They have come of age.
It's been season after season of improvement under Pochettino, and even though it has yet to culminate in a trophy, their very comprehensive win over Real Madrid is a special hallmark in their history.
Mauricio Pochettino has been the man behind their gradual rise to being recognised as one of the best teams in England. From coming in, and changing the way the team plays, focusing on the importance of defence and organisation as opposed to the standard English way of just being open and a two-dimensional, the results are starting to bear fruit.
For so long Tottenham were the whipping boys of their North London neighbours. Maybe whipping boys is too strong a term, as the gap between Arsenal and Tottenham has never been as wide as that between Barcelona and Espanyol or Juventus and Torino.
But it's really been Arsenal who have had the better of their local rivals for several years, seeing great success through Wenger in the early part of his career where he dominated the Premier League.
Things change in life and as Arsenal had their domination, the pendulum has now swung in the direction of Tottenham. From their third placed finish seasons ago, which was extra painful as Arsenal beat them to runners-up, to then improving and being just behind Chelsea last season and having the pleasure of Arsenal finishing in sixth.
Tottenham are comfortably now one of the best teams in the Premier League. As things stand in the Premier League, even though they may have lost their last two games against Chelsea, overall they are the better performing team.
Put it this way, if Chelsea and Tottenham played tomorrow then the Blues would probably win. But I would put money on Tottenham finishing higher than them in the league this season.
But as for winning the Premier League title, that is not a realistic target. The team is still missing that explosive player who can allow them to take that final step from challengers to winners.
A cerain Welshamn could do the trick.
Four or five years ago though, you'd laugh at the very thought of Tottenham being title challengers but in 2017 you can at least put them in the conversation. That shows just how well Pochettino has done.
Their win over Real Madrid represents the highest point so far for this talented team. No victory they have achieved has been greater than what they did to the back-to-back champions on Wednesday night.
It's great they finished second in the Premier League but news flash...the league is not elite. However, facing one of the strongest teams in Europe and defeating them speaks far larger volumes.
People say Real Madrid were poor, and it had more to do with their bad performance than Tottenham playing well.
Maybe perhaps Tottenham's professional and quick offensive approach made Madrid look bad?
Let's focus on the winners rather than worry about what went wrong with the losers. Tottenham were amazing against Madrid and showed they can play and compete at the highest level.
And all that talk about them being a one-man team? Tell that to Dele and Eriksen.
Where next for Tottenham? Can the victory inspire them to give City a real title challenge? How far can they go in the Champions League? Or will their win over Madrid be their highest point before the talents start to get picked up by the bigger clubs and thus their decline begins?
Football needs new faces and new names. I'd like to see Tottenham get even better and put their name in the mix of the big boys. For all the good they and Pochettino have done, they desperately need a major trophy to crown their achievements. HH
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