Tottenham Hotspur are shedding their soft reputation, according to Mousa Dembélé, with Mauricio Pochettino’s team left frustrated only to emerge with a point from Sunday’s game against the champions, Chelsea.
The goalless stalemate at White Hart Lane extended Spurs’ unbeaten league run to 13 matches, their best sequence since 1985, to leave them just outside the Champions League qualification places and only four points from the top.
They have bought into the high-energy game Pochettino has looked to promote, even if the lengthy midweek trip to Baku – and possibly the midday kick-off on Sunday – appeared to blunt their approach against the champions.
Dembélé was one of the few first-team regulars who had not travelled to Azerbaijan for Thursday’s game against Qarabag, when progress in the Europa League was assured. But the Belgium midfielder has taken heart from the side’s lengthy unbeaten run, particularly given previous criticisms that the team have faded when confronted by elite rivals. “I think everybody can see our mentality and the way we are playing are different,” he said. “I don’t want to say it but we just feel we are now men. We are more confident and we are more of a group. That is something we have worked on for a long time. So we are really happy with how it’s going.
“I think we are accomplished enough to say now we can win any game. If we have the same mentality we have now, of course we can. We want to end up first but I don’t try to think that far ahead. The next game is important and then after that every week will be a challenge. Before, maybe, we might have been happy to draw with Chelsea but now we are disappointed, and that is a positive thing. We have grown so much in so many different departments and we know we could have beaten Chelsea. But it wasn’t a negative day. There is such a positive vibe in the group. It is very important now to continue that good vibe.”
Spurs have already played the four clubs ahead of them in the table, as well as the four directly below, and now embark on a sequence of fixtures that, on paper at least, would appear to be less daunting. “But we must make sure we keep our focus,” Dembélé said. “Sometimes it is more difficult to do that for these games than the ones like on Sunday against Chelsea. Nobody had to give a speech to get us up for that. But we have to remember all the games in the Premier League are difficult.
“It does not matter whether they are the big clubs or the ‘smaller’ ones. As we have seen, anyone can win against anyone. We have a lot of respect for everyone but we know we must win the games against the ‘smaller’ clubs if we are to achieve our ambition of finishing high in the league. We cannot underestimate anyone, but I have every confidence we are going to be sharp. We are a big group with a lot of qualities. Maybe in the past it was different. But at the moment, if somebody is not at his best, anybody can come in and play.”
