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Mauricio Pochettino: Our confidence is back

Spurs boss hails team's 'complete' performance

TOTTENHAM SWANSEA
5 0
(Harry Kane 39-pen, 49, Son Heung Min 45+1, Christian Eriksen 70, 90+2)  

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino believes his side have got their confidence back after a 5-0 win over Swansea in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Braces from Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen, and a goal from Son Heung Min secured Tottenham only their second victory in 11 games.

Spurs were knocked out of the Champions League after a 2-1 defeat by Monaco on Nov 22 and lost to London rivals Chelsea last weekend, but the result sees them move just one point behind Arsenal in the league table.

"We fully deserved the result," Pochettino said.

"We dominated, we created chances, they didn't shoot, they didn't create chances.

"It was a very good performance, the complete one.

"I'm happy and we needed it - a big victory after Chelsea (they lost 2-1 after going 1-0 up).

"But I don't believe it was the best performance of the season.

"Against Manchester City, we were better. It's important to be close to the top.

"I'm pleased with the performance, it was fantastic. Credit to the players. We have ahead very important games and confidence is back."

Kane now has six goals in five games since returning from an ankle problem while he also put pen to paper on a new five-and-a-half year contract this week.

"I feel after his (Kane) injury, it was good for him to get some consistency and that the last week was important for him to work on his fitness," said Pochettino.

PENALTY DEBATE

The Argentine manager was also delighted with the performance of Dele Alli who was involved in four goals, but also in a controversial moment as he went down easily following a challenge by Kyle Naughton for the 39th-minute penalty opener that Kane converted.

"I'm happy with him (Alli) - he has recovered the feeling of last season," said Pochettino.

"He's young and needs to find his best and be consistent - that's the challenge for him.

"But I did not see the incident for the penalty, it was too difficult to see.

"After 5-0 and 23 or 24 shots and zero from Swansea, it is not important to talk about the penalty. We can't focus on that, it is a waste of time."

His Swansea counterpart Bob Bradley was upset by referee Jon Moss' call.

"It was the wrong decision - the referee wasn't in a very good position," he said.

"It was a game changer. If you add on Son's strike a few minutes later, the task becomes so much greater."

The result sees Swansea drop to the bottom of the Premier League standings, with just one win in their last 13 games in all competitions and Bradley knows they fell short.

He said: "I am pretty honest and today we were not good enough.

"We also knew that Tottenham are a team who are going to really press with intensity. They put us under the most pressure.

"We just weren't good enough, we were second best most of the time and when they pressed us we couldn't get the first pass out of pressure.

"There are a lot there in which we need to work on to get ourselves out of pressure... Now we have to focus on the important run of games." - WIRE SERVICES

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