Mauricio Pochettino all but gives up on Premier League title after Spurs are hit with yet more Wembley woe

Pochettino admitted his side had paid for moving the ball too slowly in the first half-hour and maybe having a bad reaction to the “massive hit” of Salomon Rondon’s fourth minute goal

Mauricio Pochettino has all but given up on the title this season after more dropped points (AFP)

Mauricio Pochettino has all but ruled his Tottenham Hotspur side out of the title race after admitting that Manchester City’s lead is “massive in the Premier League”, following his side’s 1-1 slip-up at home to West Brom at home.

That brought Spurs to within 10 points of the leaders, but Pep Guardiola’s side can go 13 points with victory away to Huddersfield on Sunday.

Pochettino admitted his side had paid for moving the ball too slowly in the first half-hour and maybe having a bad reaction to the “massive hit” of Salomon Rondon’s fourth minute goal, but insisted his side did enough to win the game in a good performance, as he said he couldn’t explain how they didn’t win it.

It was conspicuous that the Argentine appealed to stats and even brought up the issue of Wembley unprompted - a question he has previously rolled his eyes at - when asked whether they were now out of the title race.

“It is true the gap now is 10 points,” Pochettino said. “It is massive in the Premier League, but now we need to be focused on trying to improve us and try to be more consistent here at Wembley. And try to win more games here like last season at White Hart Lane. It’s true it’s different to White Hart Lane. That is our reality, we cannot escape it. Our reality is we are playing here, waiting for our new stadium. That is not an excuse. The team is doing well and only disappointed because we dropped two points when we should have taken all three.

“I think we feel disappointed because I agree I am pleased with the effort after the [Borussia] Dortmund game [a 2-1 win]. We tried different ways to win the game. The moment we conceded the goal so early in the game, it was a massive hit for us. They believe and have the belief in that moment it was possible to win the game.

West Brom took an early lead through Salomon Rondon (Getty)

"We were wrong in the way we tried to create space, we moved the ball so slow in the first half-hour of the game but maybe how we conceded the goal had a massive impact for us. In the last 15 minutes, we played much better, found better space. The second half was very good. The team played very well, we created many chances. It is disappointing to drop two points. From my point of view and from the team it is so difficult to explain why we didn’t win the game.

“If you saw the stats on the game we only conceded two shots on target. One goal and another save from Hugo [Lloris]. We didn’t concede one corner, one free-kick. I don’t like too much to talk about the stats but I think the team created a lot of chances, situations, had the capacity to create and to score but we didn’t score. Only Harry [Kane] rescued now in the end one point. It is true the performance was enough to win but we didn’t win.

Kane earned a share of the spoils for Tottenham (Tottenham Hotspur FC)

“We tried to win and score at the end, the effort was massive but in the last third we need to do more and be more clinical in front of goal. The team created chances ball arrive in good condition but in the end it is imp to be clinical in the last third.”

Asked again why Danny Rose was left out of the starting line-up, Pochettino said it was just a selection decision like with any other player.

“No issue. He was training like any other.”