Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JAN RUES THE AUTUMN BLUES
JAN VERTONGHEN believes one month from hell has put the skids under Spurs’ season.
Twelve months ago, the Belgium defender insisted that it was results away from home against the club’s Premier League rivals that was the problem.
But this time out he insists that one inconsistent spell around November has cost Mauricio Pochettino and Co a genuine crack at the title.
As Spurs prepare to face Watford tomorrow, Vertonghen said: “We have improved results against our rivals – we have beaten Chelsea and dominated pretty much everyone else apart from Manchester City.
“But we always seem to have one month where we haven’t won games in a row. This time it started at the end of October. When you have a team winning every week like Manchester City it’s going to be hard to challenge.
“We have taken huge steps. It was a challenge playing with Wembley as our home and I think we have coped well. We can improve.
“We need to solve that inconsistency and get rid of that month that costs us. But with this group of players we can improve.
“We showed in the Champions League how good we can be – especially against Real Madrid – and away from home against Dortmund.
“We can compete with anyone in the world – but the case is now not to do it for one or two games – but do it for 10 months.”