Roberto De Zerbi outshone Ange Postecoglou in a tactical battle, writes Anujith Vijayakumar.

Here’s how Albion overcame Spurs to seal a much-needed victory.

They set themselves up in a 3-2-5/3-2-3-2 shape out of possession when pressing high.

When settled however, he stuck with a 4-3-3 with Milner stepping up to support Billy Gilmour and Pascal Gross.

In possession, De Zerbi used Gilmour as the lone midfielder to support his structure of three at the back involving Jean Paul van Hecke, Igor and skipper Lewis Dunk. Effectively using a 3-1-6 structure.

This proved to be vital as the addition of an extra man in Gross within the lines and around the box, proved to be too much for the Spurs backline to handle.

Undoubtedly the fulcrum of De Zerbi’s philosophy, Gross’ presence is of paramount importance to the Italian’s style of play.

The German midfielder’s selflessness is pivotal to the team finding rhythm and tempo.

He occupied the full back position to help with build-up, which meant Jack Hinshelwood took up space higher up on the flank to attract Destiny Udogie, leaving room for Danny Welbeck and Facundo Buonanotte.

The Italian also decided to exploit Spurs’ high line by having goalkeeper Jason Steele, distribute the ball over the top to help with Albion’s ball progression and chance creation.

Steele constantly found Joao Pedro and Danny Welbeck’s runs in behind the Spurs high line.

Emerson Royal and Ben Davies struggled to keep up with the aerial dominance and pace of Joao Pedro, Evan Ferguson, and Welbeck.

Van Hecke was given license to press high, marking Dejan Kulusevski, while Gross provides cover.

De Zerbi’s decision to instruct Van Hecke to move up to aggressively pursue Kulusevski was the key to nullifying Spurs’ creativity.

With Van Hecke on his tail, the Ukrainian was unable to disrupt the Albion defence, break the lines, and create chances.

The right sided triangle of Van Hecke, Gilmour and Gross helped evade pressure, while the outside triangle of Hinshelwood, Gross and Van Hecke helped advance the ball.

Gross also provided cover as a centre half when Van Hecke stepped up.

Spurs used a 4-1-3-2 shape when pressing in an attempt to stop Albion’s build up, but it was in vain.

Gross’ movements from infield to the outside created problems for the visitors.

It freed up space for Welbeck, Pedro and Buonanotte to receive passes and in turn helped them create overloads on the right side.

James Milner’s constant positional rotation to help support the press with an added man in midfield also proved to be a success as it negated the Spurs build-up.

Albion were able to create overloads on the right side, which enabled them to score.

De Zerbi put the game to bed once he brought on Pervis Estupinan and Carlos Baleba to impose some physicality on Spurs’ possession in the second half.

Their presence also helped with ball retention after a shaky start to the second 45.

De Zerbi will be delighted with his side’s display, despite the lapse in concentration at 4-0.