Tottenham Hotspur must keep calm and carry on, insists Mauricio Pochettino

New Spurs boss delighted after win over Queens Park Rangers

Mauricio Pochettino and Harry Redknapp (Getty)

Mauricio Pochettino has taken Tottenham Hotspur to the top of the Premier League already but their new head coach pleaded for calm, demanding that they “keep the reality”, after yesterday’s 4-0 defeat of Queen’s Park Rangers.

“It is nothing because it is two games in,” said Pochettino, adding that there was far more work to be done as the players learn a new style.

“The most important thing is to try and develop our style and our philosophy, and today the team showed the basis. It is important they show they play like a team.”

There is no danger of Pochettino overhyping his new team just yet. “It’s important to keep the reality and stay calm,” he said.

“If you lose two games, you are in danger. This is the difference. But we need to stay calm. It’s only the beginning of the season. We need to work tomorrow and improve and improve, because we need to improve a lot.”

Pochettino praised his counterpart Harry Redknapp as an “unbelievable manager” for whom he has “full respect”, but the QPR coach was left defending himself last night, after the travelling Rangers fans made clear how unhappy they were with Redknapp waving to the Spurs fans with his side 4-0 down.

“I’m sitting there, watching the game,” Redknapp said, “I hear fans asking me to give them a wave. I don’t know which punters are sitting up there. What’s the big deal if I give them a wave?”

Redknapp, the former Tottenham manager, was understandably frustrated with a poor performance from his QPR players. “A disappointing day, very disappointing,” he said.

“We started poorly and didn’t get out of it. We could have been one down in 30 seconds. We looked a little bit like a team of strangers. We let them play, didn’t get close to anybody, and stood off them.”