Pochettino: Spurs ready for title challenge
Challengers believe they can close the gap with Chelsea
Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham Hotspur side have demonstrated they are now capable of sustaining a Premier League title challenge after falling just short last season.
Spurs faded in the final weeks last season, finishing third on the final day of the campaign after pushing eventual champions Leicester close for much of the second half of the season.
But Pochettino is convinced his players have learnt from that experience and after moving up to second place following a one-sided 4-0 defeat of West Bromwich Albion — their sixth successive league win — believes they can close the seven point gap on leaders Chelsea.
“We need to move on and try to fight but now we have more belief,” said Pochettino.
“We are much better than last season. We are showing that we have learnt a lot from last season, we are more mature. Today we did not concede a goal.”
Pochettino’s side ended Chelsea’s run of 13 successive league wins when they beat Antonio Conte’s side in their last league outing.
And after a Harry Kane hattrick and Gareth McAuley owngoal 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,” said Pochettino. “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.”
Victory came at the cost of an injury to centre-back Jan Vertonghen who left the field in tears in the second half after suffering an ankle injury.
The Belgian is still waiting to learn the full extent of the injury. Pochettino admits it could be serious — but he believes he has enough cover within his squad to avoid the need to dip into the January transfer market.