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James Maddison has urged Tottenham to keep acting like a \u201ctop team\u201d after they headed into the international break still unbeaten in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Spurs have faced Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal during their first eight league fixtures under new boss Ange Postecoglou and collected 20 points out of a possible 24.<\/p>\n
It represents Tottenham\u2019s best start to a league season since their 1960-61 double-winning campaign, but they were forced to produce a different type of display on Saturday in a hard-fought 1-0 win at Luton, where they played the whole of the second half with 10 men.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get the same three points here as you do beating Liverpool and United at home,\u201d Maddison said. \u201cIt\u2019s just as important. I absolutely loved the character of the lads.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have 38 games in a season and not every game is going pretty, scoring goals, free-flowing, \u2018AngeBall\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you have to dig deep and show the grit and determination. People are always asking top teams, do they have that side to them? The top teams all do and we want to be a top team. I\u2019m so happy we showed that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ex-Celtic boss Postecoglou has only worked with this group of players since July, but they have quickly taken to his front-foot, attacking philosophy.<\/p>\n
Spurs have scored 18 goals in the Premier League with summer recruit Maddison involved in seven and topping the assist charts with five so far after he set up Micky van de Ven\u2019s winner on Saturday, but he insists they remain a work in progress.<\/p>\n
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He added: \u201cWe\u2019re so early into the manager\u2019s reign. We\u2019re at the start. Even in training, sometimes the messages he\u2019s giving us, it\u2019s still new, we\u2019re still working on it. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re three years in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve worked with a manager for a long time, like when I was at Leicester with Brendan (Rodgers), I had been there that long I knew what he wanted from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d realise who we were playing at the weekend and have an idea of what my role would be at the weekend before we\u2019d even trained or worked on it. You get that partnership and relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so early, we\u2019re still at the start of that. It\u2019s not about getting carried away.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it\u2019s better to be up that end than the other end. Believe me, I\u2019ve done both! I just want to continue that, continue working and that will leave it us where it leaves us.\u201d<\/p>\n
You have 38 games in a season and not every game is going pretty, scoring goals, free-flowing, \u2018AngeBall\u2019.<\/p>\n
Tottenham went top of the table on Saturday but Maddison played down talk of a title tilt yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve played Arsenal, we\u2019ve played Liverpool, we\u2019ve played United. Coming here, it\u2019s just a different type of challenge but it\u2019s still tough,\u201d the England international said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you\u2019re playing Luton, it doesn\u2019t mean there is more time or more space. It\u2019s just a different challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably didn\u2019t expect us to be top of the league, unbeaten, no.<\/p>\n
\u201cRealistically you would never even guess that far ahead. You just want to start well and we\u2019re looking to continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n