortnight assessing exactly what was needed to rectify his own side's mishaps and the Spurs eleven implemented it to perfection.
Manchester City began proceedings aggressively, quickly playing through the Spurs press only to be stopped by a clumsy Yves Bissouma challenge which saw him booked inside half a minute. Shortly after, City had the chance to take the lead with a chance that Erling Haaland would ordinarily have buried to the right of the penalty box. Some uncharacteristic sluggishness spared Spurs on this occasion.
Across the match City would record another twenty two opportunities, but none which you'd have expected Guiglelmo Vicario to concede from. Meanwhile, Spurs scored with their first attack from a delicious Dejan Kulusevski cross to James Maddison and from that point on controlled the match. The North Londoners would score another three via Maddison again, Brennan Johsnson and Pedro Porro, and the 4-0 scoreline was not at all flattering.
Here are four things we learnt from the impressive Spurs away day.
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Bissouma continues to show discipline
After Spurs home victory over West Ham I wrote that the Mali international had risen to the challenge set to him by his manager and performed with more maturity. After an extraordinarily early booking, Tottenham's travelling supporters would have been forgiven for expecting a reversion to type.
It was not to be, as Bissouma spent the match asserting himself on space, winning the ball early and joining the defence whenever necessary. His confidence was evident too, making himself available to take the ball under pressure and a key component in breaking Manchester City's press with seemingly far more ease than we're accustomed to seeing.
With Rodrigo Bentancur out of action for potentially another six domestic matches, Bissouma has every opportunity to to cement his spot at the base of the Spurs midfield. If this is to be his standard performance and he always plays 'as though he is on a booking' then he may find himself treading the entire path to redemption in his manager's eyes.
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Romero and Van de Ven not missed
Ahead of this match there had been much focus on how Erling Haaland would be licking his lips at the pairing of off form Radu Dragusin and unglamorous career left back Ben Davies in the heart of Tottenham's defence.
What transpired was totally off script. Aided by a (slightly) deeper line than usual, Dragusin and Davies looked every bit a first choice selection and never seemed uncomfortable with the wealth of talent in the opposition attack. Dragusin may not have Romero's comfort on the ball, while Davies clearly cannot match his Dutch counterpart's immense speed. There were different, equally euphonic harmonies from this unconventional duet.
What the two could offer, and did, was a combination of the Romanian's relentless aggression to win every ball that came his way and the Welsh stalwart's maturity and composure to understand what Manchester City were trying to do, often before the players wearing blue did. To ensure I don't just focus on just their defensive showing, I'll point out that post match Postecoglou was rightly effusive regarding their ability to pass the ball out of defence.
Considering the difficulties most first choice defences have when Manchester City ask questions, that Vicario's main job was merely to concentrate and deal with the expected for all but the first ten minutes was testament to how little the Spurs side missed it's usual go to combination.
Spurs' manager may hope he can restore his Plan A backline as soon as possible, but if this is the alternative then Spurs seemingly have little to worry about.
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Ange adapts
One criticism leveled at Postecoglou is that he is dogmatic in the face of reason, refusing to sacrifice his ideals to give his side a better chance of short term success. Words like 'naive' and 'stubborn' are often used in synergy, particularly if his side has suffered an embarrassing result (such as the two recent occasions Spurs has provided remedy to an opposition yet to taste their maiden Premier League victories).
The truth is the Australian has been tweaking his system continuously. Much like a Formula 1 car, the tweaks are subtle and sometimes don't fully show until further amendments are made, but to say they don't exist is fallacy.
Already this season we've seen the midfield shaped to provide more fluidity with both James Maddison and Kulusevski starting, only to then have the ever improving Pape Matar Sarr find his energy become crucial again. Udogie now overlaps where he previously underlapped, and Son Heung-min is again playing far closer to Dominic Solanke than whoever his oppositive flank is.
This match saw Dejan Kulusevski restored to the right, with top scorer Brennan Johnson starting on the bench despite a fruitful international break. The logic was that Kulusevski has been effective from the position against Manchester City several times already, while restoring James Maddison to the side would provide great control in possession and the ability to play through the Manchester City midfield.
This is exactly how events unfolded, with Guardiola's players having no answer to the power, trickery or delivery of Kulusevski, nor the imagination and ability to do the unexpected of Maddison. Spurs looked dangerous with every attack, and scored four very different goals (all assisted by a different player with a different type of pass).
Postecoglou will have taken delight in seeing his side play with the imagination and verve that his opposite in the dugout is famed for. Now he will hope he can continue making opponents' managers guess at how to stop his side as the season unfolds.
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Maddison can still star
James Maddison started the season brightly enough, but recent performances have again brought questions around whether he can maintain a high level across a season, or if he'll remain a player who can electrify one week but falter the next. Not that this question has been answered by one performance, but the nature of this performance suggests he is more than capable of rising from adversity to shine.
Maddison gave Spurs the lead with a brilliant drive from deep to reach Kulusevski's pin point cross, and his second showed him at his quick footed, composed, instinctive best, but these weren't the real highlights of his performance.
The England international, and he'll be hoping that moniker becomes current again under Thomas Tuchel, gave a complete performance. If he wasn't at left back taking the ball under pressure to carry it towards the Manchester City goal, he'd be central in the pitch keeping Ilkay Gundogan guessing as to which direction he'd spread the ball. When Maddison needed to be close to Solanke, he was, and equally when he needed to make a run with no sight of receiving the ball to distract from the truly intended target, again he was.
Maddison celebrated his birthday with aplomb and despite interviewing humble post-match, clearly enjoyed showing everyone his best side in a memorable win. Now, much like Bissouma earlier, he needs this to become his standard. If he manages that and can showcase his best consistently, he may time it perfectly for the next World Cup.
