Spurs Boss Mauricio Pochettino Hails Erik Lamela

Tottenham Hotspur claimed top spot in Group J of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night with a 4-1 trouncing of Monaco.

Stephan El Shaarawy scored a fine consolation for Monaco but it will have provided Leonardo Jardim with little solace on the return journey after his side limply exited the competition.

Giving his team-mates a chance to score, Lamela played in Son, who finished well only to be denied by the linesman. We need to keep working hard and show the same winning mentality.

Tottenham have collected just two yellow cards over the course of the competition, a tournament low.

All three of the Argentine’s goals came in the first half as Spurs absolutely bossed proceedings, and Tom Carroll added a stylish fourth in the latter stages to open his account for his boyhood club.

Lamela, whose present deal with Spurs runs until 2018, also has 15 caps and a solitary goal for Argentina to his name. “Maybe yes”, Pochettino told reporters at his pre-match news conference.

“Newcastle’s result was phenomenal, but I do expect Spurs to win this, they are a good side with in-form players”.

Now they can put the Europa League on the back burner for a couple of months and concentrate on domestic matters – where the next four games promise a rich harvest of points.

Our process is to work with the academy and train, it is a natural progression to train with the first team and when they play they feel very confident and play like they do in the academy games’.

Nabil Bentaleb and Nacer Chadli will both be in the squad after recovering from foot and ankle injuries respectively. Newcastle manager Steve McClaren is in dire need of another top-flight win which would ease the tension around the club’s training ground. Dele Alli started on the bench with the 18-year-old midfielder Josh Onomah making his first start alongside Lamela and Son Heung-min in an attacking trio behind Clinton Njié.

As Monaco found to their cost, merely setting out defensively is insufficient to stop this Spurs team.

They will also hope that Moussa Sissoko has his customary good game against a side who might want to sign him, while Georginio Wijnaldum has looked in impressive form.

“It was important to win the group because we wanted the possibility to finish the tie at White Hart Lane, at home”, Pochettino said.

Newcastle will be without Mike Williamson, who is ruled out of the trip to White Hart Lane with a hamstring injury, while other players who will not feature this weekend are Jamaal Lascelles, Cheik Tiote, Massadio Haidara, Rolando Aarons, Tim Krul, Gabriel Obertan, Steven Taylor and Emmanuele Riviere.