Tottenham news: Mauricio Pochettino annoyed football world voiced support of Leicester against Spurs

Spurs manager accuses opponents of being unprofessional

Mousa Dembele has been banned for six games for eye-gouging Diego Costa (Getty)

You would think Mauricio Pochettino might not be in a position to dish out advice about bad behaviour in the wake of the shenanigans at Stamford Bridge on Monday night when he was involved in two tasty bouts of grappling with Chelsea players and staff, his Spurs team received nine yellow cards and Mousa Dembele indulged in a spot of eye-gouging that earned him a six-game ban which was handed out on Friday.

However, the manager of Tottenham is more unsettled about the way certain people in the football world donned their Leicester City scarves while the race for the title was still being run than about a few episodes of handbags at the Bridge.

Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard of Chelsea made it clear they wanted to see the Foxes win the league prior to Monday night’s match, comments which may have added to the explosive nature of the match. This pair were joined by Stoke City manager Tony Pulis, Swansea’s manager Francesco Guidolin and various players who also got caught up in the pro-Ranieri mood before Leicester sealed the title.

This sits uneasily with Pochettino. “Sometimes my press conference is boring because I’m very polite or political,” he said on Friday. “I don’t want to be popular. I want to be professional. It’s easy to say big things against our enemy because: ‘oh, the people love me, I’m very strong, so I’ll say things like this.’ But come on. We are professional. The managers, the league, the players’ association need to say that we must behave professionally. We need to play, be honest and show integrity. I like that when our opponent fights, tries to win, but…”

The derby dust-ups and the actions of his players clearly bother Pochettino, no stranger to the dark arts during his playing days, less than the pre-match utterances. This may be viewed as a skewed set of principals when your player goes for someone’s eye but this is a man who grew up in Argentinian football. His English is not yet good enough for him to give anecdotes of his days back home but the twinkle in his eye hinted that when it is they will be worth hearing. “In Argentina, it’s every game like this,” he said without expanding. “Every game. Worse than that. But I like it more here than in Argentina.

“Really [at Stamford Bridge] nothing happened. If you ask our players or the Chelsea players it was tough but, come on. The 22 players enjoyed a lot of the game. I was calm,” he added. “I try to always separate the players but it was difficult because it was not only Tottenham, it was the opponent too. It was a tough game for all, us because we played to try to win the league and them because they recognise in us a big opponent and the enemy.”

Pochettino even - while admitting his team crossed the line on occasions on Monday - praised the fire in the belly of this Spurs side and said it was something that had been missing in previous Tottenham teams - even though he takes on the Saints, his former club, without the banned midfielders Dele Alli and Dembele. He said he could understand but not justify Dembele’s aggression but disputed whether the midfielder’s actions were as bad as a potentially leg-breaking tackle. “For me, it’s not fair,” he said. “But they are the rules in football. If you break someone’s leg then it’s only three games. But if you touch someone then it’s six games.” He wants his players’ aggression channeled. And it will need to be next season as teams may try to provoke Tottenham if they continue to play in the mould of their manager.

“This is part of growing up, maturing. To play to win the title, sometimes you need to feel when the opponent tries to provoke, you need to be calm. For me, [Monday] was a really good game to test us and to learn: a good lesson for the future. We need to play with passion, with our skills, but always we need to be clever not to cross the line.”

Physically…or verbally.