Because Pochettiono is one of his disciples.
Marcelo Bielsa, an innovative Argentinian coach who came from a family of radical lawyers, was a deep thinker on the game, a professor of the pressing game.
He would have enjoyed seeing Spurs scrap their way to 0-0 at half-time, then win the battle, then explode upfield and score three in six minutes.
Having thought that Spurs might blow United away, I watched an intense tactical contest unfold.
For the first 20 minutes Spurs hardly got a kick, found themselves stifled, and commentator Martin Tyler was reminding us that in three games against LVG’s United, Spurs had failed to score.
Here Dele Alli was pressing hard but Blind but Eriksen and Lamela weren’t in the game and Danny Rose was their best forward.
United’s style of football is strange, I thought, because it’s both slow and busy.
In 51, Dier had a shot and De Gea made a good grab. When Harry Kane turned and fired another shot, De Gea held it.
Spurs normally like to win some second balls and force the ball through towards the box but they weren’t able to do that at this stage.
Right back Fosu-Mensah was having an excellent game, showing tremendous recovery pace.
Jesse Lingard had a half-chance but poked it wide.
After 59, Martin was saying,”I would’t be surprised if this finishes 1-0.”
In 62, Martial slalomed past three defenders but banged his shot straight at Hugo Lloris.
Then Fosu-Mensah got injured. He seemed to put himself in a position to stop Dele Alli kicking the ball but Alli kicked the ball and him. The young Dutchman went off, came back on, and then Darmian replaced him.
In 70, Spurs at last cranked up to turbo from a midfield scuffle.
Lamela, on the deck, poked the ball to Harry Kane, he hit it first time out to Eriksen, and the space-aware Dane hit an early cross behind the defence that found Dele Alli running unmarked into the box.
I knew Alli wouldn’t miss and it was 1-0.
That move had the urgency, the dynamic directness that Pochettino demands from his players.
This is how they train, this is how they think, this is what they’re trying to do as often as possible.
From the left, Lamela hit a floating free-kick and Alderweireld made it 2-0 with a world class header just inside the far post.
In 76, Danny Rose cut back a low cross with a lot of pace on it and Lamela, having run away from Danny Blind as they came in from the right flank, finished with a nice left-foot shot for 3-0.
This was an explosive demolition job, three hammer blows in six minutes.
A hard-won victory and two of the goals came from right flank soon after the powerful Fusu-Mensah had gone off.
But a goal was coming because Spurs played much better in the second half.
After Lamela’s third they could have scored three more goals. Kane had a header tipped over by De Gea, who then saved from Vertonghen.
In an open game Spurs are devastating because they’re so incisive, so willing to put the ball up for grabs, so keen to play a momentum game, to take risks, to give the ball away while trying to score.
But it wasn’t an open game until Dele Alli scored. The first 69 minutes was a tight, ferocious battle
Dele Alli scored his 8th Premier League goal in his last game as a teenager.
He’s 20 today.
This Tottenham victory cuts Leicester’s lead to seven points.
The Foxes had won 2-0 at Sunderland with Jamie Vardy scoring in 66 and 90+5.
I respect this Spurs team because they’re so highly-motivated, well organised and consistent.
They’re fun to watch and I wish I’d been there yesterday.
By contrast, Arsenal are intermittently motivated, disorganised and inconsistent.
While Spurs are dynamic and pass to sprinters, Arsenal’s ensemble swarms forward, often making 14 passes to joggers and walkers.
Spurs are facing many challenges in the near future, and Mauricio Pochettino admits that a 7-point gap is difficult to reduce.
The manager, who is 44, has three years left on his contract and has been offered an improved deal. Although Pochettino has won nothing yet, Tottenham are one of the teams of the season.
Their recruitment has improved and they’re not a one-man club. They can never have the problems Arsenal face because they’re not run by a 65-year old dictator.
GOOD LUCK TO SPURS. I’m glad they’re doing well at last.
Full disclosure: I spent a lot of happy days and nights on The Shelf as a fan, and had 20 years of fun in the press box when the team was managed by Keith Burkinshaw, Peter Shreeves, Terry Venables, David Pleat , Gerry Francis, George Graham and Glenn Hoddle.
If I had time, I’d write a book about Spurs and tell the world what it was like to see the ghastly Allan Sugar in action at an AGM.