Tottenham vs West Brom: Mauricio Pochettino rues Jan Vertonghen injury, hails 'wonderful' performance
Tottenham manager says his team are better than they were this time last year, but is disappointed to lose Belgian defender for the next few weeks
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Your support makes all the difference.Mauricio Pochettino admitted that he fears the worst over Jan Vertonghen’s ankle injury sustained during the 4-0 destruction of West Bromwich Albion this afternoon.
Vertonghen limped off in tears during the second half after rolling over his ankle, and Pochettino admitted that the injury to the Belgium international “looks very bad”. Vertonghen’s ankle is currently too swollen to be scanned but he will be assessed on Monday. Vertonghen sustained an ankle ligament injury during Euro 2016 which cost him the quarter-final against Wales.
“It looks very bad,” Pochettino said. “We feel very disappointed, it is a situation you never want to happen. It looks very bad but we need to wait a little bit, tomorrow or Monday we will be able to assess it better. His ankle is badly [swollen].” Pochettino said that Spurs would not be in the market for a new defender this month, though, as they have Ben Davies and Kevin Wimmer.
Pochettino was delighted with Spurs’ performance, hailing it as one of their most complete displays of the season. He said that Spurs were playing much better than they were at this stage last year, with nine more points and nine more goals than they had after 21 Premier League games.
“The first 45 minutes was fantastic, it was wonderful football,” Pochettino said. “We can feel very happy with the performance, the players played very well against a very difficult team. I think after Chelsea it was a big challenge to keep the momentum and show that we are mature enough to fight for big things and today was a very good example of that. The performance was brilliant.”
Now in second place, Spurs are back in the title race and Pochettino said that his side are better now than they were then. “We need to move on and try to fight but now we have more belief,” he said. “We are much better than last season. We are showing that we have learnt a lot from last season, we are more mature.” Pochettino pointed to the fact that West Brom did not win a single corner all afternoon.
Tony Pulis admitted that the gap between the big six and the rest will be bigger than ever before this season, and said that his West Brom side cannot hope to compete with sides like Mauricio Pochettino’s “The top six will finish further ahead of the rest than ever before, they are that good,” Pulis said. “Then it will come down to injuries and suspensions to determine who wins it. Tottenham are still in the cups which is why I’d edge for one of the others. But the gap between the top six and the rest will be a record. We’re in the same league as Spurs, but we’re not, if you see what I mean.”
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