FIGHTING BACK!
Eriksen says Spurs will use pain of derby defeat to fire them up against Dortmund
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN is out for “revenge” – but insists Tottenham have already made a big statement of intent in the Champions League.
E r iksen endured a remarkable week of highs and lows after scoring the hat-trick in Dublin (right) which sent Denmark to the World Cup before suffering defeat in the north London derby. Going down at Arsenal once again raised questions about Spurs’ big- game mentality, whether they can win a trophy under Mauricio Pochettino and compete in Europe. They face Borussia Dortmund tonight knowing a win would see them top Group H ahead of Real Madrid – and Eriksen maintains that will underline their quality, despite the flop against the Gunners. Midfielder Eriksen said: “It’s probably good that we have a game so quickly afterwards and you can have a bit of revenge, show the world that you are a bit better than what you saw last Saturday. “It’s like people say about statements. People looked at the group beforehand with Real Madrid, Dortmund and said we will have a tough time and end up in the Europa League. “But we’ve shown it’s not going to be like that, we’ve shown we are better than that. And that we can compete in the Champions League with some great wins and good points.
“Of course it’ll be tough in Dortmund. Feeling unbeaten but not being naive, we have to focus on our game, hopefully get the points and be No.1 or No. 2 in this group.
“With the teams we’re up against, it would then be really incredible.”
The damning accusation hurled at Spurs is that they are unable to win big games, and have not managed an away win at one of their top-six rivals since victory at Manchester City in February 2016.
Boss Pochettino’s men have been challengers in the past two seasons – going close in the title race, finishing third and second – but now the pressure is on to win silverware.
Eriksen added: “It was quite something getting your country to the World Cup and then the game on Saturday was a big difference, a big blow compared to what happened on Tuesday. There was a bit of a high and a low – and a big gap in between.
“The players spoke about it after Arsenal and at training. There’s not been any team meeting, you can’t call it a crisis after you lose one game, there’s so many games and you have to move on.
“We’ve taken confidence this season and the last couple of seasons from starting to win some of the ugly games. We’ve been a bit unlucky, I think, in the bigger games when we’ve not taken our chances.
“I don’t think it will depend on one game, just winning one big game.
“It’s more about the consistency and you get consistency through winning the ugly games as well. We don’t feel more pressure going away from home.
“We will do everything we can to get a trophy this season. But even though we’ve not won a trophy, when you consider where we’ve come from, I definitely think we’re in a positive way going forward.
“Of course we want to win something, win as much as possible. Again, if we win a trophy it will be perfect, but I think we’ve already more than proved to everyone the signal about Spurs is positive.
“Man City are on a roll, they are doing very well so it’s about every other team trying to compete, staying as close as possible and that’s our objective too. Then at the end, we’ll see where we are.”