Jose Mourinho watched his Tottenham side rack up their 100th goal of the season in Sunday’s thumping of Crystal Palace and then quipped: “It’s not bad for a negative team!”
Spurs hammered Palace 4-1 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium yesterday, with Gareth Bale and Harry Kane scoring twice each.
Kane’s second goal was Spurs’ 100th in all competitions this season, with Bayern Munich the only other team in Europe’s top five leagues to have reached the milestone so far.
The achievement comes during a campaign when Mourinho has often been criticised for a defensive style of play and the Portuguese was quick to jump on that fact.
“If the stats I was given are correct -- 100 goals scored in the season, which for a very defensive team, a very negative team, is not bad,” Mourinho told reporters.
“We have very good attacking players and they allow me to do what I did today which was Dele Alli, who played really well against Fulham, to leave him out for Lucas [Moura] this time.
“Sonny [Heung-min], Gareth, Kane and then [Erik] Lamela comes and comes well and [Steven] Bergwijn didn’t even come. Tanguy [Ndombele] stayed on the bench.
“We are a team with a lot of talent in this area but this Gareth is an extra for us and a plus.
“This Gareth didn’t start the season, this Gareth is playing this way for a couple of months and of course the quality is amazing. He is a fantastic player.”
