Pochettino hopes European exit helps Spurs hunt down Foxes
REUTERS - Tottenham Hotspur's clash with Manchester United on Sunday will show whether manager Mauricio Pochettino made the right call when he sacrificed progress in Europe to focus on clinching Spurs' first Premier League title in 55 years.
Second in the table and seven points adrift of leaders Leicester City with six games left, Spurs were knocked out of the Europa League by Borussia Dortmund 5-1 on aggregate after Pochettino rested key players in the last-16 stage.
The Argentine made seven changes to his team for the first leg in Germany, resting Eric Dier and leaving leading scorer Harry Kane on the bench, along with Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela. Spurs lost the game 3-0, effectively killing off their hopes of progression to the quarter-finals.
They got over that disappointment by putting three goals past Bournemouth in the league three days after the second leg, but Pochettino's hope that the absence of European action would help his players hunt down the Foxes were derailed by the international break.
Spurs had only a day to prepare for their match against Liverpool last weekend and duly allowed Leicester to stretch their lead by dropping two points at Anfield, but have eight days to prepare for the visit of United.
"We haven't had many clear weeks this season," Pochettino told the club's website. "We've had a lot of midweek games but... now we have a few days to recover and try to prepare for United.
"It's important because we only really had one day to prepare for Liverpool. International weeks can be difficult ... but now we have six games left in six weeks and time to prepare the players. We will fight until the end of the season."
Meanwhile, United midfielder Ander Herrera backed his team to raise their game against Spurs, citing their record against the top teams this season.
United beat Spurs in their opening league game of the campaign, and have also recorded wins over Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, as well as an away draw at leaders Leicester City.
"When we play against a top team, I am not so worried about our performance because we usually do quite well," the Spaniard told British media.
"We have to prepare very good... because we watched Tottenham's game against Liverpool. I think they deserved to win, they controlled the second-half almost fully, so it is not going to be easy.
"But when we play against top teams I think we perform better."
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru)