Premier League: Ahead of Arsenal clash, Mauricio Pochettino aims to tackle new challenge at Tottenham — keeping club among elite

In more ways than one Mohamed Salah and his early set-piece conversion killed last season’s highly-anticipated Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham. After two minutes and the penalty goal, the stifling heath seemed even more intense. Simple passes were mishit and nerves frayed. Legs tired and the all-English showpiece club final failed to ignite, bringing to a close Tottenham’s season with a 2-0 defeat.

Much of their European journey had almost been a fantasy, eliminating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Ajax Amsterdam on several nights of unfettered drama that instantly became a part of the Tottenham mythology en route to the club’s first European Cup final. Their fans had hiked and slogged their way across the Old Continent to the Spanish capital to witness the culmination of the club’s transformation under the shrewd management of chairman Daniel Levy and Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino.

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In years gone-by, the reality of Tottenham playing a European Cup final would have been risible. Before the arrival of Pochettino, Tottenham were a club steeped in tradition, leaving of past glories in the 60s. He reshaped the club, so much so that Tottenham left Madrid deflated over a prize that had been surrendered all too meekly with the selection of the invisible Harry Kane, questioned and concerned over the future direction. After a historic high, Tottenham faced the conundrum that consumes, and sometimes, asphyxiates the majority of top clubs: how does one sustain itself among the elite?

The summer of 2018 was notoriously parsimonious. Tottenham were the only major club in the top five European leagues to not spend on transfers. This summer Levy changed tack with the marquee acquisition of Tanguy Ndombélé, at €60 million, a club-record, signed just days after the Madrid defeat. Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso also joined the North London club to expand Pochettino’s squad. Tottenham have also transitioned into their state-of-the-art stadium, an NFL-like temple, with a sommelier and the longest bar in the Premier League.

The new stadium and arrival of Ndombélé should clearly signpost a prosperous future for Tottenham, but that’s not how the summer has progressed in North London. A European Cup final weighs heavily, sapping bodies, rumpling tracksuits, but, above all, it changes the fabric of a club at a micro-level: will the coach be pried away? Will players be tempted to seek a move? Ajax, Tottenham’s victims in the last four, have tied Hakim Ziyech, Quincy Promes, Dusan Tadic and Daley Blind to the club with salaries that shatter the €1 million ceiling that was imposed between 2012-17 by Theo van Duivenbode on the instructions of Johan Cruyff. The idea behind the salary cap was simple: at Ajax you don’t play for money, but you invest in yourself. Frenkie de Jong left for Barcelona and Mathijs De Ligt reinforced Juventus. In North London, Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose and Serge Aurier want to leave. Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen has been benched without much explanation, much to the consternation of the players and observers.

Pochettino’s own future has been the subject of speculation, but on the eve of the North London derby he said that his commitment to the club is ‘massive - more than what is normal,’ having declined numerous offers during his five years at Tottenham. Against Arsenal, the Argentine wants to kickstart a new epoch that will focus on maintaining his club at the top of the English game, even if the Liverpool-Manchester City duopoly is nearly invincible, and leave the personnel problems.

Last season Arsenal defeated their neighbors emphatically 4-2 on home soil with two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang, but it was also the third consecutive season that Tottenham topped Arsenal in the table, further evidence of Tottenham’s ascent. Pochettino, however, will be wary of the overall downward trends in terms of Premier League results, with the 86-point finish in 2016-17 followed by 77 in 2017-18 and 71 last time. That would suggest the Champions League final marked a natural endpoint to Tottenham’s recent progress, from which stagnation is to follow one way or another over the next team months, an assessment that Pochettino will be keen to debunk.