No talk of title, says Pochettino as Spurs march on
LONDON (Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino said there was no talk of taking the Premier League in his team's dressing room despite a sixth straight match win on Sunday.
Spurs came from behind to beat Swansea City 2-1, a result which, combined with the 3-2 defeat of fellow north London contenders Arsenal at Manchester United, had the White Hart Lane faithful dreaming.
Yet with a pivotal week ahead for Spurs, featuring derbies at West Ham United on Wednesday and at home to Arsenal on Saturday, Pochettino was not about to get carried away with the growing idea that this could be Spurs' year.
"I think nobody speaks about that in our dressing room," the cautious Argentine told Sky Sports when asked about whether Spurs could win their first top-flight title since their 1960-61 FA Cup and League double-winning campaign.
"We believe we can win every game and we'll see what happens at the end of the season.
"Our mentality is to look to the next game and go step by step. Now, we need to focus again. We have a strong squad and we will try to manage it in the right way.
"For me, it is not important (that Arsenal lost). What is important is our own performance and there are still 11 Premier League games ahead."
What he saw from his youthful, spirited side, though, could only enthuse Pochettino once more.
One down to Alberto Paloschi's 19th-minute goal for much of the game, they maintained the pressure on the Welsh visitors only to be denied time and again by brilliant goalkeeping from Lukasz Fabianski.
Yet Nacer Chadli finally broke Swansea's resistance with 20 minutes left before Danny Rose drove in the winner seven minutes later.
"Fabianski was great. He was man of the match," Pochettino smiled. "But I have to congratulate our players because of the energy we showed and the way we kept trying was fantastic."
With Spurs having won six successive Premier League games for the first time in five years, there is still no sign that the constantly-pressing, high-energy approach of Pochettino's team is inducing any signs of weariness in his livewire young side.
On Sunday, they fielded a side with an average age of 24 years 103 days, the second youngest in the Premier League this season. It was only marginally less youthful than another Spurs side which averaged 24 years 39 days against Manchester City in September.
(Reporting by Ian Chadband; editing by Clare Fallon)