Tottenham Hotspur have completed a second successive clean sweep of the Premier League Player and Manager of the Month awards, with Son Heung-min and Ange Postecoglou taking home the accolades for September.
The Lilywhites entered the October international break sitting pretty at the summit of the table with 20 points from their opening eight games, going unbeaten with six wins and two draws to their name.
Postecoglou had already won the August Manager of the Month prize on account of his tremendous start to life in North London, and the Australian has now been named the Premier League’s best coach for September.
The Celtic treble winner guided Tottenham to three wins from four last month, starting with a 5-2 demolition of Burnley before a spectacular late comeback in a 2-1 win over Sheffield United.
The Lilywhites’ winning streak came to an end in a 2-2 North London derby draw with Arsenal, in which they came from behind twice to snatch a point, before ending Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the campaign with a controversial 2-1 win.
Spurs had to rely on a late Joel Matip own goal to beat the nine-man Reds, who also had a Luis Diaz strike incorrectly ruled out for offside, but that result saw Tottenham score at least twice in each of their first seven league games under Postecoglou.
That sequence came to an end with last weekend’s 1-0 triumph over Luton Town, but Postecoglou’s feats have nevertheless been recognised with back-to-back Manager of the Month awards, earning him a place in the competition’s history books.
The 58-year-old is already the first Australian to win the Premier League Manager of the Month, and he is now the only coach to have taken home the award in both of his first two months in charge.
The most recent manager to win the prize two times on the bounce is Postecoglou’s North London adversary Mikel Arteta, who collected the accolade in November/December and January last term.
Furthermore, Postecoglou’s award marks the first time in Premier League history that Tottenham have had a manager win the honour two months in a row, and the Australian beat Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery, Eddie Howe and Jurgen Klopp to the trophy.
One hour before Postecoglou’s name was written into history, his captain Son was honoured with the Player of the Month prize, joining James Maddison in taking home the individual trophy this season.
The South Korea international came up with six goals in just four games across the course of the month, starting with a hat-trick in the thrashing of Burnley before netting a brace against Arsenal.
Son then continued his hot streak with the opening goal against Liverpool on September 30, and the 30-year-old has pipped Mohamed Salah, Pedro Neto, Ollie Watkins, Kieran Trippier, Julian Alvarez and Jarrod Bowen to the prize.
Son now has four Premier League Player of the Month awards to boast, having also been named the division’s star performer in September 2016, April 2017 and October 2020.
Maddison and Son’s recognitions have also seen Tottenham take home successive Player of the Month prizes for the first time since 2017, where Harry Kane and Dele Alli won January’s and February’s awards respectively.
