Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino plays down title talk
Saturday 6 February 2016 21:46, UK
Mauricio Pochettino would not be drawn on whether Tottenham could win the title this season, after they moved up to second in the Premier League table with a 1-0 home win over Watford.
Saturday's result, coupled with Leicester's 3-1 win at Manchester City, saw Spurs move above Manuel Pellegrini's side and stay within five points of the league leaders.
The Spurs boss though refused to say whether he believed his team could end the campaign as champions.
"I think we need to keep working and stay in the same way that we started the season," said Pochettino.
"Keep going, always believe that we will do better and in every single training [session], try to improve. Then, at the end of the season, we will see what happens.
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"Today, the reality is that we are second but the end is the real test for us."
As for the victory over Watford, the former Southampton manager was thrilled with a 'fantastic' performance from his side.
"I think it's great. We're feeling fantastic but I think the feeling is better because the performance was fantastic," he added.
"I'm pleased for the players and I feel proud because the effort was brilliant and I can only congratulate our players.
"It's a very important thing also to recognise the atmosphere in the stadium because our supporters were brilliant.
"I want to say 'thank you' because today in a difficult moment of the game [at 0-0] when we'd played well, we created a lot of chances and the team needed to feel the patience to score a goal and I think that the help from our supporters was brilliant. Thank you to them."
Indeed, Pochettino believes that patience was crucial to getting a positive result against a resolute Watford side.
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"I think the key was patience, to try and build and play in the way that was our plan," he said.
"It was only 1-0 and in football it is more exciting when you score more goals but today it was 1-0 and we enjoyed it a lot. We created a lot of chances, it was a perfect game."
