Djed Spence shines in big Tottenham win full of positives for Ange Postecoglou | OneFootball

Ipswich wins suggests Spurs have turned a corner - and there could be plenty more to come

Your matchday briefing on Tottenham, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dan Kilpatrick

Sign up

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Tottenham’s revival in the Premier League continued with a 4-1 win over struggling Ipswich at Portman Road.

Within six minutes, Ipswich's Liam Delap had forced a save from Guglielmo Vicario, poked a shot just wide and struck the woodwork with a header.

But Spurs stabilised and Brennan Johnson twice finished Heung-min Son crosses from close range to put the visitors 2-0 up inside 26 minutes.

The Tractor Boys deservedly pulled one back through Omari Hutchinson’s first-time strike before the interval and pushed for a leveller earlier in the second half, with Luke Woolfenden's header ruled out for offside.

Djed Spence’s deflected strike restored Spurs’ two-goal lead and Dejan Kulusevski added a fourth with a fine breakaway goal.

Here are three Spurs talking points from the match…

Spurs produce big win to suggest they have turned a corner

Before their crippling injury crisis took hold, when Spurs won in the Premier League, they always won well.

Postecoglou’s side put four goals past Everton, West Ham, Aston Villa and Manchester City, and three past Brentford and Man United in the first few months of the season.

After two scrappy, hard-fought victories - again over the Bees and United - Spurs rediscovered their early-season habit of blowing away opponents with a comfortable win over the Tractor Boys, suggesting they have turned a corner after a bleak mid-winter.

AFP via Getty Images

This match was not always as comfortable as the scoreline suggested and there were a nervy few seconds for Postecoglou and his players after Woolfenden's header home to make it 2-2, before the VAR rightly intervened to rightly rule out the equaliser for offside.

But there was always a sense that Spurs just had too much quality for Ipswich, which would eventually tell in the decisive moments.

If you focus on the Premier League alone, Spurs are now building some encouraging momentum.

This was their first hat-trick of wins since December 2023, justifying Postecoglou’s insistence that their dismal form would end once their injury list had eased.

There is no longer any talk of relegation and Spurs can actually start looking up the table, perhaps even tentatively eyeing a late surge into the European places. "We're all going on a European tour," sang the away end at 4-1.

Next up, however, is a visit from Manchester City on Wednesday, a game which will be a better barometer of Spurs’ progress than this one.

Having consistently beaten Pep Guardiola’s best City teams over the past few years, Spurs will expect to beat one of the Catalan’s worst but, for all their problems, the champions still have plenty of individual quality.

That game might tell us more about Spurs’ true prospects for the rest of the season than the scrappy wins over Brentford and United or even this thrashing of Ipswich.

Son looks refreshed

Spurs’ two first-half goals were both finished by Johnson, who again demonstrated his knack for popping up at the far post, but they were made by brilliant passes by Archie Gray and Rodrigo Bentancur, as well as deadly wing-play from Son.

For the opener, the Spurs captain collected Gray’s raking ball and skinned Ben Godfrey with a step-over and dart to the touchline before Johnson poked his cutback over the line – a typical Postecoglou goal.

Eight minutes later, Son stepped inside Godfrey and unselfishly squared for Johnson, who had been left in far too much space by the dozing Ipswich defence.

Son might have made it 3-0 from a similar position but Alex Palmer made a sharp save with his foot.

Son has struggled to hit his best form this season but Postecoglou has consistently rubbished talk of the 32-year-old’s decline, and predicted he would be back to his old self once the schedule began to clear and Spurs’ returned to being a functioning team, largely free of injuries.

After two clear mid-weeks, Son’s performance here backed-up Postecoglou’s confidence, and suggested the Korean remains an elite player at this level.

Spence growing in importance

Before the game, Postecoglou urged Spence not to “settle” for his fine form and “push on” to become an even more influential player for Spurs and in the Premier League.

And the full-back responded with his first goal in the top-flight, further underlining his growing importance to Postecoglou’s project.

Spence’s strike was made by James Maddison’s great feet and took a huge deflection off of Woolfenden, wrong-footing Palmer, but was no less than the full-back deserves for his outstanding recent form.

Spence again displayed his versatility, starting the game on his preferred side, but scoring after switching back to left-back when Pedro Porro was introduced for Destiny Udogie.

He was committed and composed at both ends of the pitch again, and does not appear to have any obvious weaknesses in his game - which is rare for a full-back who likes to attack.

With Thomas Tuchel set to name his first England squad early next month, Spence is surely in the German’s thinking.