Ange Postecoglu was wearing a vast grey coat that looked too hot for him – unable to put the bleak Spurs winter behind him until he could be sure of the recovery he’s been promising.
After a little early anxiety, it came: Tottenham’s first run of three successive Premier League wins in well over a year, with specific grounds for encouragement to go with it. An emphatic contribution from Son Heung-Min to send the team on their way. Signs that Kevin Danso, the £20million January arrival from Lens, might ease the crippling crisis at the back. And Jack Maddison, arriving from the bench to sprinkle some stardust quality which took Spurs home and left Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna with a bleak demeanour.
Son’s significance was the greater. His winter struggles have mirrored his club’s and he has needed Postecoglu to come to his defence at times. With contract uncertainty coming up, he has seemed to lose his way. He was on a different cognitive plateau to Ipswich, a side who either clipped him or clung onto his shirt to prevent him spinning away. He always had time to look up and assess the options against a club whose win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in November – the very worst of Postecoglu’s winter – was consigned to distant memory.
It didn’t seem to be heading towards this outcome when Ipswich set off like a train, shaking this beautiful old place to its rafters with the kind of uninhibited football that would have had Sir Bobby Robson, the man so wonderfully commemorated around the stadium perimeter, beaming in that way he had. How Sir Bobby would have loved Liam Delap, who led that early assault, socks around his calves, bulldozing is way through the left side of Tottenham box and making life hell for Archie Gray. We were watching a future superstar.
Delap did so much – drawing the sharpest one-handed save from Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario, leaping to navigate Kalvin Phillips’ free kick onto the top of the upright – yet prize quality is no use if you defend as poorly Ipswich did.
Tottenham, whose four successive Premier League defeats to Ipswich before this game meant that their last win over them came in August 2000, were ahead in the time it took Gray to unfurl a graceful, 40-yard lofted ball out of defence for Son. He was too sharp and quick-footed for full back Ben Godfrey and squared for Brennan Johnson to breeze ahead of Leif Davis and convert.
Brennan Johnson scored twice to put Tottenham in a dominant position against Ipswich
Djed Spence got on the scoresheet in the second half to continue his fine run of form
Dejan Kulusevski added a late fourth goal to seal an emphatic victory for the visitors
Son stood up Godfrey for a Spurs second, eight minutes later. Johnson was standing unmarked in the area holding his hands up for ten seconds before the South Korean traced a pass which Brennan struck through an area crowded with the players who should have been marking him.
For all that, it was good to see some of the old Kalvin Phillips, at the hub of Ipswich’s midfield – with some deft little touches and vision before he sent Jack Clarke out down the left to cross for Omari Hutchison to score in front of the Sir Alf Ramsay Stand, bringing back a goal back for Ipswich before half time which had the place rocking again.
Ipswich maintained the fight for an equaliser in the second half and until the hour mark were still having the best of it. They had the ball in the net but four of their players were offside when the delivery came in. Spurs looked strong and solid at the back, weathering the hostile climate.
Maddison arrived just beyond the hour and within 15 minutes had set up Spurs’ fourth – jinking into the box, where three Ipswich players clustered around him were unable to place a challenge before laying it off to Djed Spence. His shot deflected in off substitute Luke Woolfenden.
The fourth came on a break-away – a beautiful arced strike from Dejan Kulusevski after he’d reached the corner of the on the box. Ipswich are still within touch of Wolves but it’s beginning to look bleak for them. Their match against that club here in early April is assuming huge significance.
