Mauricio Pochettino insists his Tottenham side can win in their crucial final Champions League group game against Barcelona.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has said the fight for a place in the Premier League’s top four is fiercer than it was last season ahead of Sunday’s North London derby at Arsenal.
Third-placed Spurs are five points off the top but just three points above Unai Emery’s fifth-placed Gunners and could finish the weekend outside the Champions League spots.
“I think it is tougher than last season because if we’d had the same points as this last season we would have been second,” Pochettino told a news conference.
“To be in the top four this season will be tougher than the previous season. But we have the belief that we can do it and deliver a very good job and that’s the most important thing, because we have the quality.
“We’re in a very good position in the table, if you consider that last season in this moment we had six points less.”
However, Pochettino ruled out a challenge for the title, saying leaders Manchester City were on “a different level.”
“Of course clubs like Liverpool, Chelsea the same, and Manchester United and Arsenal, they make more investment than us and are on a different level.
“I think they need to show or be the contenders — or they are the contenders, more than us. But we’re there. If we’re capable in the last few months of the season to be in a good position in the table, we’re going to try.”
Pochettino and Emery are friends, and the Spurs boss said he had been touched when Emery recommended him for the Valencia job after leaving in 2012.
“I saw an interview in a newspaper in Spain and I called him to say thank you,” he said. “I’m so grateful and of course you feel happy that one of your colleagues, like Unai, recommends you to another team.
“We faced each other in Spain when we were there and we built a very good personal relationship. He is, for me, an unbelievable manager.
“He’s shown at different clubs in Europe that it will be tough to play against him, against teams managed by him, and Arsenal have very good players.
“Then it’s a derby, an exciting game which means a lot for the fans. It’s an emotional component which makes it more difficult to play these type of games.”
Pochettino has yet to win at the Emirates with Spurs but, after victories over Chelsea and Inter Milan in the last week, praised his team’s spirit ahead of the match.
“I think the mentality so far is so good,” he said. “Now it is about delivering the job. Belief is most important in football, and I think today the squad have that belief.”
Meanwhile, Tottenham have announced that they will hold a familiarisation event for staff and 6,000 supporters at their new stadium on Dec. 16.
“It makes me feel very, very happy because it makes me feel we are close to competing there,” Pochettino said. “I think it’s an important thing for the fans, for the club, to start to show our new home.”
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