Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham Hotspur side have demonstrated they are now capable of sustaining an English Premier League title challenge after falling just short last season.
Spurs faded in the final weeks of last season, finishing third on the final day of the campaign after pushing eventual champions Leicester City close for much of the second half of the season, but Pochettino is convinced his players have learned from that experience and after moving up to second place following a 4-0 defeat of West Bromwich Albion — their sixth successive league win — believes they can close the seven-point gap to leaders Chelsea.
“We need to move on and try to fight, but now we have more belief,” Pochettino said. “We are much better than last season. We are showing that we have learned a lot from last season, we are more mature. Today, we did not concede a goal.”
Photo: Reuters
Pochettino’s side ended Chelsea’s run of 13 successive league wins when they beat Antonio Conte’s side in their previous league outing and after a Harry Kane hat-trick and Gareth McAuley own-goal saw off West Brom, the Spurs manager is satisfied his team built on that win.
“The first 45 minutes was fantastic, it was wonderful football,” he said. “We can feel very happy with the performance, the players played very well against a very difficult team. I think after Chelsea it was a big challenge to keep the momentum and show that we are mature enough to fight for big things, and today was a very good example of that. I think the performance was brilliant. In all the games we always change small things to try to improve. Now we are looking at Manchester City and that is the most important game.”
The victory came at the cost of an injury to centerback Jan Vertonghen, who left the pitch in tears in the second half after suffering an ankle injury.
“The injury looks very bad,” Pochettino said. “We feel very disappointed, it is a situation you never like to happen. It looks very bad, but we need to wait a little bit... His ankle is badly swollen. You can see in the game that Ben Davies can play. I think we have plenty of players, we do not need another defender.”
Pochettino said Kane’s treble was the perfect end to a week in which the striker became a father for the first time.
“I’m very delighted for him,” he said. “It was very nice, a very good week for him. He is a dad and has scored three goals today. I think it was a good way to finish the week for him. I don’t believe that he will change. It is true that he has not yet realized that his life has completely changed, it is a different life. He won’t change because he is very mature, and his wife is amazing and understands what he needs.”
West Brom manager Tony Pulis said his side, who went into the game in eighth, were well beaten.
“The top six in the Premier League this year, it could be the biggest gap ever to seventh, that’s how far ahead of the rest of us they are,” Pulis said.
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