Tottenham late-show character hailed by Mauricio Pochettino after scrapping win over Swansea
Argentine praises his team’s ‘big character’ in scoring three late goals to keep alive their Premier League title hopes
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino praised his team’s “big character” in scoring three late goals to beat Swansea 3-1 and keep alive their Premier League title hopes on Wednesday.
Goals in the final 10 minutes from Dele Alli, Son Heung-Min and Christian Eriksen kept them seven points behind leaders Chelsea – who beat Manchester City 2-1 on Wednesday – but they are now the only realistic challenger.
“We won because we kept going and showed great faith, belief and spirit,” said Pochettino.
“It was a very difficult game for us. We always knew it would be.
“We had control of the game and we showed patience. In the we got the victory our performance deserved.
The Argentinian said the players showed they had learned from the painful experiences last season when they were the closest challengers to Leicester but lost their way towards the end of the campaign.
“It is true that we needed to learn from last season,” said the former Espanyol and Southampton manager.
“There were times when in my mind, I thought it was going to be tough to win the game. However, when you are on the bench, you must have confidence and trust in your players.
For his Swansea counterpart Paul Clement it was a bitter pill to swallow as their defeat sees them slip into the bottom three, two points off Hull, who are now fourth from bottom after a 4-2 home victory over Middlesbrough on Wednesday.
“It’s a result that is very tough to take for me, the players and the fans,” said Clement. “The fact that we came out of the game with nothing, is pretty heartbreaking, to be honest.
“Moving on, I think we all need to be encouraged by our performance for a lot of that game. We now need to go again and learn from this.”