‘PSV a test of our title credentials’
MAURICIO Pochettino has warned his Tottenham players to forget winning the Premier League title if they cannot beat PSV in Wednesday’s Champions League showdown.
The north Londoners are two points off top spot in the top flight but are fighting for their lives in Europe after two defeats.
Pochettino insisted defeat is not an option against the Dutch league leaders. He said: “If we are not capable of winning this type of game, we cannot win the title.
“We need more. I think we have been so competitive over the last four and a half years but to win a title is the last step, to push the team and the club.
“The game against Eindhoven is so important if we want to be alive in the competition.
“It’s a must-win game and we know very well we need to repeat that type of display.”
Saturday’s derby win at West Ham, Erik Lamela heading the 44th-minute winner, means Tottenham are enjoying their best start to a Premier League season after seven wins out of their first nine matches.
Pochettino now wants his side to stay competitive on both fronts.
He said: “If we want to grow, if we want to be competitive, if we want one day to be close to winning, to coping with pressure in football; when you play for a win you need to learn how to manage that pressure.
“Four and a half years ago when they offered me the Tottenham job, the idea was to build a team for the Champions League for
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the moment we arrive in the new stadium.
“This is our third Champions League in a row, one at White Hart Lane, two times at Wembley.
“We are ahead of the project. We are miles ahead.”
In defeat, West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski believes they should target the Carabao Cup as a chance for revenge against Spurs.
West Ham were shock winners against Spurs in that competition at Wembley last season and Fabianski believes they can do it again when they meet in the fourth round at the London Stadium on Wednesday week.
He said: “We still have another Premier League game before we play Spurs. But that will obviously be a good opportunity for us.
“Especially when you look at this performance and the feeling that we had in the dressing room afterwards.
“It was there for us to take, with the chances, with the performance, with the work, with the shift that we put into these games.” POCHETTINO: Aim
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THE defiance is still there. The spiky belligerence. And the stubbornness to refuse to give in to a world he loves to see as eternally hostile.
But most importantly for Manchester United and Jose Mourinho, it looks like his players feel that too. At least, that is, on United’s second-half performance at Stamford Bridge.
Maybe United should only play second halves these days – because that is where they seem to wake up and flourish.
They did against Newcastle in their last home game when they won 3-2 after trailing 2-0 and they did it again here.
As well as the defiance – exhibited all too clearly in that three-fingered gesture to the Chelsea fans taunting him from the East Stand, signalling the Premier League titles he won at Stamford Bridge – there were also signs that the old Mourinho magic cannot be written off just yet.
The sight of the manager heading down the tunnel a couple of minutes before the halftime whistle with his team a goal down, knowing there was work to be done, was the old Special One at his best again.
United had once again been the sluggish side seen far too often this season, and they deserved to go behind when Paul Pogba lost his man and Antonio Rudiger headed Chelsea in front.
But after the break, whatever was said, it was a different story. Pogba and Romelu Lukaku were suddenly energised, Juan Mata incessantly prompting, Anthony Martial bright and alive. The leveller came when Chelsea failed to clear, Ashley Young swung in a low cross and Martial swivelled to score.
Chelsea had chances, through David Luiz and N’Golo Kante, but United now had the bit between their teeth and after good build-up play from Mata and Marcus Rashford, Martial stepped inside Cesar Azpilicueta to curl a lovely shot into the far corner.
That seemed to be that until Ross Barkley’s late intervention, partly helped by United’s time-wasting. Now United have to take this VINCENT KOMPANY believes John Stones can benefit from being moved around City’s star-studded team.
Stones was deployed as a right-back against Burnley – his fourth different position of the season – and is likely to stay there for the Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk tomorrow.
Kompany started his City career as a defensive midfielder before moving into the back four and 45-minute form into tomorrow’s key Champions League clash against the returning Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus at Old Trafford – and build on it.
They face the Italians in back-to-back games over the next two weeks and Young said: “We have to look at the positives. We deserved to win against Chelsea. We have to go into the Juve game and start on the front foot.
“We are gutted. When you get yourself back into the game and you concede with a minute said: “It definitely helps and it’s more a requirement for the modern player.
“You can’t make more than three changes so you need to have players on the pitch who have flexibility – and John epitomises that.
“John’s an intelligent player with so much ability on the ball. He’s a top, top centre-half already. But he’s an even better one in the making.
“Aymeric Laporte is the same. If you have youth on your side it’s easier to see a player shift positions. I would have been able to do it when I signed here, but with age you get more locked to a natural position.
“The manager has so many tools at his disposal it’s frightening