Ange Postecoglou press conference: Tottenham boss talks about Premier League title after win at Crystal Palace

Kieran Francis

Ange Postecoglou press conference: Tottenham boss talks about Premier League title after win at Crystal Palace  image

Ange Postecoglou is still carefully navigating any talk of a Tottenham Premier League title charge after Spurs went five points clear with a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace on Friday.

Captain Son Heung-min was once again on the scoresheet to double the North Londoners advantage after Joel Ward's own goal broke the deadlock shortly after half-time.

A late Jordan Ayew strike and pressure from Palace was unable to deny Tottenham all three points as they skipped to 26 points after 10 games - with Man City and Arsenal on 21 points with a game in hand.

MORE: Ange Postecoglou smashes Premier League record as Tottenham defeat Fulham

Postecoglou has often spoke of letting Spurs fans 'dream' after their hot start to the season, but when asked if that could continue through to when the trophies were awarded, the Australian was cautious.

"Dreams last as long as they do until someone wakes you up," Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference.

"We'll just see."

The former Celtic manager extended his record of the best start to a season by a new Premier League boss with the 26 points achieved so far.

Postecoglou was delighted with the way his team got the victory at Selhurst Park and navigated Palace's momentum in the latter stages.

"I just really liked the way we handled it tonight. It's a difficult venue, they are a very well drilled team defensively and going into it I knew it wasn't going to be an open game and we weren't going to get bags of chances," he said.

"I really liked the way the boys handled it, they were patient and consistently tried to find the gaps in the ways we spoke about and real composure once we got ahead to control the game.

"Obviously there was a bit of drama at the end then but even then I thought the lads handled it really well today. It was a different challenge for us tonight and I really liked the way we went about it."

Despite Spurs' lofty position in the Premier League standings, the Australian was keen to focus on how the team are going about getting their points - particularly on tough road trips.

"Top of the table is great and the results are great but it's more in the manner we're doing it," Postecoglou said.

"Pretty much from the first game we've had all sorts of different challenges we've had to overcome.

"Every time there has been a real focus and clear-headedness about the group collectively to deal with that.

"That has been a really pleasing thing and because they're getting rewards from that then that gives us opportunity to accelerate the growth of giving them more tools out there to help them for whatever we need to overcome.

"Like I said, I thought tonight was going to be a real difficult game for us coming here...Palace's result last week, it's a tight ground, they'd only conceded three goals in the four games so far and how were the lads going to cope with the fact we weren't going to create as many chances as we had been.

"I really liked the way we worked through that as a group."

Tottenham now have an 10-day break until their next match - a home Premier League contest against London rivals Chelsea on Monday, November 6.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.