Mauricio Pochettino believes Tottenham should be proud of their last-gasp win at Watford.
Erik Lamela opened the scoring at Vicarage Road, only for in-form Odion Ighalo to draw the Hornets level before half-time.
However, Nathan Ake’s red card made life difficult for the hosts and Son Heung-min’s goal two minutes from time secured Spurs a 2-1 win, underlining to Pochettino how far the team have developed.
“It’s true that it was a fantastic victory,” he said. “A few weeks ago Liverpool had a lot of problems here and lost 3-0.
“In the first half we were unlucky in how we conceded the goal because we managed the game on a very difficult pitch.
“The way that we play it was always difficult.
“Watford play in a different way and it wasn’t easy to play, but the maturity that we showed and the way we fight, we have to be very proud.”
Tottenham travel to Everton next and, despite a third straight, Pochettino knows they need to keep their feet on the ground.
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“(It is) very important,” he said. “This is the key in football – keep working hard.
“Behave in the same way that we started in the league six months ago.”
Despite his disappointment at losing out against Tottenham, Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores believes Spurs are one of the strongest teams in the division.
“They have the conditions and the players to be in the top four,” the Spaniard said.
“They have youngsters, they have good organisation, they have quality, they have talent.
“Top four in England is very difficult, important teams with history and big players, but it’s close.
“They have a very good season and other big teams very bad. They have the chance to get top four.”
The Hornets have picked up four points out of a possible nine over a festive period which has also seen them face Liverpool and Chelsea.
They welcome Manchester City on Saturday and Flores is hopeful his side have improved since they lost 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium in August.
“We can analyse how the first leg went. Now is the moment to take a breath, what are the objectives for the second leg,” he said.
“We are ambitious, we want more, we need to transmit to the people that we want more.”
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