Ange Postecoglou's brilliant Daniel Levy message after stunning 4-0 win over Manchester City- he deserves it

Ange Postecoglou showed everyone, including Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, that he is as good as any manager out there with a brilliant setup that condemned Manchester City to another league defeat. Coming into the game, Tottenham had lost their first-choice defensive pairing.

Cristian Romero was told to take all the time he needed to recover after pulling out of the game between Argentina and Peru, while his partner, Mickey van de Ven, is battling a hamstring issue that has kept him out of action for around a month. In their absence, Ben Davies stepped in, using his experience, and helped Radu Drăgușin, who was excellent alongside him.

The absence of midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur dominated discussions ahead of the game, but a key trait of a good manager is the ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Postecoglou, the Australian manager, sent his chairman a message in the best possible way, by letting his team’s performance do the talking.

If Levy was entertaining any doubts about Postecoglou’s future, after some pressure following a surprise home defeat to Ipswich, this win at the Etihad more than makes up for it.

This kind of message and response will surely delight Levy, who backed Postecoglou in the summer with the signings of Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray, and Wilson Odobert. The win was even more impressive given that the Lilywhites had five teenagers on the bench and have been frustratingly inconsistent so far.

Speaking after the game, the Spurs boss expressed his delight with how his players performed and followed his instructions. He said:

“It’s significant when you understand the context of who we were playing. I’m proud of the lads, the football we played, the resilience, and the discipline we showed.

“When you play City, they test every aspect of your game, and we handled that well. It was an important game for us, especially after the defeat to Ipswich. It’s easy to splinter when you’re under pressure, but I never got the sense that would happen this week.

"The disappointing thing over the last few games is that we’ve fallen well short of the kind of team we want to be. But I have no doubt we are on the right track."

The win takes Tottenham to sixth in the league, three points behind fifth-placed Brighton, while City just hang on to second place.