‘No more excuses,’ says Lloris
Hugo Lloris, the Tottenham captain, has told his side they must stop “pretending” they are among the elite of English and European football and instead prove they deserve to be there.
It has been a source of considerable embarrassment at White Hart Lane that they remain behind Arsenal in almost all forms of statistical analysis. Tottenham have not finished above their north London rivals under Arsène Wenger, a record dating back to 1995.
Their failure to end that piece of immediate history in May when they somehow surrendered second spot to Arsenal on the final day ranks highly among the low moments of their supporters and is not helped by fans of a red persuasion repeatedly celebrating ‘St Totteringham’s Day’ every season their position above Spurs is sealed.
Now Lloris wants Tottenham to finally show they deserve to be called a “big club”, starting with today’s trip to the Emirates against a side they have only beaten once in eight attempts.
The France goalkeeper also wants his side to banish the memory of a pitiful display against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday night at Wembley, where they lost 1-0 to make it six games without a victory in all competitions.
“You cannot pretend to be a challenger, you cannot pretend to be a big club in Europe if you’re not ready to compete,” said the passionate Lloris. “We know it is just not good enough. You know you can win in football but the most important thing is to play the right way. There will be a lot of expectation. It’s always important to the players and the fans.
“I hope we’re going to bounce back and put in a great performance. If we win or lose we cannot leave the pitch with the same feeling we had on Wednesday.”
Lloris knows exactly how much local pride is at stake today, but does not want Tottenham to lose site of the bigger picture. “You cannot fight against only one club,” he said. “I can understand the importance for the fans. But we are players and just try to do our job as well as possible. It’s a rival but it’s not only Arsenal, there are a lot of great teams. We just want to put the club as high as possible. For sure we were not expecting that last season, though.”
Harry Kane returns to the squad today, and his absence has been arguably key to their poor form, with Vincent Janssen and Son Heung-min struggling to convince in the central attacking role. Kane has been missing since injuring his ankle against Sunderland on Sept 18, and Tottenham have managed two goals in five matches.
Lloris is hoping Kane can give his side the spark they have been missing, with the England striker understood to be in contention for a starting berth.
Kane is one of the few players who have enjoyed success against Arsenal, scoring four goals in his last three league matches in the north London derby. “You know Harry is important to the team, maybe he will give us a little boost,” said Lloris. “That’s what we need. I think he’s ready. But the medical staff take the decision. We will see.
“We used to score more, that is true. We’re all involved, it’s not only the offensive players, and we need to find a solution. But now we can’t have excuses.”