Tottenham smashed Aston Villa 4-1 at home on Sunday
James Maddison reached 50 Premier League goals on Sunday with a sensational free-kick in Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 win over Aston Villa.
Having come on as a second-half substitute, the playmaker curled in a free-kick past the hapless Emi Martinez in stoppage time to seal a memorable deal for Spurs, making him the 137th player to reach a half-century of goals in the Premier League.
Ange Postecoglou had decided to axe James Maddison from his starting XI against Villa, with the creative midfielder having to be content with a place on the bench. Son Heung-min returned to the team after recovering from injury, with Postecoglou opting for a trio of Pape Matar Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski as his midfield options for the game.
And the Greek-Australian coach’s team selection was justified as Tottenham were rampant in the second half, thanks to goals from Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison. Following the win, the north London outfit moved to seventh in the league standings.
However, it was not all rosy in the first half as Spurs trailed through Morgan Rogers’ 32nd-minute goal. Big Ange’s pep talk at the break saw a different Tottenham side emerge from the tunnel, with Maddison revealing our gaffer remained composed when addressing the team.
“We turned the screw and they couldn’t live with our intensity,” Maddison told Standard Sport.
“But that’s why the manager at half-time stayed so calm, because he knows that we have got a chance to blow teams away in quick periods.
“You know, even at 1-0, he’s just like, ‘get your head up’. We know we can go and score four goals in a half against any team because that is what we do with our intensity. Thankfully that’s exactly what we did. And we blew them away.”
Tottenham have scored four at home for the second time in five league games this season. They have also scored three goals thrice in the league this season, beating Brentford 3-1 (home) and Manchester United 3-0 (away) but capitulating 3-2 at Brighton and Hove Albion after being 2-0 up at half-time.
This tells Big Ange’s side are facing no problem in scoring goals. He has enough creative and attacking players at his disposal to blow teams away, even if the team is trailing 1-0 at half time. Knowing there are quality players at the top end of the pitch gives our gaffer confidence and allows him to motivate them rather than going berserk at half-time team talk.
-> Tight wage structure hindered Tottenham from signing England international who Postecoglou wanted
It is at the other end of the pitch where Spurs’ actual concern lies, with defending from set pieces an area where vast improvements are required. If Big Ange and his coaching team can tighten up the screws at the back and improve the structure when defending set-pieces, Spurs would be a different animal to come up against.
