Andre Villas-Boas sends the clearest possible message to his critics

Coming into the match at Old Trafford Tottenham Hotspur were unbeaten in six in all competitions, having won three of the past four. Or, if you were to look at it the way much of the press did, they were struggling, having only won two leagues games so far.

There were further questions on Thursday about his handling of Hugo Lloris when the Frenchman didn’t start in the League Cup match away at Carlisle. Finally, on Saturday morning, the Sun ran a damning article claiming that the Spurs players were unhappy with their manager.

In the last week Villas-Boas has responded to his critics both on and off the pitch. Winning three games, two in the Premier League. The 2-1 turnaround victory over QPR was the first time Spurs had come from behind to win a game in the league for two years.

The record broken on Saturday was far more longstanding. AVB also delivered a calm and authoritative press conference that responded to the Lloris questions. The weekend’s performance at Old Trafford capped off what surely has to be his finest week in English football, and afterwards there was more positivity to come.

Few who witnessed the manner in which the Spurs players celebrated the win with their manager could question their relationship with him, but if there were still questions to answer, the players themselves took to twitter to answer them. Both Brad Friedel and Kyle Walker denied there was any truth in the allegations that the player were unhappy with Villas-Boas, with the England right back giving the clearest verdict on their evening:

@kyle28walker: Just landed back in London still buzzing from the win thought the gaffers tactics were stop on and all that in the paper is false #COYS

After Saturday evening the stories have to be about the momentum and excitement building around AVB’s side. He hasn’t shied away fro a challenge in coming back to the Premiership, he has been bold too in his time at Spurs.

His team are starting to gel together in the system he is implementing, and they have just pulled off the result that no other recent manager has been able too at Spurs. With this result the Portuguese has surely guaranteed himself some respite from the over the top criticism he has received.

He is not there to only to provide immediate results like this win, Villas-Boas is the man appointed to oversee a transition at Spurs, on and off the field, that will hopefully lead them to be able to compete at the highest level. That said, immediate results like 3-2 at Old Trafford will help an awful lot.

image: © wonker