Manchester City came to face with a rather upsetting defeat at home which serves as a huge blow to their title-winning ambitions. While Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino is delighted by his team’s performance, Pellegrini is least pleased by the referee’s penalty decision.
Tottenham Hotspur FC have shown a consistent form in their last ten matches, winning 8 of them, drawing one against Everton and losing only one to Leicester City.
In the post-match press conference, appreciating his side’s performance in recent matches, Pochettino said, “Energy is one of the key to our game. Mentality, work, how we play, our set up is too. We have more possession than Manchester City today and speak very well about our philosophy.”
Tottenham Hotspur have shown immense improvement since their 2-1 loss to Newcastle United FC in December at White Hart Lane. To bring things to perspective, they had only managed 6 wins in their first 16 games and were largely afloat at that time due to the eight draws that they had managed.
“I don’t like to speak about the future, it is more important for us to keep working hard and to show we can win in this kind of stadium. We need to be ready for the Europa League next and that is important for us too,” he added.
The Spurs defence, led by Belgium international Jan Vertonghen and Hugo Lloris has enabled the club to stay in the top three, conceding the least number of goals among all the top tier clubs.
Pochettino really appreciates the support of the fans and considers them key to club’s success
The last time Tottenham Hotspur won the league was in the 1960-61 season, while they finished second in 1962-63. Since then, and for the first time in the Premier League era, this is the closest the fans have seen their club to winning the title and the manager can not stress enough how much the fan support matters to the team.
He said, “The supporters are right to dream, it is one of the key of the club. They show big support from the beginning of the season and I say thank you to them. It is important for our supporters to believe.”
Pellegrini isn’t at all pleased by Mark Clattenburg’s refereeing
The last time both sides met in September 2015, Mark Clattenburg was the referee who oversaw a 4-1 win for Tottenham Hotspur over the Citizens at White Hart Lane.
The match ended with Pellegrini on the referee’s throat for allowing goals he considered should’ve been ruled offside. Fast forward five months to February 2016, Pellegrini and Clattenburg brush shoulders again due to the referee’s penalty decision that saw Harry Kane burying the ball in the centre and Spurs taking the lead.
Speaking at the press post-match, he said, “It was a penalty that referee Mark Clattenburg wanted to sign for and he gave the sign. It was absolutely the wrong decision, it hit the back of Raheem Sterling then his elbow. Sterling was not even seeing the ball.”
“It was the same referee in the first game where they were two clear goals in offside and we lost 4-1. We made an important mistake in the second goal and penalty we did not deserve,” he added.
Manchester City, who were being held favourites for the title since the beginning of this season are in a rut sitting on the 4th spot, six points behind the league leaders and 4 points behind Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal FC.
“We are going to continue fighting until the end. We still have 36 points to play for and are only six points behind the leaders. We will not give up and continue working and improving,” said Manuel Pellegrini.
In December, at the same time Spurs were dwindling at the 5th spot, the Citizens looked strong just a single point behind then league leaders Arsenal. Since then, they’ve managed only four wins in their last 10 games and lost three.
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