Mauricio Pochettino urges his Tottenham players to keep 'pushing' and 'believing' in Premier League title chase

Tottenham were at that tantalising best on Saturday to fire four past the visitors Watford

Samuel Lovett
White Hart Lane
Saturday 08 April 2017 15:44 BST
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Pochettino was delighted with the performance
Pochettino was delighted with the performance (Getty)

Mauricio Pochettino has urged his players to keep “pushing” for the title following their 4-0 rout of London rivals Watford on Saturday afternoon.

Tottenham were at their tantalising best as the side ran riot against Walter Mazzarri’s visitors.

Goals from Dele Alli, Eric Dier and a Heung-Min Son brace extended Tottenham’s winning run to seven games and now puts them within four points of league leaders Chelsea.

Speaking after the victory at White Hart Lane, Pochettino expressed his delight with his side’s performance and told his men to “believe” that they can catch Antonio Conte’s Blues.

“I’m so happy with the performance,” he said. “From the beginning it was a tough game; they were very motivated to play, showed good energy. After 18, 20 minutes we read the game very well, started to control it, create a lot of chances. We dominated, and in the end deserved the three points.

“It's good for us. We're talking about building that winning mentality: it was a good opportunity to be aware than in the future to win trophies, to keep going, pushing, believing, and respect the way you play. That's the most important thing.

“The message for us is to keep pushing, winning games. That's our job, and then what happens this afternoon with Chelsea is their problem. We'll see. If they fail, our job is done because we are there, but still it's up to them to win the Premier League.”

Tottenham are now only four points behind Chelsea (Getty)

Watford held out for 30 minutes against a vastly superior side but were ultimately unable to halt the Tottenham juggernaut as the quality and experience of Pochettino’s players shone through.

Alli broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute with a sublime curled strike before Dier’s well-taken half-volley doubled the lead five minutes later.

Son added a third and fourth either side of the break and could have clinched his hat-trick late on in the game but flashed his effort wide of the Watford goal following a one-on-one with Heurelho Gomes.


 Kane returned for Tottenham 
 (Getty)

Although Harry Kane returned from injury to make a late appearance, all four of Tottenham’s goals had been scored before the England international entered into the fray.

It was a stark reminder of just how far the side have come as a collective unit and bears testament to the quality on offer in this Tottenham team.

With Spurs fast cementing their status as one of the Premier League’s dominant sides, Pochettino is now focused on propagating a “winning mentality” across the entirety of the club.

“It's important you know we (discuss) players, managers, a lot of topics in football, but football for me is about the team, or the squad, and all the players feel very important during the season,” he added.

“Today's a very good example, to try to change our mentality. It's not about who plays, it's about playing in every opportunity. The fans want to know what happens with different players, but football today is going in a completely different direction to 10, 15 years ago; today it's a collective matter, more than before.

“If you don't show a strong mentality, in 25 players, you're not going to be able to rotate, give opportunities to others, to feel important to the project. It's so difficult to win titles.”

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