Mauricio Pochettino has said he is not afraid of falling out of the top four after Tottenham’s advantage over their rivals was reduced on Wednesday night.
Spurs fell to a 2-0 defeat against Chelsea after losing 2-1 to Burnley at the weekend, ending their title hopes and dragging the Londoners back into a race for a top four finish.
If Pochettino’s men lose against Arsenal on Saturday, they will be just one point above the Gunners, while Manchester United and Chelsea will also have a chance to close the gap.
In his press conference after the Chelsea game, Pochettino was asked if he is worried about missing out on a place in the top four.
“I am not afraid. I have the same feeling as before. We need to enjoy playing football,” said the Argentinian (via ESPN).
“I think everyone before the season would sign up to have that position before the start of the season, to have the possibility to be five points the gap. The pressure is on them.
“If people are scared now about the top four, that is football. It’s a massive business for sure but we need to enjoy it, playing football. We need to keep going and try to be ready for the next game. But it’s not a drama, eh?”
The north London derby is arguably Tottenham’s toughest remaining home fixture, but they are yet to face Liverpool and Manchester City on the road.
With that in mind, beating Arsenal is an absolute must. The Gunners enjoyed a 5-1 victory over Bournemouth at the Emirates on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Pochettino gave a one-word answer when asked what was missing from his side’s performance at Stamford Bridge – watch here.
Missing out on the top 4 would be missing out on Champions League next season(when we should be in our New Stadium although nothing would surprise me if it was delayed again until well into season 2019/20).
Financially that would be a disaster as the club would be missing out on tens of millions of income from the group stages alone.
Only then will Enic,Daniel Levy, Joe Lewis and Pochettino réalisé the madness of not having strengthened the squad in the last 2 transfer windows.
Regarding the cost of the new stadium,the board should regard it as an investment and Mr.Lewis’ many millions can amply take care of it.
If Arsenal won on Saturday as I expect them to do, they will for sure finish above us and we will probably finish outside the top 4.
We will look very clever playing in a half empty stadium having lost some of our most valuable players who would have left especially after hearing MP say that he doesn’t think that we could win the Premiership in
less than 10 years.
Priceless.
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