Daily Mail

WE’RE SPURS, LET’S SMASH EVERYONE!

Poch’s war cry after Real rout...

- by MATT BARLOW @Matt_Barlow_DM

THIRTY-SIX hours after the glory of beating Real Madrid, Mauricio Pochettino drove to work in the Bentley presented to him by chairman Daniel Levy as a reward for changing perception­s of his club.

‘To be honest, I prefer to drive my Smart car,’ said Pochettino. ‘But when my wife takes the Smart I am left with the Bentley.’

An explanatio­n which seemed to suit the mood of the day at Spurs’ training ground, near Enfield, which was all about the manager making sure his players keep their ‘feet on the grass’ while using their Champions League heroics to tank up on self-belief.

‘The challenge is to keep the good times because it is a great club,’ said Pochettino. ‘There was a view of Tottenham in the past that we’ve been working hard to change. When we came here, our first game was against West Ham and Tottenham had lost to them three times the season before and then it was QPR at home and that was Harry Redknapp in charge.

‘So, the Premier League fixtures were announced and everyone went, “Wow, look at the start to the season”. My face was like the emoticon with the big eyes and from that moment we worked hard to change the perception.

‘Come on, we are Tottenham. We must feel we can smash everyone. I don’t care if it’s West Ham or QPR with Harry Redknapp. We won both games . . . then we started to go down!’

Pochettino insists he never heard of the term ‘Spursy’ until he was told that Spurs weren’t as ‘Spursy’ as they used to be. Then again, what could be more ‘Spursy’ than to give a lesson to the 12-times European champions and, four days later, drop points against rock-bottom Crystal Palace.

These are the inconsiste­ncies which have plagued Spurs for years, although it has become a habit for other European teams to be caught out in the afterglow of victory against Real Madrid.

The previous five teams to beat Real over 90 minutes in the Champions League — Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg, Juventus and Schalke — all dropped points in their next domestic fixture.

‘It is not only physical effort but emotional,’ said Pochettino. ‘The effort was massive. Now, I have to be clever and try to pick the best team. It is not sure we can play with the same team and have success against Crystal Palace.’

Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and centre half Toby Alderweire­ld have been ruled out with groin and hamstring injuries respective­ly. Others will be replaced after their midweek exertions. ‘We must be focused and use that result (Real) to lift us and build our confidence,’ added Pochettino, ‘ but also to understand we must still work hard to get another good result.

‘The challenge is to forget Real and start to think Palace is another final because after defeat against Manchester United it’s important to win again in the league.’

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Ready to rotate: Danny Rose (right) and Serge Aurier are set to play
GETTY IMAGES Ready to rotate: Danny Rose (right) and Serge Aurier are set to play
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