It is looking increasingly likely with every passing week that the Europa League may be Tottenham’s best route back into the Champions League next season.
After three defeats in a row against Liverpool, Brighton and Chelsea, Spurs now find themselves down in eighth in the Premier League.
The Lilywhites are also seven points away from Liverpool in fourth and face plenty of competition for that spot from the likes of West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Chelsea and more.
However, Tottenham remain in all four competitions that they started the season in, qualifying for the knockouts of the Europa League and final of the Carabao Cup.
Spurs were made to play their way through three qualifying matches and six group stage games to get to the Europa League knockouts, and Mourinho certainly put a lot of emphasis on the competition in his recent press conference.
He even hinted that the squad ‘needs’ the Europa League to get back on track this season.
Mourinho said (Football London): “The most important thing now is West Bromwich.
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“I don’t even want to think about Everton or about City.
“I think after City, we go to Austria, again on Europa League, which is a big competition for us, we have good expectations in that competition, but I don’t even want to think about that.
“I want to think about West Bromwich. That’s a big game. Sometimes big games are just against the top six, or the London derbies.
“Other times, big games can be games like this. Is a big game for West Bromwich, because they need a victory, they need points, they need to survive. They need to get out of where they are.
“It’s a big game for us, because we need to leave the position where we are, which is not a dramatic position like theirs is, but is a very bad position for us, we have to leave it, we need to win, we need to break the dynamic of three defeats like you saw.
“So it’s a very important match for us, but the reality is that, until the end of the month, we have great motivations in front of us.
“Europa League is something that, since the beginning, we put a lot on. I cannot forget that we had to play how many games to qualify for the group phase, and games with two days in between, travelling around Europe to do it.
“So we want, the team wants, the team is waiting for that, and maybe the squad needs that, but let’s focus on West Bromwich because it’s the next match and as you say, after three defeats, we have to win against West Browmich, we cannot even think a different thing.”
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