Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham can challenge for Premier League title
Tuesday 29 December 2015 11:51, UK
Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino says it is possible for his side to compete for the Premier League title after a 2-1 win at Watford.
Spurs struck late at Vicarage Road through substitute Heung-Min Son to record a third straight victory and move to within three points of league leaders Leicester.
Pochettino's side could begin 2016 in third place after they temporarily moved above Manchester City, who play Leicester on Tuesday, but insists his young squad must not get ahead of themselves.
"I think that the numbers reflect that it [the title] is always possible," he said. "But the most important thing for us is to keep working very hard, because we are very young.
"You need to show the strength during the whole season and, if we start to speak today about the title, it is still most important to work hard and show in every game what we showed today.
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"It was a fantastic victory because a few weeks ago Liverpool had a lot of problems here and lost 3-0. We came here and we were unlucky to concede a goal, on a difficult pitch because the grass was bad.
"It's very important to keep our feet on the ground. We have very clever and smart players that are available to learn about football. The key is to keep behaving in the same way as we did six months ago when we started the league."
Pochettino set his side up in an unfamiliar 3-4-3 formation that stifled the Hornets and gave Spurs space to counter attack, with Erik Lamela scoring the opener on the break.
On his tactics, Pochettino said: "We analysed them and the they play is mostly long ball; to put the opponent in a difficult situation.
"I think we made a good solution to give calm to the team and build from the back. Eric Dier played as a centre-back but it was not too dramatic because he normally plays as a holding midfielder.
"We should be very proud. It was a mature performance."
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