'Best win yet': How Ange doubled down in 'monumental gamble ...

Backed into a corner, Ange Postecoglou has once again punched his way out.

After disappointing losses to Newcastle and arch rival Arsenal, the pressure was mounting on the Australian. But, in typical Postecoglou fashion, he has doubled down on his attacking style — affectionately dubbed ‘Angeball’ — which has yielded back-to-back Premier League wins amid four consecutive victories in all competitions.

Spurs now sit eighth on the Premier League table with ten points from six games after they humiliated Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The post-match coverage focused on growing calls for United manager Erik Ten Hag to be axed, but among the hysteria was high praise for Postecoglou’s aggressive tactics which delivered a win against a ‘big-six’ rival for the first time in a year.

So effective they were that the Red Devils would be somewhat thankful the damage was not worse.

Spurs were wasteful in front of goal at times – missing two one-on-ones with United goalkeeper Andre Onana - in the absence of injured star Son Heung-min.

Their inability to pile on more pain was reflected by the expected score statistic stating that Tottenham was expected to score 5.33 goals based on the chances they created.

Nevertheless, Postecoglou would have few complaints as the pressure on him starts to ease.

Spurs lead the Premier League for shots on targets, touches in the opposition’s box and expected goals as well as having the second most shots and the third most goals to affirm themselves as arguably the best team to watch in the competition.

One of the signature ‘Angeball’ ploys in Sunday’s statement victory was centre back Micky van de Ven strolling around the field gathering touches all over the pitch and providing an assist like a midfielder in a player of the match performance.

To The Telegraph’s chief football correspondent Jason Burt, it came as no surprise that Postecoglou’s side roamed more freely and pressed harder than they had earlier in the season.

“It is typical of Ange Postecoglou’s boldness that his response to questions being asked about how he has set Tottenham Hotspur up is to even more attacking,” Burt said.

“Maybe it would have been expected that under such pressure a coach would choose to be conservative and bring in another defensive-minded player such as Pape Sarr or Yves Bissouma. Not Postecoglou.”

On commentary for Sky Sports, Manchester United legend Gary Neville took time out from blasting his former side – he labelled them as playing “pub football” — to heap praise on Postecoglou and his players.

“Tottenham have been really good and have got the scoreline their performance deserved,” Neville said.

“A really good day for Ange Postecoglou, who has had a few questions asked of him in recent weeks.

“I love watching them. I have loved Ange Postecoglou since he came to England. He has had a rough patch, it has not been as good as he would have liked, but he is a massive asset to the Premier League.

“The style of football, his personality – he hasn’t had the backing of some of the other top clubs in Europe. He has been backed, but not to the level of others. But they are always a good watch. They won this game today. They dominated and absolutely deserved it.”

The love for Postecoglou continued from Neville’s Sky Sports colleague Chris Sutton.

The pundit, who also works for BBC Sport, posted on X his admiration for Postecoglou while spelling a warning for his counterpart.

“No finer sight in the Premier League than Angeball played at its best,” Sutton said.

“The pile-on earlier on this season was so over the top...”

For all the critique of Ten Hag and United,The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew insisted that the Red Devils’ insipid performance was just as much of Tottenham’s doing as it was their own.

United certainly did not help themselves as they played more than a half with ten men courtesy of captain Bruno Fernandes’ controversial red card, but Tottenham had 61% possession, took 24 shots – ten of which were on target – and passed the ball with an impressive accuracy of 88%.

“For Ange Postecoglou, this may well have been the most impressive win of his Spurs tenure,” Liew said.

“Not simply because of the magnitude of the opponent, the weight of history, the late withdrawal of Son Heung-min, but because this was a game they willed and bent into their own weird shape.

“United did not simply turn up dazed and disintegrated; in large part they were rendered that way by a dazzling first-half performance that forced them to doubt everything.

“Take the starting line-up, which on the face of things felt like a system inspired by the Garth Crooks ‘team of the week’ on the BBC website: heavy in forwards and almost entirely devoid of midfield cover, with Rodrigo Bentancur the sole shield behind James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, and then a front three ahead of them.

“It felt either like a monumental gamble or a monumental ruse, and in a way, it turned out to be both.”

Tottenham have an away trip to Brighton at 2:30am AEST on Monday 7 October as their next Premier League assignment, but before then they travel to Budapest, Hungary for a Europa League date with Ferencváros at 2.45am AEST on Friday.