Pochettino reveals why he thinks Spurs threw away title chance

Mauricio Pochettino has given his opinion on why Tottenham Hotspur’s title hopes have been derailed in recent weeks.

Spurs went into the match against Burnley near the end of February with an outside chance of putting pressure on Liverpool and Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title.

After managing to only pick up a single point from their twelve available, which has included three successive away defeats, Spurs are now at risk of finishing outside of the top four this season.

Throwing away the prospect of Champions League football next season would be a disaster for the club, who are set to move into their brand new stadium on Wednesday when Crystal Palace are the visitors in the top flight curtain raiser.

Despite remaining in third place, Spurs have seen their ten point advantage over North London rivals Arsenal reduced to a single point and Pochettino believes that his players took their foot off the gas when the frequency of fixtures dropped.

He told Football.London: “It is so important to see the reality. If you see the squads in the top six, top eight, top ten, maybe it wasn’t reality, it was because we were very good, very focused and tried to win games. In the last few games, I think before the Burnley game we were playing every two or three days and it was a week where we didn’t play and it was like we disconnected.

“Everyone believed we needed to breathe and rest but I think it affected us a lot in our brain, something that we disconnect. It is not about the energy, the legs, it is about the mental connection in the team and maybe we were affected by that disconnection. And now it makes it more difficult to connect again and perform in the way we want to perform. That is our job, that is in our capacity to try and reconnect. The motivation is massive because we have unbelievable games ahead. We are going to play in the best stadium in the world and everyone deserves for us to be in our best and compete and win.”