Pochettino makes bold prediction about Tottenham’s prospects this season

Following his side’s win over Tottenham on Monday night, Mauricio Pochettino said that he expects the Lilywhites to compete for the Premier League title this season.

Tottenham were the only unbeaten team in the English top flight heading into the London derby and on the evidence of the first 30 minutes, it seemed like they were going to reclaim their spot at the top of the table and send out a real statement to the other sides.

However, things unravelled quite spectacularly for Ange Postecoglou’s men in the final 15 minutes of the half as James Maddison and Micky van de Ven came off injured while Cristian Romero was sent off for a tackle on Enzo Fernandez inside the box.

To compound matters, Destiny Udogie was given his marching orders at the start of the second period, but rather than shutting shop and defending with all nine men behind the ball, the Lilywhites continued to try and hurt their opponents.

Pochettino still thinks Spurs are title challengers

In the end, a flurry of late goals on the counter-attack saw Chelsea emerge with a comfortable 4-1 win and Pochettino believes that his side’s performance was particularly impressive as they came up against a team that he expects to compete for the title.

The Blues boss told Viaplay: ”Overall I think we were better and deserved the win. The credit is massive to our players because we forced them to make a mistake, to get some injuries, and think a little bit that they were going backwards against a team for me which is going to be a contender for the title.” 

Spurs Web Opinion

If we had emerged with a comfortable win over Chelsea, perhaps some Spurs fans would have started to dream of the impossible.

However, this game has been an unmitigated disaster for us, mainly due to the suspensions and injuries. It will be quite difficult for us to cope without Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie and Maddison for a few weeks.