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LONDON — Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou said he doesn’t need to worry about keeping his players’ feet on the ground after they opened up a five-point gap at the top of the Premier League on Friday.
Spurs continued their unbeaten start to the Premier League season with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park to lift them onto 26 points from their first 10 games.
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When asked if he needed to make sure his players don’t get too carried away by their start, Postecoglou said: “No, I don’t sense anyone sort of floating about the place.
“There’s no reason for them to feel that way because when they come in every day they see the same thing. They see an environment where training is going to be hard, training is going to be competitive.
“It doesn’t allow [the players] to think about anything other than OK, they’ve got to be at their best every day to make sure that they keep pushing themselves, push each other to get to where we want to. To be honest, I think if you think about that stuff, you’ve probably got the wrong kind of people in your building.”
Tottenham lead both champions Manchester City and local rivals Arsenal by five points ahead of the rest of this weekend’s fixtures. It represents Tottenham’s biggest advantage over second place in the top-flight since the final day of the 1960-61 campaign (eight points), when they last won the title.
“Obviously [being] at the top of the table it’s great,” Postecoglou said. “The results are great but it’s more in the matter we’re doing it like this pretty much from the first game.
“We’ve had all sorts of different kinds of challenges we’ve had to overcome and every time there’s been a real sort of focus and clear-headedness about the group collectively to deal with that and that’s been a really pleasing thing.”
The Australian, who has now set the Premier League record for most points by a manager in their first 10 matches in charge, is not as energetic on the touchline as many of his fellow managers.
Asked why he seems so relaxed during his team’s matches the Spurs boss said: “Well, there’s nothing I can do, I certainly can’t run on there.
“I think I’ve used the analogy before, we prep them for their exam on the weekend, but we don’t know what the questions are going to be. They’ve got to work them out themselves.”
Spurs’ excellent start to the Premier League season has captured the imagination of a Spurs fan base that was feeling increasingly detached from their team last season.
“I think they [the fans] like what they see,” Postecoglou said. “They [the fans] appreciate what they see in that the players that are representing their football club … They’re [the players] working awfully hard and the supporters see the end product … Because it’s not just about our football, it’s about our attitude.”