Title’s over, says Lloris, but now we must fight for second spot
THEIR eyes told you the full story as Tottenham left the London Stadium. Harry Kane posed for photos and smiled but the dull thud of pain is impossible for the defeated to hide. His team-mates filed out after him following the crushing loss at the hands of West Ham, but there it was again: the same dead-eye stare which sportsmen wear at their most difficult professional moments.
Elsewhere Tottenham’s manager Mauricio Pochettino was telling reporters that the title race wasn’t fully over yet. And Hugo Lloris, that most-mature of ambassadors for the club, maintained something similar.
Or, at least, he was determined that Tottenham’s surrender of the title does not disintegrate into the chaos of last season’s disastrous finish. After squandering a twogoal lead at Stamford Bridge, they lost at home to Southampton before a 5-1 defeat at relegated Newcastle on the final day to finish third, behind Arsenal.
‘This season is not over yet,’ insisted Lloris. ‘We’ve got to secure the second place, that is the most important thing.
‘My feeling hasn’t changed after this game. It’s the same as before this game: we must stay focused on ourselves and try to finish the job in the best way. There are three games left and we must try to win all of them and finish second. This would be a success for Tottenham, even though we wanted more.’
Factually he was correct when he added that Chelsea are not yet champions. ‘It is not tonight because they must finish the job on the pitch obviously,’ he said.
But neither Pochettino nor Lloris are deluding themselves. They know, as everyone does, that it’s over for another season. It took an extraordinary nine straight wins in the Premier League — a club record — just to make a fight of it and hang onto Chelsea’s coat-tails. Eventually, that took its toll.
‘It demands so much force to try to catch Chelsea,’ said Lloris. ‘It’s been a while now that they’ve been first and at one moment they were 10, 11, 12, 13 points over us. So we tried to push as much as possible.
‘We must not forget everything we’ve done before tonight, especially in the way we’ve played football. Against West Ham we slipped collectively. We were not able to increase the level and it was not enough. Our collective performance was not enough to expect a better result.’
Tottenham ran out of steam. The physical and mental demands proved too much.
But for most there is discernible improvement, even from last season.
Sky Sports presenter Rachel Riley caricatured Friday night’s performance as a ‘proper bottle job’ and was perhaps cheered by partisans who revel in a rival’s failure. But more sanguine Arsenal and Chelsea fans can see the threat Tottenham pose and the strides which are being made.
For one, Spurs are seven points better off than the end of last season, with three games to play. They are likely to get past the 81point total which secured the title for Leicester last year and for Chelsea in 2015.
Next season, Wembley Stadium will be a fresh challenge. The bigger pitch dimensions there, as at the London Stadium, have made it harder for Tottenham to press space, which is key to their game and the club is considering reducing the size of the playing surface next season, as is their right. But in any event, however difficult next season proves, a new stadium is coming, the biggest in London with a capacity of 61,559. If safe standing were ever approved in England, that would jump to over 70,000 immediately. If they can keep their manager and the bulk of this young squad, everyone can see Tottenham are moving in the right direction.
And if Tottenham are being criticised for faltering (after nine consecutive wins!) where does that leave the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United with their £180million and £160m summer spends? And what about Arsenal, who spent £90m to go backwards?
Tottenham have the sixth biggest wage bill in the Premier League and in 2015-16 it was less than half of the Manchester United and Chelsea and only a little more than half of what Manchester City and Arsenal spend.
‘There are bigger clubs financially than Tottenham,’ said Lloris. ‘I say that with a lot of humility. I have a lot of respect for Tottenham. It is a big club and what we have done over the last three seasons is a massive improvement. To be here ready to fight and compete against the best is a great feeling. But we need to carry on. Obviously the new stadium will make us bigger. Step by step we will try to bridge the gap. We have done a lot in the last couple of years and we have to carry on.
‘The good question is to ask as a player is: are we capable of doing more or not? This is the right question but before thinking about that we need to finish the season. It’s already a success to be here, fighting for the title, to be close to the leaders for a second year in a row.
‘And when you see other massive clubs are behind us that shows the improvement of the club. The league is so tight. And all the clubs have the capacity and the possibility to invest in big players.
‘Every season the league is getting harder and harder for everyone. It is very interesting for the fans and it’s good because when you are a competitor you want to play against the best. But you want to win obviously, because this is our ambition.
‘So we need to stay positive especially because we have a lot of young players, very talented, who represent the future of the England national team too. They have the mentality of winners.
‘But when in front of us there is a machine that is difficult to beat and because they haven’t played European games this season that has been something positive to them,’ he said of Chelsea.
At the end of it all, Lloris asked a rhetorical question about the elusive title. ‘How many years that Tottenham was not at this place?’ he said.
For those that need reminding, it is 56. And they were last second in 1963. They have won a grand total of two league titles in their 135-year history; that compares to 20 for Manchester United, 18 for Liverpool, 13 for Arsenal, five for Chelsea and four for Manchester City.
It may not have felt like it at the London Stadium on Friday night, but this is progress.