Pochettino hails win over Saints
Mauricio Pochettino is hoping his latest victorious return to Southampton will have a similar effect on Tottenham’s season to the previous one.
Spurs came back from behind on Wednesday to win 4-1 at St Mary’s and move to within a point of Arsenal in fourth place.
Pochettino, who left Saints to take over at Spurs in May 2014, saw his side beat his former employers 2-0 in December last year.
That was the start of a sequence of results that saw Tottenham win eight of their next 10 Premier League games and lose just once, to eventual champions Leicester City. Could this victory act as a springboard for another surge up the table? Pochettino was hopeful that would prove to be the case.
“Why not?” he said. “It has been a very good year for us, we have got 71 points over it and we are still fighting for the big things.
“It was an important three points for us. All the big sides above us all won their games and it was important to get the three points to keep our position in the table and have the possibility to move on.”
Southampton took the lead after just 69 seconds through defender Virgil van Dijk but Dele Alli equalised in the 19th minute against the run of play.
Harry Kane made it 2-1 from a corner seven minutes into the second half and Saints were reduced to 10 men soon after when Nathan Redmond was sent off for impeding Alli in the box.
Kane missed the resulting penalty but late goals from substitute Son Heung-min and Alli added up to an emphatic victory. —