Mauricio Pochettino fires a warning to Tottenham’s rivals ahead of the festive fixtures

Festive feeling | Spurs won seven straight matches between December 14 and January 14 last season
Andy Rain/EPA
Marco Giacomelli13 December 2017

Mauricio Pochettino has warned Tottenham’s top-six Premier League rivals they will be more competitive in the second half of the season.

Under Pochettino, Spurs have usually clicked into gear at this time of year and last season they won seven straight matches between December 14 and January 14.

Last year’s runners-up trail runaway leaders Manchester City by 18 points and they have already dropped nine points at Wembley ahead of Brighton’s visit tonight.

Pochettino has previously played down expectations of another winter winning streak because his players are running further in matches than in previous seasons, on Wembley’s big pitch. But with Victor Wanyama back in training and Erik Lamela in line for a first start since October 2016 tonight, Pochettino feels optimistic about the competitiveness of his squad.

“For different reasons, like injuries, we’ve missed this feeling of competition in the squad,” Pochettino said.

“If we can recover everyone – now Lamela is nearly 100 per cent or Victor Wanyama - it’s very good news for the team.

“The second half of the season, with all the squad fit and all together, we will be more competitive. We are going to have the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League and we need to be competitive and strong.”

After tonight’s match, Spurs play at City on Saturday ahead of a rare week off before the trip to Burnley on December 23. They will have another week’s break after hosting Southampton on Boxing Day.

The Spurs manager says the relaxed festive schedule - which is followed by three fixtures in five days at the start of January - will give him the chance to introduce new concepts to summer signings Fernando Llorente, Serge Aurier, Davinson Sanchez and Juan Foyth.

“It will be key for us to work with the new players, to introduce things we need to improve the team,” he said.

“It’s important for the new players to be more comfortable here, to know everything, to adapt their quality to the team.

“The first six months can be difficult because we don’t have much time to work. Sometimes we work only through video because we can’t do anything on the pitch.”

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