OPINION
It has not been smooth sailing for Tottenham this season with their late move in to their new stadium and struggles in the Champions League and manager Mauricio Pochettino will be wanting to make sure their campaign does not go down the pan.
A win over a previously unbeaten Chelsea side will have boosted Spurs’ confidence into the stratosphere ahead of what is a must-win clash against Inter Milan on Wednesday evening, with their reverse clash against the Italians leaving them in the lurch from the first game of their European outings.
Taking the lead into the final five minutes of the game at the San Siro, Pochettino’s men allowed a last minute turnaround to suffer a bitterly disappointing 2-1 defeat – a result which saw the manager firmly place the blame on his players.
He told Gazzetta Dello Sport: “It’s hard for me to explain what happened. We were better than them during the race, but we lost.
“I can not deny that we were bad, because we had a great game. Going out of Milan was a disappointment. Bad luck? I do not like looking for an alibi and talking about luck in football: it was a question of attitude.
“We had a concentration drop in the last few minutes and we paid dearly. It was our fault.”
Spurs have shown great attitude at times in recent years but it is in important clashes like this where things have tended to fall apart and if Pochettino cannot fix that then glory is going to pass them by.
It has got to the stage where such results are being described as ‘Spursy’ by the Lilywhite faithful and they need to shake that moniker immediately – starting with Wednesday’s clash.
If the Tottenham players cannot get over whatever mental block they might have then the supporters are not going to see any silverware coming their way any time soon.